Does a Subwoofer Make Spiking Redundant?

i read a lot of this and find it confusing. certainly contradictory ( what else is new?).
There are many theories, but the most reasonable, to me is that we want speakers to be totally immovable - a solid, stable surface for drivers to push against.  If they resonate, they modulate the drivers - especially the midrange and tweeter where the wavelength is smaller relative to any vibration or rocking motion.

Spikes are often used to cut through a soft, unsupportive material that will allow the speaker to rock, such as a carpet.  The subwoofer OTOH adds lower frequencies and is mostly an orthogonal choice.

Now, a spike on a hard surface is a different animal and I would tend to not use them. Those spikes minimize the surface area (which in the newtonian sense of friction m,akes no difference), but also increase the force per unit area meaning the connection will be more fluid due to material shear. In theory. This is why car tires are non newtonian as well (wider is in fact better).

I prefer mass to stabilize the speaker (big, heavy speakers on a solid 3-points so they don't rock) and maybe as one suggested actually isolating the speaker from floor vibrations especially if its a live floor. I have not experimented with those.

Acoustic Science Corp and Acoustic  Fields have Subwoofer Platform Traps 18” off the floor for more than one reason. 

My speakers are spiked, heavy carpet, pad and plywood underneath. 
   If I place on rug, they are tipsy. 

What else you recommend?

 

I looked at those Townshend Podiums. You must understand that those things go for about what I could afford to pay for a speaker. Of course, if you're playing a $299 copy of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida through an $8,000 speaker, it's perfectly proportional.

Hello Miller, boing boing, you are still wrong.

Heretobuy.  Your are saved from suffering bad SQ from Miller's heresy not by your own wisdom but by shortage of funds.  Whatever!  More than one way to save yourself!

Most of you have misunderstood OP's question.  He asks: if you have subwoofer(s) does this mean you don't have to spike your main speakers because you don't need them to produce articulate low bass.

OP misunderstands the reason for spiking.  It is to prevent the whole speaker moving around and adding that movement to the signal driven movement of the cones etc.  We need to listen to the signal and not the extraneous movement that smears the sound and the soundstage, across the whole frequency range, not just the bass.  Remember, even if you add subwoofer(s) your main speakers are still reproducing low frequencies as before, unless you mess with their electronics.

PMM.  If you bolt (or spike) your speakers to a concrete floor laid on the ground with a good rigid foundation, the vibration passed into the speakers is the vibration of the mass of planet Earth.  That's quite a lot of mass to move around!  There again, Red Indians used to put their ear to the ground and heard riders and horses miles away.  At least they did in movies.