Speakers on carpet over concrete


My system is current located in a partially finished basement. The floor is thick carpet over a thick pad on top of concrete.  Does it affect performance of the speaker differently if spikes are used that pierce the carpet and pad, contacting the concrete below versus removing the spikes and having their "feet" resting on top of the carpet which is also a bit less stable?  I'm sure I'm not the only one with a system installed on carpet over concrete.  How are yours set up?

jc4659

I have very thick carpet over dense pad on a concrete slab floor. I currently have Zu’s on spikes through the carpet to the concrete. The speakers are rock solid to the floor with brass weights on the top front of the cabinets. I went to 15”x15”x4” walnut Timber Nation pedestals spiked to the floor with the Zu’s on that. This setup sounded terrible. Sean at Zu responded personally to me suggesting spacing and placement distance above the pedestal. I never came close to how it was before and went back to what I first mentioned. My previous system in the room was high power with JBL 4312’s on 26” Sound Anchor stands, again with spikes through the carpet and into the concrete. However the JBL’s had dots between the speakers and the stands. This combo weighed about 100 lbs per side and wouldn’t move even with someone bumping into them. What I’m not clear on that could be addressed by those above is running springs on carpet and not getting a speaker that’s like a rocking horse. Also the bottom line is we have to try it ourselves and hear the results. FWIT I’m in the opinion that a loose speaker rocks back and forth in response to the driver like Mr Vandersteen spikes his stuff. And those beautiful Timber Nation walnut pedestals made great amp stands. Regards , Mike B. 

I have wall-to-wall carpet in my listening room, with stand mount speakers; I found a big difference, especially in the bass, between using spikes and not using them. I think there is a thick layer of concrete between floors of my apartment building.

Yes, it matters.  You want to prevent the speaker from rocking from the motion of the woofer, causing some Doppler shift. Of course this depends a lot on the geometry and weight of the speaker.  If a light touch can rock it, at all, it needs spikes.

My experiences.

Poured concrete basement, pad, carpet.

1. Vandersteen 2ce Sig IIs. Had spikes, tried IsoAcoustics Gaia's. The Gaia's really sucked the life out of the speaker especially the bass. Now let me say that I did hear a benefit with using IsoAcoustics Oreas with the integrated amplifier that I was using at the time, so I do have an open mind on decoupling. Anyway, I returned the Gaia's and went back to spikes on the Vandersteen's. The sound immediately was back to good.

2. Wilson WATT/Puppy 6. I have the stock spikes on these and have no issue with the sound. Not tempted to try IsoAcoustics on these at the moment.

Anyway, just my experiences.

With drivers out of phase or in breakup a bit of spring induced Doppler discoid the least of a listener worries….