To bolt Standmounts to stands, or not?


Hi all, 

Wasn't sure whether to post this in the speaker section, but it's not specifically a speaker question as such; I suppose it's more of a coupling/de-coupling question,..... I think 🤔.

Anyway, here's the situation; I bought a pair of Triangle Comete's a couple of months back, plus Triangle stands to match. The speakers have built in threads on the underside to bolt to their matching stands, on each corner.

I've utilised this, and bolted the speakers to their stands (there is a thin layer of a foam like material stuck to the top plate of the stands, I assume for protection to the bottom of the speakers and a degree of damping.

As for the floor in my listening room; it is a wooden suspended floor (floor boards over joists, with a covering of around a half-inch, solid oak tongue & groove flooring. Fairly solid. My speaker stands have the option of regular spikes and Spike shoes or rubber inserts; I chose the rubber feet. 

So, my query is 2 fold;

1/ is bolting my speakers to their stands a bad idea, or should I just place them on some kind of rubber absorbant feet, attached to the stand/speaker bottoms?

2/ is there a better method of placing my stands on the floor than the rubber feet supplied with the stand (such as the supplied spikes and shoes)? 

I haven't tried alternative set ups yet, as I just wanted to settle in the speakers (new speaker cables too). 

I've read up on coupling/de-coupling and the various takes on this topic, and quite frankly, it makes my head hurt 😝

Would love to hear some of your thoughts on the above; whether there are better ways of setting up what I have (I'm sure there is 😊, I just don't know what) 

Thanks very much 👍

 

 

128x128painter24

If that's what Triangle themselves recommend and that's what the purpose built stands were designed for, then the answer is staring you in the face.

 

In any case it looks as if Triangle have encorporated plenty of decoupling into the arrangement already.

The consensus nowadays, one that I totally agree with, seems to be that decoupling is better than spikes.

You want to minimize contact area with the floor as well as minimize the ability of the speakers to rock back and forth as they play.  There should be zero play front to back when placed properly.

The lighter the speaker, and the taller the stand the more of a problem this becomes.

I used LOCTITE fun-tak mounting putty (and never looked back). Its name may vary, like Bluetac in Europe?

Something that would be easy and relatively inexpensive to try, along with a 60-day trial period, would be to place Herbie’s Audio Lab Thin Fat Dots between the bottoms of your speakers and their associated stands, bolt the speakers to the stands, and then use one of the following Herbie’s products (in order of my preference) beneath the four corners of your stands and the wooden floor.

Is there a torque value for the bolts? If not that’s something else to experiment with.

 

I tried it with speakers and stands that weren’t intended for bolting but not for long.

 

I find the small Herbie's that take a spike very useful for speaker positioning particularly on smooth floors but I’ve only used them with floor standers,. The Titanium were slightly better than the brass I thought but with both there’s a hint of harshness until bedded in, a week or two sees it off.