Speaker Spikes - Working Principle

I thinking along the lines of @yoyoyaya 

I have a pair of tall, thin B & O ‘pencil’ speakers.  I have rubber feet on them as they’re on a concrete floor.  But if I move them onto an area rug, they easily rock and could be knocked over.  I think the purpose of spikes is to concentrate the weight to a thin point that can penetrate between carpet loops or piles.  This would bring the weight to bear on the firmer surface of the carpet backing.  The plusher the carpet, the more they are necessary and effective.

@tcotruvo - to further amplify your point (no pun intended), I originally had my Wilsons (which weight 400lbs each) directly on my carpeted floor (with thin pile carpet). I subsequently spiked them once I had their position optimised and the improvement in sound quality was significant. What surprised me was the degree of improvement in resolution in the midrange as well as the bass.

@yoyoyaya  Wow!  400 pounds!  I would guess once you have those on spikes you wouldn’t be moving them around.  Interesting that even with that weight and thin carpet the spikes still were an improvement in sound quality.

@tcotruvo Yes! I mentioned this as a case study because there can be a mistaken assumption that just because something is very heavy, it won't move around. However, at the risk of provoking the ire of the OP, the spikes not only stop reactive movement of the loudspeaker cabinets arising from the motion of the drive units, but they also stop the bottom of the cabinet from coupling directly to the floor and turning the floor into a giant resonator/soundboard. In the specific case, the floor is actually quite well damped as it composed of two different layers of wood, a linseed oil based composite and carpet. But...

My Vandersteen speakers have 3 cones under them, and have just installed recommended discs under the cones.....made an improvement on my tile over house foundation.