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Homemade floor protectors -- advice needed

Here's my situation: I have hardwood floors that I want to protect from my speakers' spikes. I could use those little support disks, but they're a pain when adjusting the speaker position (they move out of position, and then I poke holes in the floor). Instead, I was thinking of placing two stone "tablets" on the floor, and then putting the speakers on top of them. There's a shop nearby that will cut the stone to my specs, and then polish the sharp edges.

My question is, what kind of stone would work best? Granite, marble, or something else? And would some small rubber "feet" on the floor-side of the stone still allow the tablet to couple with the floor to reduce resonances further?

Any insights you can share would help!
stevenb
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muzikat
929 posts
 
Linn makes floor protectors called "skeets", they are heavy metal discs with holes in the middle for spikes. They slide easily when you need them to, without scratching.
6bq5
62 posts
 
Instead of Stone, I would encourage you to use either MDF, HDF, or Corrian. These materials are more dense in an irregular manner. Stone, Grannite esp. is an amalgum of different metamorphic rocks with very regular crystaline structure, Marble is pretty soft and purous. If you still want to use Stone, use Granite, but do NOT polish it, allow the rough irregular surface to be present so as to remove the pollished mirror effect.
Happy listening
ohlala
1,236 posts
 
I have audio points under my speakers and have used their discs for my last place's hardwood floor. My speaker are about seventy pounds and three feet high so, I needed another person to help me put the spiked speakers on to the discs. I forgot how exactly how we did that, but it was not easy. I did not, however, have a problem with sliding the speakers around as long as I held the speakers by the bottom edges on both sides. The spikes never came out of the discs as long as I did not lift up on the bottom of the speaker much. The discs work very well by the way. But for anyone interested in getting the audiopoints spikes, you might want to look in to the larger diameters. My smaller diameter spikes have left nasty rings on the bottom of my speakers.
mezmo
516 posts
 
Best use of those AOL CDs I've heard yet. Bravo. I've been using pennies and, believe it or not, one the spikes went straight through one after about a year. Think it would be cost-effective to upgrade to nickles?
bob_bundus
1,834 posts
 
Mez thanks for the laugh... Sounds like a cost-effective upgrade although we're talking 3cents to 15cents: a 500% cost increase. Interesting that the spike would drill right through a penny. Aren't all coins a copper sandwich now? The weight alone may not be the only factor, but adding long-term vibration must be enough to do the job. It would only take somewhat longer to drill through a nickel if that's the mechanism.
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