Cheap tweak from Virtual Dynamics:

Photon
You are right about those fasteners in use with mdf. I dipped my brass screws in Cascade Audio paste. The paste product is like concrete when it drys and it is drawn into the pores of the wood or mdf. When my Dunlavys were in use I sealed all reachable internal surfaces with Cascade. Major hours and pain endured. When I was finished with this part of the project, the stage was wall to wall or 21 feet wide. New brass fasteners ideally should have a deeper cut thread to reach further into the wood surface. Brass around the tweeter dome and all crossover standoffs and fasteners should be brass..There is a sonic difference..certainly cleaner more articulate and less confused..Tom

I thought I was an audiophile nut, but I just can't bring myself to try this one. At 52, I must have reached the end of that perfect sound quest.....until something else comes around.....

Photon,

Experiencing the audible advantages that brass has added to floor mounted musical instruments, I believe that the active harmonic structurer of brass fasteners in relation to the mass of a speaker cabinet would be a benefit. The extraneous active vibration of the driver would be drawn away, to and thru, by the low impedance reactive nature of the brass material and grounded to the much higher mass of the speaker cabinet. It would then be up to the owner to properly terminate or ground the speaker to the flooring surface a much greater mass again. Tom

Whatever else you do, don't buy the brass screws from Lowe's or Home Depot. During some repair work to back door, while gently easing in--i.e. *not* high torque--a longish brass screw bought from Lowe's it just sheared off.

Tom, yes I've thought about aspect that since I posted originally. I'm still amazed that screws alone could have a big impact on sound in a typical speaker mounting situation. The low mechanical impedance of brass is still constrained by the gasket material around a speaker basket, the vibratory characteristics of the speaker basket, and the vibration damping capacities in the many materials used in a speaker. I wonder how much relevance can be drawn from the musical instrument analogy. An instrument is designed to vibrate and radiate sound, no surprise increasing mechanical coupling to the floor enhances sound. A speaker, to greater or lesser degree depending on manufacturing budget and skill of designer, is supposed to be as inert as possible. Of course we know from looking at all of the accelerometer graphs in Stereophile that all cabinets vibrate to greater or lesser degree, so the coupling angle you mention may well be a factor. This all got me wondering what effect might be had from using brass or bronze as speaker basket material instead of the usual suspects.