Well it may be down to the stand design and degree of inertness… and how it couples to the speaker. If there is no damping at all on the stand, say it’s a metal platform, then the pads might be adding the only dampening … so it will be improving the system compared to no dampening but the highs and upper mids may still be noticeably smeared.
You might want to experiment by using a sheet of MDF or Torlyte as damping layered between stand top metal platform and speaker bottom without any pads, to see if the performance steps forward… you might find bass (100 to 300 Hz) tightens and become less amplified/muddy as well upper mids and highs becoming cleaner and lyrics easier to follow. However improving this dynamic can make room reflection issues more obvious… and it might be your room setup can’t really work well in this regard of low smear upper mids. These things tend to to inter relate with each other. My ATCs really were sensitive to this.
If it doesn’t work for you at least you have tried… and if you change room decor, or speakers it’s worth trying again…
Reflecting on it, with blutac between speakers and stands there are two functions" one is gap filling if the two contact surfaces aren’t perfectly flat, which is how I once used it, the other, especially with lightweight small footprint or lightweight speakers is as an adhesive, sticking them together where there isn’t provision for bolting together, but a breakable bond in the event of need. That is quite a different function from gel pads or spikes etc, though it does dictate care when later separating, depending on speaker base surface.
I am not sure it’s that different from pads - spikes are undertaking a different function almost an opposite.
if there is a layer of blu-tak between two surfaces it is acting as a dampener with specific properties - if its filling a void and not actively supporting the speaker then yes perhaps it has no or little function in the mechanical system.
To me because of the huge amount of variables here - experimentation is key. I generally find if the stand is light with respect to the speaker - then spikes on the bottom of the stand with a not so lossy damper between stand platform and speaker. Successful materials I have used are some sort of carbon compound, and wood ie MDF or Torlyte
If the the stand is very much heavier compared to the speaker - then I find decoupling the speaker from stand becomes more important - and spikes / ball bearings can be useful between speaker case and stand platform - but can be harder to implement without damage to the speaker case…
but really experimentation is key. I like to listen into the recordings where the upper mids and highs are providing crucial low level information for me - ie intonations, timbres, spatial, reverb character, production techniques etc… - and so that is an area I am sensitive to when setting up systems. Others might want to focus more on the overall presentation and perhaps bass amplification / reinforcement etc - I suspect there is no one size fits all, though clearly on floor mounts your options are generally more limited.
… apart from when it’s best to keep speakers slightly flexibly coupled or coupled via damping - it depends on the stand mass and speaker amongst other things. So no you shouldn’t automatically keep speakers rigid if you are after max performance from the speaker in all situations.
I think many fall into this trap of automatically ensuring rigidity and I do wonder how many are not getting the best from their system as a consequence…
In fact, I agree that the situation that you describe might be a best solution…where the reproduction is compromised elsewhere.
I will maintain that the ideal is that the cabinets ar still in space so that it is the drivers that do all of the moving. Otherwise information is lost.
I have both floorstanders and stand mounted speakers. Both were decoupled during installation when working out the best position and toe in etc. Once that was done, both are now on spikes and rigid. In both cases, the sound snapped into better focus. Just my experience I my rooms.
well also if the cabinet is rigid and inert it can filter higher frequency transients - effectively it smears them - which is why there is an approach adopted by some of using thin walled but well suitably braced cabinets with minimal or no internal damping to reduce that filtering or smearing.
I agree the baffle should ideally be static with respect to the driver movement.
The only place where vibrations can be dissipated is the interface between the speaker and the supporting surface, air only affects temperature and humidity, hardly a concern here.
