I always have the dickens of a job getting my speaker stands completely stable/level/vertical. I always end up with a degree of ‘micro-rocking’. They’re on thick carpet and underlay over a suspended wood floor. Does anyone know of stands where the spikes are adjustable from above the baseplate? I don’t have to worry about pets or small children so stands with either three or four spikes would be OK.
My PMC’s have spikes which adjust from above the spikes screw through the base from the top
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My speaker stands from Custom Design are adjusted from above using an Allen key so you can make very fine adjustments
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The trick is to cut a slit in the carpet and underlay with a Stanley knife. It’s the only way to get the stands stable.
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Cross head screws into the floor then the spike sits in the dimple.
Easy to level and rock solid. 
Easy to move stand or table and put back in the right place too.
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Thank you, that’s exactly the sort of thing I’m looking for.
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I have had the following -
- Linn Kans on Kan II stands
*Royd Doublets floor standing
*Kudos X3’s floor standing
All are effectively ‘the same’ - screwed spikes with locking nuts below the stand/speaker base.
Minor faff to level but very much do-able. Spikes do, though, need to be set fairly ‘long’ to go thru the carpet and underlay.
But… YMMV… 
My old Acoustic Energy AE1 stands also are adjustable from above with an Allen key. They also have a small built in bubble spirit level in the base plate, really handy! They also look great, though they haven’t been made for years (the original ones) so you will have to search out a used pair.
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I use a very simple and very effective way of dealing with carpet and a suspended floor, a nice size piece of granite under the speakers. It’s very easy to then adjust and lock the spikes level and upright.
I have used these on both a pair of B&W CDMi SE’s on Atacama stands and the current Spendor A9’s with no issues at all.
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Whatever stands/spikes are used, I really recommend to investigate Stack audio range of products.
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Can you stiffen it?
Sorry, I do not understand… 
Are there spikes under the granite - or is it just ‘sitting’ on the carpet…?
The logic behind spikes (I have understood) is that they go through any carpet and underlay, to make direct contact with the floor. Which for me … is concrete.
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Only if you can get the screws precisely positioned…
I find that if the floor is sound, then applying your full weight to the stand/speaker until you hear the spikes punch through the carpet pile and underlay is sufficient. There will be a noticeable sudden shift down and a tearing noise. But this is good. It means the spike has made it home and the carpet is no longer supporting any weight and so when the speaker is moved a light massage of the spot over the holes makes them invisible again.
However, from experience with two sprung floors, a challenge might be less the carpet and more the floor. When you are levelling them up, you are in the vicinity and your own body weight causes the floor to depress. When you finish levelling and step away, or just step to the opposite side, they start rocking again because the floor is different to how it was when you were levelling them. While I’m not find of products like Podiums, that might be another solution if the sprung floor itself is nullifying your best efforts. Or if you can accept carpet depressions, granite slabs.
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If the granite slabs are heavy enough, their mass makes whatever is under them largely irrelevant. In the same way the foundation of your house makes the fact it sits on soil and clay irrelevant.
I always found it difficult to get this right because the flat area at the intersection of the slits in a Phillips-type screw is tiny. If you’re a millimetre off, then your spike is colliding with the edge of the screw. I would usually end up using a Mole grips to rotate the head a fraction one way or the other until I could detect no play, either because the screw was not quite vertical and could be rotated into better alignment, or because I rotated it to a point where it gripped the spike really tightly. Either way, not ideal.
These days, I’m more than happy with my Chord Silent Mount SM7 isolators. You would think it would be difficult to eliminate the last trace of micro-rattle with a metal shoe, but mine stay rock solid for months at a time, only needing a tiny adjustment once or twice a year.
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Dead easy sheet of cardboard pressed onto bottom of stand and removed perfect template turn over position and fit screws through hole.
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I used either a cardboard template or four taped Xs to mark the spike points, but I was never able to get all four screws exactly aligned with the spikes.
If I was to do it again I’d use some kind of beefy coach screw, with a reasonably sized “target” in the middle, although that might be difficult to make an accurate hole for, so 
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I agree, it can be difficult and makes a suprisingly large difference when not totally rigid.
In the end I have resorted to use three legged speaker stands… and they work very well… I still find there is a bit of settling time of upto a day for them to sound optimal.
I currently use the three legged SS60 stands with RK speakers, and 50% filled they do the business. Tuneful and tight but prominent deep bass with good mids and treble imaging.
I found previously with micro rocking bass became a bit lumpy and not so tight as well as slightly subdued… and mids sounded relatively slightly indistinct.
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The idea of using spikes is to isolate the speakers from the floor, be it concrete or suspended.
If you listen to a pair of speakers spiked through carpet to a springy suspended floor, the bass will be quite “boomy” along with mids rolling off too early along with feeling a very large amount of bass through the floor as well. A heavy slab of Granite under each speaker stops all those unwanted traits along with making it very easy to level up the speakers and also have no speaker wobble.
I have used this method for years now and in fact have demonstrated the difference to a friend with and without the Granite, he noticed the difference straight away.
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