Hi Phil,
You neatly summarise what I thought and believed for the best part of 30 years. Then I tried a set of these speaker isolation feet. The thing about spikes is that they DO transmit the vibration energy into the floor and some of it then travels across and up via spikes into the cabinet of the other speaker and bad things happen. The Isoacoustics website explains the phenomenon very well. It also describes the expected sonic benefits of cleaner, tighter bass and uncorrupted midrange, so a better sense of timing, more articulate basslines and much clearer, more stable imaging. These are exactly the sonic improvements that I heard with the ART speakers in our living room.
Equally, having wibbly wobbly speaker cabinets should reduce the dynamic range of bass transients and apparently it does by about 0.1dB but have you tried to hear a 0.1dB difference in dynamic range? I canât.
There are excellent mechanical engineering reasons why spikes should be better and there are equally excellent mechanical engineering reasons why isolation feet should be better. Sometimes you just have to try out both and decide which you prefer, which is what I did. It is highly, highly likely that the relative pros & cons will be affected by the method of construction of the floor.
Our concrete raft floor, combined with extremely heavy speaker cabinets, favours isolation feet. A suspended wooden floor will probably do the same. On the other hand, a concrete floor poured onto a bed of compacted hardcore, used with lighter speaker cabinet construction, may well give an edge to spikes. You just have to try, which is part of the fun & frustration, isnât it?
Yes, it is very complex, which is why the manufacturers should tell us more. Your post bring out the issues more as well.
My Focal Sopra 2s have big bluntish spikes because they are heavy. It takes a time to puncture the thick wool carpet - I think the knack is to get each spike taking the same load as well as having the speaker level. Itâs quite easy to have two diagonal spikes take most of the load. My wife would not be happy for me to make holes! There were times when I felt the vibrations in my chair!
Fernar are are you sure that you have the Gaiaâs orientated correctly, the IsoAccoustics wording on the mounts should all be pointing forward towards the listener or alternatively at 180deg to the listener. I have a set mounted to my Focal Sopra No.3âs and you can certainly wobble the speakers from left to right but Have minimal movement back to front. With mine they are mounted onto a Engineered wood flooring laced onto a concrete base.
If they had something that screwed in easily to replace their spikes I might be interested. I have a screed floor on concrete on hardcore on clay. I somehow think the irregular nature of the floor should damp vibrations. If I had concrete beams and blocks with thermal insulation it might be different.
I also worry about energetic grandchildren if the feet were wobbly. The grills go on when they come!
Phil, if you cut slits with a Stanley knife, the spikes sit much better on the floor without rocking. It may sound counterintuitive but it damages the carpet far, far less. Shoving the spike through makes quite a big a round hole that is hard to get rid of. But if you make a slit the spikes just slip through. If you ever move the speaker, a quick rub with the hand is all it takes and youâd never know the speaker had been there. My speakers were delivered on the same day the carpet was fitted and the first thing I did was attack it with the Stanley.
Hi Nigel, if I can get some help to tilt the speakers while I cut I may try. I think they are fairly settled now, but the carpet will affect loading on the screed. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Iâm waiting to let the new PowerLines and MusicWorks mains block with sparkly base settle at present.
Very aware that even small movements of speakers may have big effects, so I want to avoid tweaking for a month or so.
My experience that the Gaia feet dulled the sound of my Spendors may be the result of an interaction between the Gaia springs and the movement of the speaker thin walled cabinets. Speakers made to the BBC design have thin walls which contribute to the overall sound of the speakers. Some call it a âcolourationâ of the sound but it is characteristic of speakers designed in the BBC tradition. Given a solid floor sprung feet add nothing to the sound IMHO, and from my experience of using them they actually have a detrimental effect. Not a popular view I know. Try before you buy. Your floor your speakers - only by using them in situ will you be able to judge.
My Totem Forest Signatures have custom made isolation. The back âclawsâ are silicon nitrate ball bearings, the front âclawâ is a brass dome nut that screws to adjust the forward tilt - though I have never adjusted it. I have just changed the cables to Superlumina, which has lowered and tightened the grip on the lower end by quite a bit. It all seems to work well on timber floors. I certainly like the design of the IsoAcoustic products and they work well for many it seems.
The the wording is pointing forwards - the front/back vs sine to side movement was the same with the demo set I borrowed from my dealer when initially trying the Gaia 1 out - and the now I have the same movement with the ones I purchased.
In fact I went to great length to make sure that they were pointing in the correct direction⌠when I was setting up the Gaias, I noticed that there is a small notch just above the writing which is exactly mid point of the writing - I stuck a bit of masking tape and marked the location of this notch, so that when installing I could make 100% sure that the Gaias were pointing forward, once the masking tape is removed, the exact middle of the writing is facing forwardâŚ
I also made sure that the center âboltâ was tight along with tightening nut.
I will give the dealer a call over the next few days to check that the movement I am getting is as they see when they install the Gaias.
Iâve just fitted Gaia IIIâs under my PMC 25.26 and initial thinking confirms a worthwhile improvement generally as described by others here. Our room has carpet laid over an underlay and I have to say the optional carpet spikes are barely long enough - it will take a bit of settling to compress the carpet so the spikes are in full contact with the floor, also the lack of a stable surface made initial setup a real pain.
Interesting, mine are all pointing forward as well and I definitely have more side to side wobble when I excite the speakers than forward / backward movement, maybe it is due to the size and shape of the base of the speakers where the Gaiaâs are mounted (wider at the front of the speaker tapering off the rear, the base having more length than width. What speakers are you using?
Itâs probably due to not accurate horizontal level. I had the same problem with my cerabases. Now some are higher and other not, so the speakers are completely stable.
