[Powell]

"Lars Farm" wrote

Spikes... a thing I never really understood. So, the idea
of spikes is to create a firm, rigid connection between the
cabinet and the large rigid mass of the floor?

Good speaker points firmly attached to the speaker's
bottom and completely coupled to the underfloor will
reduce audible cabinet residence at medium to high
SPLs.

FYI...

Oct, 2000 , TAS - What's Wrong With Speakers
by R.E. Greene

"But as soon as a speaker gets an input signal, it
starts doing things it shouldn't and starts making
noise, not just the music it should be making. Cones
and surrounds flexing, mechanical structures
vibrating, cabinets flexing in unpredicted and
unpredictable ways, air flowing turbulently,
electrostatic diaphragms vibrating chaotically
on the scale of small areas even if they are moving
regularly on a large scale, such sources of noise
are everywhere."

"How much noise are we talking about here?
A lot, a whole lot by the standards of noise
levels in electronics and recording systems.
Speaker noise appears only 20 to 30 dB down
from signal in some cases, and even the
cleanest speakers I know do not get the noise
down much more than 55 dB or so."


Where there is a carpet, set the cabinet on the
floor rather than floating on the carpet.

For maximum effectiveness spikes should not
be run through any type of carpet interface
(carpet/foam).

If you have high quality carpet, spikes just won't
penetrate the carpet/pad substrate. The tightly
woven jute backing and under pad are the problem.
The conical shape of spikes simply will not couple
to the sub-floor... and I mean tightly. While it might
appear (feel) to you that your spikes are firmly in
they are still supported by the carper/pad. Sound
pressure measurements and auditioning indicate
only a poor improvement.


If there's no carpet would spikes still be beneficial?

Ideal application.


and do you have to drive them down into the wood
like nails to get any effect?

No. If the speaker is of sufficient mass (weight)
spikes or high quality casters work well.


what if the floor is of stone?

If you mean concrete... very good effectiveness.
There are many variables to consider because
each material you spike to is sympathetic at
some frequencies.