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Speakers and the "feet" that go with them

post #1 of 9
8/7/08 at 4:52pm
Thread Starter 
I just found that my Monitor 9's come with "feet". The book says that using these feet can improve the sound of my speakers, becuase it isolates them from the floor. So, i'm guessing that keeping the speakers off the floor can help a little acoustically?
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post #2 of 9
8/7/08 at 5:11pm

Re: Speakers and the "feet" that go with them

What is the design of the feet? Usually feet for speakers are to bind them to the floor, not isolate them. IOW, to give them as solid a base as possible.
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post #3 of 9
8/7/08 at 6:38pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Speakers and the "feet" that go with them

They are just plastic feet that screw on to the bottom of the speaker. A pic of what I am talking about can be seen on these:

Paradigm : Models Monitor 9

In this pic, it shows them with the carpet spikes on, i dont have them on cause they are long enough (even fully retracted) that they go through the carpet and touch the concrete under the carpet.
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post #4 of 9
8/7/08 at 6:57pm

Re: Speakers and the "feet" that go with them

Quote:
Originally Posted by sam37
In this pic, it shows them with the carpet spikes on, i dont have them on cause they are long enough (even fully retracted) that they go through the carpet and touch the concrete under the carpet.
That's what they are supposed to do. When the speaker rests on carpet, the motion of the midbase cone can cause the speaker to rock back and forth. When the feet are coupled the concrete, the speaker can't move.

-Robert
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post #5 of 9
8/7/08 at 7:30pm

Re: Speakers and the "feet" that go with them

Robert is correct. The plastic feet would be for hard wood floors, because the spike feet will damage the floor and aren't really necessary. With carpet you are supposed to use the spikes.
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post #6 of 9
8/7/08 at 7:36pm

Re: Speakers and the "feet" that go with them

I own those speakers myself. Curious, we are getting wood floors next week. Would i want to replace the spikes (that i know need to be removed regardless) with rubber to lessen the vibration from the wood floors?
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post #7 of 9
8/8/08 at 12:51am
Thread Starter 

Re: Speakers and the "feet" that go with them

I see, i thought the spikes were there just to keep the speaker from sliding lol.

Well, then maybe that could be how it improves the sound of the speaker? It may be a stretch, but if the speaker can move because of the midbass speaker motion, then maybe it could lose some of its' "punch". Imagine if you were throwing a baseball, if you were falling backwards when you threw it, you would be losing alot of momentum, but if you were fixed to the ground in a solid stance, you could get more distance...perhaps there is something similar going on here? It may be a stretch, but the book that came with the speakers says, "Outrigger feet and isolation spikes are included with floorstanding models. They can improve the sound of your speakers by isolating them from the floor".

Either that or maybe it has something to do with vibration...maybe the carpet is absorbing some of the sound waves somehow when the speaker rests on it, and the spikes are used to seperate the speaker from the carpet so that it can't lose anything?
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post #8 of 9
8/8/08 at 5:02am

Re: Speakers and the "feet" that go with them

The basic idea is that you want to minimize vibration in the speaker cabinet. If it is "floating" on the surface of the carpet, it can have unwanted vibrations. So, you anchor it to the floor with spikes. If the substrate of your floor is concrete, that is ideal. It has a rock solid foundation to couple to. USE The Spikes!
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post #9 of 9
8/8/08 at 8:15am

Re: Speakers and the "feet" that go with them

Quote:
Originally Posted by RickER
I own those speakers myself. Curious, we are getting wood floors next week. Would i want to replace the spikes (that i know need to be removed regardless) with rubber to lessen the vibration from the wood floors?
Or you can still use the spikes if you like the look and use a foot cup (link) to keep it from marring the floor.

-Robert
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