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Changed the feet on the bottom of the 2 Pi Towers. Had been using socks 'cause they allowed sliding the speakers around easily. Folks like Linkwitz cautioned against using spikes on wooden floors saying you didn't want to couple the speakers to the wood. So socks were the quick and easy solution. Changed out the socks for some rubber feet - the feet used under sofas to protect the floor or carpet. These aren't audiophile approved but just happened to be lying around the house. They sound quite different. At first it seemed like the rubber feet reduced bass but after listening for a while there's less smearing of notes. The rubber feet are cleaner sounding and, I'm assuming, doing a better job of isolating the speakers from the wooden floors. Can anyone explain what is actually going on? I'd have thought the socks would isolate better and the rubber would transmit more into the floor.
Were they tube socks or athletic socks? Actually, seems to me rubber would damp better than a sock.
You're not supposed to use spikes? Is that because they were scratching up your floor or because they were transferring the vibration and making it worse? My guess is that the rubber isolates better because it's thicker than the socks. I'm no expert though. I live in an industrial apartment and the acoustics are horrid. I was told to use spikes, but I got some Sound Anchor Stands instead.
Rubber decouples the speaker cabinet from the surface it is sitting on. You're right that it does transfer some energy, but it is damped. I expect fabric cushions like your socks would even do a better job but that's inconvenient 'cause it's too loosey-goosey. I put rubber feet under my speakers when they're on stands. It helps them stay in place while still providing some isolation.
The socks were just plain socks. They were, however, clean. The towers didn't get spikes because I'd read that coupling speakers to a wood floor wasn't good. It's a tough room for audio because of the wood floor ... there's a crawl space on one side that has to be completely avoided. Putting the towers in their current spot, sans crawl space, was a major improvement. So the floor is definitely part of getting the sound right. Coupled or not, spikes on the towers would also make them insanely difficult to move compared to socks or some sort of slider. In a few weeks when the air conditioners go off it'll be time to play around some more. Maybe the socks really do work better and I'm just reacting to the change in tonality. That happens all the time: make a change, proclaim it better. Wait a month, change it back and proclaim it better.
Barryso wrote on Thu, 15 August 2019 06:12 That happens all the time: make a change, proclaim it better. Wait a month, change it back and proclaim it better. True Dat!