Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Speaker feet - spikes, rubber or nothing?

Fellow Axiom Owners,

I have just received the Epic 60/500 system and have been playing around with its configuration in my room. I have now determined where I want to finally locate the speakers. Until now, I have not attached the feet to the bottom of my M60 mains nor my EP500 subwoofer. The speakers sit on carpet. Is there any performance/audible benefit to attaching the feet (spikes I would assume due to the carpet) rather than simply letting them rest directly on the carpet?

This is probably a dumb question but I still had to ask out of curiousity!

Thanks!

Bryan

Hi icehawk21 (Bryan),

It's just a matter of mechanical stability on your carpet. If the speakers are more stable using the rubber feet, or the spikes, or nothing, then use whichever you prefer.

Without the rubber feet, the footprint of the speaker might make a more obvious impression on the carpet underneath. But there are no sonic benefits that result from spikes over rubber feet over nothing.

Ignore all the hot air promulgated on some forums about resonances and the spikes offering some sort of anti-resonance protection. It's all nonsense that evolved out of British audio magazines decades ago.

Thanks Alan!

I didn't really think that it would have any sonic benefits. I think I'll leave it without the spikes for now.

Thanks again!

Bryan

I decided to use rubbers for protection.

I didn't want to use the spikes because I thought maybe they would poke holes in the carpet and pad so I used the rubber feet ... (I believe spikes on the bottom of the 600 would probably poke holes in the concrete foundation) one feature I like with the rubber feet is that on carpet you get *just* enough clearance to tuck and hide any excess speaker wire under the speaker.

Also using the rubber feet on our carpet I noticed the 80s tilted a little to one side (both speaks leaned out) so I used a couple of quarters under the feet of the low side as shims, works great and now both speakers are standing straight as arrows.

I remember when I first started setting up my speakers for the first time and read somewhere that spikes should be used not *only* for stability, but to raise the speakers off the carpet to prevent any unnecessary absorption of sound. Of course, I took their advice since my Axiom's were sounding so muffled and dull without them. While I was at it, I also removed the damping material from inside the speakers...

Depending upon your room, floor coverings, seating position and perception, I am willing to entertain the notion that it is possible to hear a difference between "nothing" and the spikes or feet simply due to the difference in height of the tweeters. I doubt *I* could hear it, though.

I like using the spikes because it keeps the kids and the dog from repositioning my meticulously calculated toe-in angles.

I tend to use spikes because I think it makes the speakers a bit more stable on my longer pile carpet. However, I recently replaced the spikes with the rubber feet on my EP500 because I was getting vibration noise during low bass sections. Plus, moving the EP500 with spikes is a hospital visit waiting to happen!