Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Spike feet for stands

Hey guys,

I was just wondering where you would use the spike on the speaker stands. Carpet? Hardwood floors? Can you use them on the hardwood floors? Wouldn't they scratch the floors?

Thanks in advanced!!

Spiked feet on carpet, rubber feet on hardwood.

I like using the rubber feet on the carpet because they give just enough distance between the carpet and the bottom of the speaker to tuck and hide the excess speaker wire I have leading to the speakers, but the tower speakers have a tendency to lean outward at the top using the rubber feet so I use quarters as shims under the outside feet to level the speakers.

I have the 600 setting directly on the carpet without the use of any feet.

I guess the usual scenario is the spikes are for carpeted floors, to let them anchor to something solid, and the rubber feet for all harder materials. I use the rubber feet on a carpeted floor, mostly for stability reasons. I find the spikes make the speakers a little less stable and I have kids in the room alot.

I guess you didn't pound the spikes into the floor by whacking the top of your speakers with a heavy rubber mallet?

No, but I am sure my kids would love to jump up and down on top of them to help, although it would be an effort in futility - concrete under carpet.

I use the spikes and I have hardwood floors.

I used the rubber feet for a couple of months but disliked the fact that they weren't really attached to the speaker - the speaker just sits on them. It's probably the only thing I dislike about the M80's design. Made it a PITA whenever I had to tweak the speaker placement or toe-in/out, because you can't move the speaker without re-aligning the screws back up with the feet. I once almost tipped the whole speaker over because I didn't have one foot lined up properly. It was a quick catch.

So I bought 8 metal floor cups from OregonDV.com. The Axiom spikes fit quite securely into the indention and they protect the floor (I haven't noticed any scratches - though my floor is far from perfect anyway). The speakers are a lot more stable now than they were with the rubber feet. Maybe even a slight improvement in sound quality too, but that's highly debatable and subjective.

IMHO, the spikes just look a lot cooler than the rubber feet.

The rubber feet should be attached to the speaker by those screws, I know mine are and I have never had a problem moving the speakers around.

What? Mine are screwed into the M80s. In fact, as I was screwing the feet to the EP350, I was thinking that I had been getting very used to doing this...

I mean, the screws do kind of catch at the top of the feet, but all you have to do is keep screwing them in. They go in about 1/4-1/2 inch into the foot.

I just changed over to the rubber feet and they are every bit as secure as the spikes.

Well obviously I'm not smart enough to understand how the rubber feet were supposed to work then!

So how then did you attach the rubber feet? I still don't get it.

The rubber feet that came with my Axiom's were sort of U shaped. Like little rubber shot-glasses. There was no hole in the middle to run the screws through, nor did it have any recessed space on the bottom. If I had pierced the bottom of the 'U' with the screw and driven the screw through it, then there would have been either an exposed screw head on the wood floor, or if I had kept tightening it the screw would have ripped through the rubber foot entirely, which didn't seem right. So is the bottom part of the foot bowed upwards to make like a little dome against the floor, with the screw head at the top?

When I was using the rubber feet, I had the screws screwed into the bottom of the M80's, and the 'U' part of the rubber feet just sort of centered on the screw head (the exposed head fitting into the top of the 'U'). No real connection, just resting on the feet. That's what I didn't like/understand about using them. That was the only way I saw to use them. How are the feet held on to the speaker?

I will have to dig the rubber feet back out tonight and take another look. Though I prefer the way the spikes look anyway.

err... I think you had them upside down. The flat side goes on the speaker side, the side with the indent goes on the floor side. The screw goes through the indent, through the (thin) rubber in the middle, and into the speaker.

So the wide end is supposed to point upwards, the 'point' at the bottom? So a side shot of the speaker would look like..

|________|
_V______V____

(ignore the underscore - there because the forum truncates spaces)


I suppose I had it like...

|________|
_A______A_______

And it didn't work so well....

Whoops.

Did I mention that I was really excited to get my M80's set up?

Yup, pretty much.

<Homer Simpson>
Doh!
</Homer Simpson>

I actually use my rubber feet the same way you did. Although it's not as secure as screwing through the rubber feet, it does let you independently adjust each foot by leaving its screw protruding more or less than the others to compensate for an uneven floor. If you screw through the rubber foot, then it will be snug to the bottom of the speaker.