What do you use when you can't spike?

Bobvin

Bobvin

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I've a bit of a conundrum... My equipment stands (Core Audio Designs) are built to be spiked to the floor, which was fine in my prior home with carpet & pad over plywood sheathing. Now, in my new place I have hardwoods, over which I'm putting a stout pad and custom sized wool area rug.

I can't spike through the rug into the hardwoods, and I don't want to use a tiny little saucer, floating on top of the carpet, to rest the spikes in. The stands are appropriately heavy ~ 80+ lbs. Without the firm anchor to the floor, should I just get a larger saucer for the spikes (I am afraid if I go too small I will permanently fold down the carpet fibers leaving dimples if/when I move things about); and focus on StillPoints or HRS shelves for isolation of individual components?

As always, I find Shark-advice valuable...
 
Stillpoint Ultra 5's is what I use. Stillpoint Ultra 5's with the attachment for the Wilson Alexia's would kill two birds with one stone.
 
BlueMcIntosh said:
I heard good things about the Herbie's Rack Decoupling/Isolation.

Herbie's Loudspeaker Feet
Click to expand...

Excellent! There are some great options here. With something like the slider bases under the racks, I can use Stillpoints Ultra's and Mini's under components. As my room evolves, I won't be out huge sums when I move to another rack system.
 
Bob,
If you want to I can make some big saucers like this one for you:
And the best part, is free
I'll bring with me to NYC
:)
gyje3enu.jpg
 
Rubber feet (from the hardware store). ...And before that while calibrating, small carpets. ...Act as rollers.

* But! I still prefer spiking, on anything. ...On very nice and expensive wood floors I use spike's protectors (silver dimes).
And for spikes; arrow points (custom made that screw under the base) with hard rubber rings (bathroom sink washers).

On carpets and normal wood floors; spikes with a solid shark bite (nothing's moving, even @ 120dB)
On ceramic and marble floors; a combination of rubber and titanium feet. ...Home-made custom fit.
 
You don't need special rack feet IMO unless you are using something with physically moving parts like a turntable or tape deck. Just my opinion that micro vibrations on solid state gear makes no audible impact. On the other hand, I have invested substantially on special audiophile feet for my speakers which obviously do have moving parts. Still, it can't hurt. I'd be inclined to look for a low cost solution such as the rubber feet suggested by a previous post if I were exploring this myself.
 
My opinion:
- use very pointy spikes under your rack. Since the rack will not have to be moved the marks on the hardwood floor will not be important (that's different from the speakers which you have to rearrange several times);
- if you really want to avoid any marks just insert (flat) pads under the carpet. It will take a while to position the rack but then you're done;
- don't believe the story about Raidhos not needing spikes: I could not tame the midbass bloom until I got some custom-made spikes.
 
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