7_V
I want a Linn - in a DB9
Hi Steven. I understand exactly where you're coming from on this spikes v squidgy thing and I agree that the speakers have to be held still, with only the drivers allowed to move.Originally posted by Steven Toy
Speakers are the only system components that are active in a physical sense - i.e: the driver units move back and forth.
So, in order for transients to be reproduced accurately without smearing or overhang, the drivers should move and the cabinets stay completely still with absolutely no wobble whatsoever.
Moreover, if the cabinets are allowed to wriggle atop something squidgy like Sorbathane, the tweeters will also move slightly, so bye bye focused image.
It may be ok to stick something compliant and squidgy under amps, less so under CD players, but surely never under speakers.
Spikes are the only way under speakers - they provide rigidity for the speakers, and a single point - or four single points provide the lowest surface area possible of contact with the ground through which energy transfered back up into the speakers is minimised.
However, I'm not entirely sure that speakers do move with the right squidgies and I'm not entirely sure that they don't move with spikes. This is an issue which many speaker designers are unresolved on (well alright, some are unresolved, some think they know and most don't give a sh*t - they'll do what everyone else does anyway).
Squidgies first ...
Yes these move but they have a very low resonance. In other words, they go backward and forward very slowly - at 1Hz or 2Hz, far below the audio spectrum. The speakers won't move any quicker on these things so, in practice, they stay still.
Think of stiring a big bowl of highly viscous liquid (thick and sticky that doesn't flow easily) with a heavy wooden spoon. Now stir it fast. Not so easy eh?
Spikes next ...
I'm 52 and when I was a kid I had loads of fun with my brothers and sister playing my mother's old 78s on a wind-up gramophone. We'd lower the arm onto the shellac and the contact wasn't made by a stylus but by a needle. This needle was like a modern day spike and of course like a spike, it coupled to the surface and transferred all the acoustic vibration from the record to the arm where it was amplified acoustically and made music to our ears. I'll never forget "Binga, banga, bunga I'm so happy in the junga". A classic.
Did the needle stop vibrations in the tone-arm? No, otherwise no music.
Do spikes hold a speaker still? I don't know.
If the spikes are properly set up we'd be talking micro-movements and if the speaker doesn't move, the floor certainly will. Do we want that? Then again, if the floor vibrates the movement certainly could be transferred back to the speaker.
So, that's my thinking on the subject. I don't know the answer and I hope that I've convinced you that it's not a clearcut question.
Personally, I'm coming up with both alternatives for my Nonsuch speakers so I can listen to what sounds best. I guess I'll just sit on the fence and see which way I wobble.
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