I have NHT 2.5i's and hardwood floors. The speakers came with metal cone spikes but they will definitely damage the floor. Any suggestions? Has anyone tried pennies under the spikes?
You may try plastic discs that you put under chair legs. The glass ones may work better. You can get them at ACE hardware. Maybe just try them with out the spikes and use computer mouse pads as cushions. I believe that the spikes are just for carpet stablity anyway.
If you detect any movement/vibrations in your NHT's on your hardwood floor, try using blu-tack (available anywhere) between the cabinet and floor. Spikes work wonders, but can damage hardwood floors for sure. Don't put pennies under the spikes, the copper will eventually stain the hardwood floor. Some wider-footprint type spikes are also available with less likely damage to your floor.
J. Vigne
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Spikes are good for "locking" the speakers in place. They improve many areas of a speaker's performance that just sitting the speakers on the floor will not accomplish. I've used pennies, metal knockout plugs from electrical boxes and upturned locking wood nuts. These are the devices you would use if you were going into a piece of wood, probably what is on the bottom of your speaker. They have the small tangs (teeth) that are driven into the wood and the screw is put into the nut. The tangs keep the nut from turning. You can pick these up at any Home Depot. Put the flat side on the floor and place the spike in the screw hole. Buy as small as possible for this use. You can also use ball bearings. Ball bearings serve a similar purpose to the spikes. Both load the weight of the speaker onto a very small area. This mass loading is why spikes work on any surface. With the ball bearing the point of contact is about the same as with a spike since it meets the floor only at a point tangential to the floor. Dig out those high school geometry books to figure out that a tangent will be infinitely small where a spike has a definite size. The ball bearing wins on mass loading! I have a set of speaker stands that occassionally need to be moved over a hardwood floor. There were several options available. The best was a captured nylon ball bearing in a metal housing that would attach to the bottom of the stand. They were a bit too expensive for this set of speakers. There are also metal units that are less expensive. What I used were found in the automotive department and are smooth plastic knobs that have the 10/24 thread I needed to mate with the threads in the stands. I have several spikes that I could use and found a pair that were long enough to be turned upside down and inserted into the stand and then enough of the treads still could be threaded onto this knob. I placed a thin washer between the stand and the knob to lock the threads. Since it is similar to the nylon ball bearing it slides quite easily without marring the floor. If you don't need levelling from the screws you could probably just use ball bearings that are large enough to settle into the threads on your speakers without disappearing. The ball bearing idea works with other components also. You can also buy floor protectors specifically designed to solve your problem from the after market audio guys. Try Audio Advisors.
J. Vigne
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Spikes are good for "locking" the speakers in place. They improve many areas of a speaker's performance that just sitting the speakers on the floor will not accomplish. I've used pennies, metal knockout plugs from electrical boxes and upturned locking wood nuts. These are the devices you would use if you were going into a piece of wood, probably what is on the bottom of your speaker. They have the small tangs (teeth) that are driven into the wood and the screw is put into the nut. The tangs keep the nut from turning. You can pick these up at any Home Depot. Put the flat side on the floor and place the spike in the screw hole. Buy as small as possible for this use. You can also use ball bearings. Ball bearings serve a similar purpose to the spikes. Both load the weight of the speaker onto a very small area. This mass loading is why spikes work on any surface. With the ball bearing the point of contact is about the same as with a spike since it meets the floor only at a point tangential to the floor. Dig out those high school geometry books to figure out that a tangent will be infinitely small where a spike has a definite size. The ball bearing wins on mass loading! I have a set of speaker stands that occassionally need to be moved over a hardwood floor. There were several options available. The best was a captured nylon ball bearing in a metal housing that would attach to the bottom of the stand. They were a bit too expensive for this set of speakers. There are also metal units that are less expensive. What I used were found in the automotive department and are smooth plastic knobs that have the 10/24 thread I needed to mate with the threads in the stands. I have several spikes that I could use and found a pair that were long enough to be turned upside down and inserted into the stand and then enough of the threads still could be threaded onto this knob. I placed a thin washer between the stand and the knob to lock the threads. If your spikes aren't long enough for this you can purchase a piece of all thread and cut off the lenghth you need. Since it is similar to the nylon ball bearing it slides quite easily without marring the floor. If you don't need levelling from the screws you could probably just use ball bearings that are large enough to settle into the threads on your speakers without disappearing. The ball bearing idea works with other components also. You can also buy floor protectors specifically designed to solve your problem from the after market audio guys. Try Audio Advisors.