Are feet / still points necessary (even a little)?

[MDAguy]

So I know we've had a few debates recently about audio cables making an SQ difference, with the consensus being no...

I'm curious what people have to say about these? I personally think they look cool (as I do the cables), and would get them purely for the "cool factor" as I have done with cables... not pretending that my ears can hear the difference.

With that said, I can see how a turn table owner who plays loudly and has a lot of bass in the listening room might want to isolate his turn table from the vibrations. I can also see how these might help with speakers... but are they any good for DAC's? Amps? or CD players (this makes a bit of sense too)?

 

[whazzup]

There was a point early in my short audio hobby journey that I thought there's something there (of feet affecting playback quality).
But since coming in contact with REW, measuring mics and even ASR, I have instead become thankful that I never really gotten to the point of putting in the dollars to test these feet and their claims.

Even as a non engineer, it just didn't make sense how they can improve audiogear so much as to affect the energy of air molecules that carry the speaker audio/vibrations to our ears (aka make a difference in measured FR).

Note though that I'm not a vinyl person, so not commenting on how they supposedly can improve vinyl playback, although I'm still skeptical why a turntable manufacturer would give a turntable wobbly feet to begin with...

 

[tmtomh]

I would imagine they might be useful in a measurable way for turntables (to reduce rumble, resonant feedback, and so on), and possibly for tube-based gear (to prevent vibration-induced microphonics and such for the tubes). But for solid-state gear and digital sources I would be skeptical and an not surprised to hear @whazzup 's measurements results.

 

[daftcombo]

As long as the speaker doesn't vibrate, you don't need feet I guess.

 

[Tatteredmidnight]

I would think this really comes down to a question of how the coupling if surfaces and devices impacts both of the parties. A speaker can couple to a room directly through contact and indirectly through the air. How this would effect things seems like it would be highly situationally dependent. I can definitely imagine situations where there may be an impact (record player sitting on a sub?), but I’m not sure there is a simple, universal answer. As with a lot of things in audio, people see to look for solutions before they have problems, and then either perceive a non-existent benefit, or write something off as snake oil because they never had the problem it solves in the first place. I’m sure more educated minds can give better insight.

 

[whazzup]

There was a point early in my short audio hobby journey that I thought there's something there (of feet affecting playback quality).
But since coming in contact with REW, measuring mics and even ASR, I have instead become thankful that I never really gotten to the point of putting in the dollars to test these feet and their claims....

A slight correction to my original post:
I did buy into the isoacoustics hype and all the raving reviews from 'studio professionals', and convinced myself I needed their speaker stands.

On closer inspection, they actually had a pretty cool rubber / metal / plastic system. The rubber feet work like suction cups to couple the speakers (on the stands) to the desk surface. Sorta like so:

As for any sonic improvements.... I did measure slight differences last time... but I would attribute it more to raising the speakers higher, away from the desk surface (less reflections) and more aligned to my ears. So nah....the speakers didn't really need 'audiophile-level' vibration reduction....

Nowadays whenever I need 'feet' for any audiogear, I will reach for wooden chopping boards and gel pads.

 

[Katji]

There are test measurements of speaker spikes and decoupling things.

Yeh, the IsoAcoustic stands are such a desktop/geek fad. ...Too bad my speakers are at the perfect height as it is.

However, [OP], turntable, yes, if they genuinely are damping/isolating. Of course.

although I'm still skeptical why a turntable manufacturer would give a turntable wobbly feet to begin with...

FYI the first generation of turntables had spring mounts. They wobbled by design. - Up to you.

 

[whazzup]

There are test measurements of speaker spikes and decoupling things.

Yeh, the IsoAcoustic stands are such a desktop/geek fad. ...Too bad my speakers are at the perfect height as it is.

However, [OP], turntable, yes, if they genuinely are damping/isolating. Of course.


FYI the first generation of turntables had spring mounts. They wobbled by design. - Up to you.

This reminded me to go to good old google, and guess what? This came up:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...r-spikes-vs-isolation-an-investigation.12406/

Not sure about turntables, will rely on others to chime in.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

Isolation things like these (or really any isolation) is really a mechanical low pass filter. The vibration you want to remove has to occur at a frequency above the low frequency limit of the isolator. For instance, in an earthquake, probably no isolator on earth will decouple the ground motion from the item you're trying to isolate.

If the object is to couple motions from the item to the 'ground', then that is pretty complex and depends on a lot of variables like frequency and the the nature of 'ground'.

Myself, I only use isolators (Sorbethane pucks) under my rather heavy plinth for my turntable. It works mostly, but on my suspended wood floor, footfalls will transmit very low frequency disturbance no matter what (four 18" subwoofers don't help....).

Overall, I would not invest a lot on spikes and thing such as that unless you simply like the way they look.

 

[sergeauckland]

Isolation spikes are something that really get me going! Spikes DON'T ISOLATE, THEY COUPLE!!!! Springs Isolate above twice the resonant frequency, Rubber and other elastomers damp, rather than isolate, as they are never a pure compliance, although the effect is one of partial reduction in coupling.

The only thing that spikes do for loudspeakers is avoid marks on the carpet at the expense of holes in the floor. The only thing that spikes do for electronics is to look pretty.

S.

 

[a2lowvw]

I keep looking at the different feet options to replace the spikes and pads on my towers. Less interested in the alleged benefits and more interested in having an easier option to avoid gouging the new hardwood floor if something gets bumped or moved.

 

[win]

I like the sorbothane feet for my subwoofers. I subjectively feel like they rattle the floor and walls less.

High quality turntables should all have lots of built in damping though. Unless you bought an overpriced belt driven 'audiophile' table. Technics has been making direct driven tables that have order of magnitude better accuracy than belts for decades now, and enough isolation that you'll see pro DJs using them at insanely loud venues with no coupling to speak of.

 

[Berwhale]

I keep looking at the different feet options to replace the spikes and pads on my towers. Less interested in the alleged benefits and more interested in having an easier option to avoid gouging the new hardwood floor if something gets bumped or moved.

Speaker spikes, pads etc. couple or de-couple your speakers | Page 12 | Audio Science Review (ASR) Forum

I never got around to painting them black.

 

[Vini darko]

I use this under my cd players works great. They never skip no matter how loud Iron maiden gets.

A carpeted chopping block lives under my speakers and also does a good job of reducing floor boom.

 

[Ron Texas]

The ones made from unobtanium work the best...

 

[RayDunzl]

"Are feet / still points necessary (even a little)?"

It depends...

I don't have any.

Florida is seismically stable. Except when a sinkhole swallows your house, but footers won't help there.

The big noise here is when the Golf Course out back runs their mower, or the garbage truck rumbles by to take my donation.

 

[Vini darko]

"Are feet / still points necessary (even a little)?"

It depends...

Such a quality film

 

[amirm]

As for any sonic improvements.... I did measure slight differences last time... but I would attribute it more to raising the speakers higher, away from the desk surface (less reflections) and more aligned to my ears. So nah....the speakers didn't really need 'audiophile-level' vibration reduction....

Precisely. At shows they have a with and without the foot demos with the former at higher tweeter height. So it naturally sounds better. I would then compensate with my listening height and there was no difference.

 

[Mike B]

I use this under my cd players works great. They never skip no matter how loud Iron maiden gets.
View attachment 98399
A carpeted chopping block lives under my speakers and also does a good job of reducing floor boom.

You need to seal those air passages and purge them with helium.

 

[brimble]

If you have polished floors like I do, then something that might be obvious is that spikes scraping along the floor when you clean around the speakers is not only potentially damaging your floor, it's also really annoying! I've switched away from spikes (which came built in to my speaker stands) for this reason.