[tomsk1983]

Hi all I was just wondering if there was any other plinths/ feet I can use on my rx6 as the ones supplied are less than attractive :-( what do you guys do or use ??


Thanks

[tim68]

try a google search, seems quite a few places do custom made plinths for a wide range of speaker models

[Chord Freak]

Can the RX6's be used without the plinths? Can you screw the supplied spikes directly into the bottom of the speakers? Thanks.

[mcspongy]

Originally Posted by Chord Freak

Can the RX6's be used without the plinths? Can you screw the supplied spikes directly into the bottom of the speakers? Thanks.

You need different size spikes (M8 i think) but yes you can use without plinths. I used to do this on wood floor (with spike shoes) but when I moved them to new room with carpet they looked like they might get knocked over - I have mine placed away from walls actually past the door into the room so I do have to walk around the R Front, if that wasn't the case I probably wouldn't have been so worried. Its certainly easier to level with the plinths but then how often do you need to do that?

[BlueWizard]

Yes, you can use them without Spikes.

As to whether the spike can be used without the plynths, it is simply a matter of looking at the bottom of the speaker to see if there are threaded holes for the spikes. Short of that, get a copy of the owner's manual. Though the speaker are pretty popular, and perhaps someone who has the speaker can look for you.

Most often the WHY is just as important as the WHAT. Can you explain why you are asking this question? What the problem is? What do you hope to achieve? The devil is always in the details, and the more we know, the more we can help.

Steve/bluewizard

[mcspongy]

Originally Posted by BlueWizard

As to whether the spike can be used without the plynths, it is simply a matter of looking at the bottom of the speaker to see if there are threaded holes for the spikes. Short of that, get a copy of the owner's manual. Though the speaker are pretty popular, and perhaps someone who has the speaker can look for you.

Steve/bluewizard

I can answer the easy bit here. The spikes in the plinths don't fit the threaded holes which are present in the RX6's. I called Monitor Audio direct and a very helpful chap confirmed there would be no loss of audio quality to use without the plinths and confirmed the size - ill go and see if I can find an email to confirm size.

When I moved my speakers and then used plinths it turned out one of the bolts to screw on plinth was cross-threaded and as I had bi-amped them I couldn't find the "jumper plates" (is that correct name?). MA sent out new sets of plates and bolts straightaway at no charge, great aftersales.

[mcspongy]

Originally Posted by BlueWizard

Most often the WHY is just as important as the WHAT. Can you explain why you are asking this question? What the problem is? What do you hope to achieve? The devil is always in the details, and the more we know, the more we can help.

Steve/bluewizard

think he's the same as me Steve, just thinks the plinths somewhat ruin the looks of these lovely speakers. Mine are now in a guest bedroom/HC room and with the room darkened I never notice now in any case, but when they were downstairs in living room i did.

The footprint without the plinths is significantly smaller which did help me also as the hearth was restricting placement (which as you can guess was far from ideal) where I had them before in living room.

[Chord Freak]

Thanks guys, that's what I wanted to hear! It's down to size and space as to why I wouldn't want to use the plinths. I'm looking for some floor-standers with a maximum height of 850mm and as narrow as possible and I was thinking either the RX6's without plinths or the BX5's. Cheers

[mcspongy]

They do need space to get the best put of them Chord. By saying you need narrow are you stuffing them into a corner?

[tomsk1983]

However the question still stands can you get different plinths to fit like the feet on the kef r500?

[Chord Freak]

Originally Posted by tomsk1983

However the question still stands can you get different plinths to fit like the feet on the kef r500?

This is the only place I could find and they do ship internationally:

Floor Standing Speaker Stand Spurs Plinth

[Chord Freak]

Originally Posted by mcspongy

They do need space to get the best put of them Chord. By saying you need narrow are you stuffing them into a corner?

Not quite into corners but under the stairs (not ideal, but I don't have a choice):

[BlueWizard]

YIKES! Good luck with that.

Steve/bluewizard

[Cyruszaydan]

You can use the spikes without the plinths. I simply used the provided bolts/ feet for the the plinths and screwed these into the threaded holes already on the base of the speakers. It was a perfect fit as I remember. In fact, as my speakers are on a hard wooded floor, I removed the spike end. The speakers rest on the rubber base on the feet Monitor Audio provided for wooden floors.

[Chord Freak]

Originally Posted by BlueWizard

YIKES! Good luck with that.

Steve/bluewizard

Would you care to elaborate on that please - are you thinking bookshelf speakers on stands would be better due to placement? Thanks

PS. sorry to the OP for hijacking your thread!

[BlueWizard]

Originally Posted by Chord Freak

Would you care to elaborate on that please - are you thinking bookshelf speakers on stands would be better due to placement? Thanks

PS. sorry to the OP for hijacking your thread!

Sorry I was just being silly. The photo indicates a very difficult situation to fit speakers into. Still ingenuity always saves the day.

Keep in mind Spikes are not your only choice. In fact, under some circumstances, Spikes are the wrong choice.

Most home supply/building supply store will have threaded rubber/nylon/felt feet that could be screwed into the bottom of the speakers. Some manufactures even include these with their speaker.

And you can use no feet at all. Though if it looks like the bottom of the speaker might scratch the floor, then some small press-on nylon/felt/rubber pads might be enough to prevent scratches. Again, these are common and can be found at most home remodeling or building supply stores, even common hardware stores. Perhaps even in general merchandising stores.

The purpose of Spike is primarily to reach down through thick carpet to the solid floor below. On floating wood floors, you are probably better off not using the Spikes. On a more solid anchored wooden floor, Spike can be used with the disk-like cups under the Spike points.

Some people are fond of buying a granite kitchen chopping board, very cheap, and if on wood, covering the bottom of the granite with press-on felt, the setting the speakers with the Spikes onto the granite. This is actually very popular and several in the forum have done this. Some people use the granite board on carpet. Ingenuity really is the key.

Just a few thoughts.

Steve/bluewizard

[Chord Freak]

Thanks Steve, as the floor is carpet and PU foam underlay I think the best bet would be to not use anything and just have the speakers sit flat on the carpet. Do you know of any sonic advantages to using floor spikes as opposed to just having the speakers sitting directly on the carpet? Are the spikes purely for stability?

[BlueWizard]

What are the floors like under the carpet? If they are nice finished wood floor that you might want to show off at sometime in the future. Then you might not want to use Spikes. But it the Sub-floors under the carpet are just rough unfinished sub-floor, then you certainly do want to use Spikes.

The problem with carpet is that is is not very stable. Put a speaker or speaker and stand on a carpet and give it a wiggle. It is very unstable. You want the speaker solid. Any movement in the cabinet is a loss of movement to the speaker drivers, and that is not good for sound.

So, to answer you question, Yes, the Spike are for both leveling and Stability.

Prior to this, I don't believe you actually mentioned the type of floor you had. I do have a video I was going to post, but it is for Wood Floors. Still worth a look. This is an AV-Land review of the Dali Zensor 5. Notice when the camera moves to the speaker in the corner, the speakers is spiked to a black granite 'chopping board' -

Dali Zensor 5 Loudpseaker HD Video Review by AV LAND UK - YouTube

I'm not sure if they have covered the bottom of the board, but likely the bottom is finished as smooth as the top, so scratching would be kept to a minimum.

I have heard of people using the 'chopping boards' on carpet, it spreads the weight of the speaker base over a broader area, and that can make a more stable base. But, for best result, Spike the speaker into the carpet. It might seem unstable at first, but in time the spike will penetrate to the wood floor below, and hold the speakers stable.

On a very very side tangent, I've discovered a pretty effective way of moving speaker that are spiked to carpet, just one requirement, you have to be wearing shoes. Tilt the speaker back and push your foot under the bottom, then tilt the speaker forward so you foot is supporting it. Then you can slowly 'walk' the speaker to a new locations and to the reverse to get your foot out from under.

This might sound stupid, but I broke the pins on my grill cloth trying to move the speaker by given it a bear-hug and trying to pick it up. From my experience, this is the safest way to move a speaker, even over moderately long distance, especially if you are trying to move it alone. Any type of grabbing or dragging is just too dangerous.

That's probably way more information than you wanted or needed, but none the less, there it is.

Steve/bluewizard

[Chord Freak]

The floors are concrete with hideous old dark green tiles on top so the floor is fairly flat. I think ideally I would want to use a granite chopping board but as I am limited in height under the stairs the chopping board would encroach too much into the available space. I am having difficulty finding floorstanders small enough. I ideally want some speakers no taller than 750mm - the smallest I have found so far are the Neat Motive 2's at 770mm high and then the Spendor A5's at 790mm high, then it jumps to the MA BX5 or RX6 which are both 850mm high (without spikes or plinths).

Thank you for all the good info, it's much appreciated.

Originally Posted by BlueWizard

What are the floors like under the carpet? If they are nice finished wood floor that you might want to show off at sometime in the future. Then you might not want to use Spikes. But it the Sub-floors under the carpet are just rough unfinished sub-floor, then you certainly do want to use Spikes.

The problem with carpet is that is is not very stable. Put a speaker or speaker and stand on a carpet and give it a wiggle. It is very unstable. You want the speaker solid. Any movement in the cabinet is a loss of movement to the speaker drivers, and that is not good for sound.

So, to answer you question, Yes, the Spike are for both leveling and Stability.

Prior to this, I don't believe you actually mentioned the type of floor you had. I do have a video I was going to post, but it is for Wood Floors. Still worth a look. This is an AV-Land review of the Dali Zensor 5. Notice when the camera moves to the speaker in the corner, the speakers is spiked to a black granite 'chopping board' -


Dali Zensor 5 Loudpseaker HD Video Review by AV LAND UK - YouTube


I'm not sure if they have covered the bottom of the board, but likely the bottom is finished as smooth as the top, so scratching would be kept to a minimum.

I have heard of people using the 'chopping boards' on carpet, it spreads the weight of the speaker base over a broader area, and that can make a more stable base. But, for best result, Spike the speaker into the carpet. It might seem unstable at first, but in time the spike will penetrate to the wood floor below, and hold the speakers stable.

On a very very side tangent, I've discovered a pretty effective way of moving speaker that are spiked to carpet, just one requirement, you have to be wearing shoes. Tilt the speaker back and push your foot under the bottom, then tilt the speaker forward so you foot is supporting it. Then you can slowly 'walk' the speaker to a new locations and to the reverse to get your foot out from under.

This might sound stupid, but I broke the pins on my grill cloth trying to move the speaker by given it a bear-hug and trying to pick it up. From my experience, this is the safest way to move a speaker, even over moderately long distance, especially if you are trying to move it alone. Any type of grabbing or dragging is just too dangerous.

That's probably way more information than you wanted or needed, but none the less, there it is.

Steve/bluewizard

[PSM1]

Are you planning in putting the speakers in an enclosed space? This would be far from ideal as you will get a boundary effect which could cause the bass to be very boomy. Floorstanders can be fussy if placed too close to a rear wall but if have surfaces just above and to the side as well this has a high chance of adversely affecting the sound. Make sure you demo your chosen speakers in your room first since some speakers are more fussy with placement than others. Woould be a shame to buy a nice set of speakers for them to only sound bad due to them interacting badly with your room.

[Chord Freak]

Originally Posted by PSM1

Are you planning in putting the speakers in an enclosed space? This would be far from ideal as you will get a boundary effect which could cause the bass to be very boomy. Floorstanders can be fussy if placed too close to a rear wall but if have surfaces just above and to the side as well this has a high chance of adversely affecting the sound. Make sure you demo your chosen speakers in your room first since some speakers are more fussy with placement than others. Woould be a shame to buy a nice set of speakers for them to only sound bad due to them interacting badly with your room.

Hi, thanks for the info. Here's a pic of where the speakers will be going. As you can see it's far from ideal and the MA studio 20's are far too big for the space, hence they are up for sale and I am looking for smaller replacements. The MA's are rear ported and bass is quite boomy where they are situated, although I have got the sound alot better by using the Yamaha's PEQ.

I'm thinking small standmounters may sound better or maybe I am doomed to stick with the sat/sub setup (I've been contemplating the MA Apex setup). Any ideas?

[PSM1]

That is certainly a far from ideal set up with a very limited front sound stage. Even standmounts are going to struggle to not be boomy in that location. However, a lot will depend on the speaker since some are more prone to issues than others. For example the RX1 has been mentioned on here as being particularly fussy with placement and sounding boomy if too close to walls etc. However, something like the PMC GBs are far less fussy with placement so something like the PMC DB may well work well in your location but they are not cheap (although can pick them up for reasonable prices secondhand on ebay etc.).
You also have no space for a centre either since speakers will not like being on or on the cabinet. Saying that, since your fronts are so close together I am not sure a centre is really going to add anything and you may be better just having the front pair with no centre at all.
Is there any way to arrange the room differently to get the TV out of that corner? I would also look to move the sub out of the corner from behind the speaker to somewhere else in the room which should improve the sub bass performance.

[Chord Freak]

Originally Posted by PSM1

That is certainly a far from ideal set up with a very limited front sound stage. Even standmounts are going to struggle to not be boomy in that location. However, a lot will depend on the speaker since some are more prone to issues than others. For example the RX1 has been mentioned on here as being particularly fussy with placement and sounding boomy if too close to walls etc. However, something like the PMC GBs are far less fussy with placement so something like the PMC DB may well work well in your location but they are not cheap (although can pick them up for reasonable prices secondhand on ebay etc.).
You also have no space for a centre either since speakers will not like being on or on the cabinet. Saying that, since your fronts are so close together I am not sure a centre is really going to add anything and you may be better just having the front pair with no centre at all.
Is there any way to arrange the room differently to get the TV out of that corner? I would also look to move the sub out of the corner from behind the speaker to somewhere else in the room which should improve the sub bass performance.

Unfortunately I can't have the TV anywhere else - it's tucked out of the way as we only have a tiny living room. I'm starting to think maybe I should just stick with a sub/sat setup as I'm so limited with space .

Whats wrong with having a centre speaker on the TV stand? Is it because it is glass? I will be replacing it at some point so any info would be much appreciated as to what I should replace it with!

[PSM1]

Speakers do not generally like being placed on shelves or in/on stands as they will interact with it and this can decrease sound quality. I used to have my centre in my rack and the sound improvement by wall mounting it was quite marked (much clearer sound). Although I do have a bigger centre than yourself.
My suggestion for not using a centre was that it will probably not make much difference having the centre since your fronts are so close together. Also the centre takes around 60% of the sound so with your current system you have a tiny centre which still seems to obstruct the TV a bit and large L/R speakers. Your front speakers should be able to create a good stereo image and hence could create a phantom centre. This may sound as good or maybe even better than your current centre. In a small space less can sometimes be more.
Shame you can not wall mount the TV somewhere else.

[Chord Freak]

I have taken the plunge and ordered the Monitor Audio Apex 5.1 speaker package so fingers crossed it will sound OK in my rubbish living room! Thanks for all your help