Affixing to stand

bogart99

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Have often thought about fixing bookshelf speakers to to stands. Currently my stands are on spikes onto a concrete floor through the carpet. Next question is do I isolate the speakers from the stands ie sorbothane type stuff or try to get the opposite and try to bond the speakers as much as possible to the stands?
 
Yes, sorbothane soft feet is a good idea. You get different kinds. Some you can clue to the stands, or directly to your speakers. Blue tack is also excellent. Though be careful, some speaker finish don’t tolerate blue tack. But many people use it. Granite blocks under stands is also good idea. If you wanna go full metal jacket, there’s expensive Soundcare Superspikes. Many options. I would though just save the money, and buy sorbothane feet’s. I doubt there is any difference with the more expensive options I mentioned. I used sorbothane feet’s when I had book shelves speakers. 4 under speaker stand/speakers. And spikes under the stands. I noticed a fuller bass. It’s worth experimenting with.
 
I always found blu-tack worked a treat. Cheap, gives a firm connection. I tried sorborthane, but found no sound difference from the blu-tack.
 
My current standmounts are on blu tack and seemed fine. I was wondering though am I trying to get unwanted vibrations from the speaker away ie spiked directly to concrete floor and hard coupling between speaker and stand, or stop vibrations coming up the stand hence one would try to isolate the speaker with sorbothane. I think the former.
 
Acrylic double side tape would be an alternative to blue tack.

Unlike bluetack or normal 3m double sided tape, it doesn't leave a residue and is very strong.
 
Have watched a few videos and read umpteen articles. I would say most edge towards isolate everything. I always thought a concrete floor was somewhat inert and quite a good sound attenuator.
Reading some articles maybe not the case. So I might veer to isolating the speaker stand and/or the speaker itself. I am thinking along the lines of isolating bookshelf speaker stand by placing on a solid base, say a paving slab, and isolating the slab itself using some dampening material. A similar approach could apply for floorstanders also.
 
I've found (through years of trial and error):

Solid floors - connect
Floating floors - isolate

So, working down from the speaker:

For both floor types > Speaker > blu-tac > stand (omit blu-tac and stand for floorstanders)

Then, for solid floors > spikes > floor

For floating floors > spikes > spike shoes > solid plinth (granite tile in my case) > carpet > floor

If you have laminate or solid wood floors (in the floating instance), then a layer of carpet under the plinth can provide further isolation.

There may be oither ways of achieving the desired results, but on my particular floating floor the cavity under the floor wanted to play a huge part in the reproduction of bass, and not to good effect! By isolating as above it all cleaned up nicely.
 
I've found (through years of trial and error):

Solid floors - connect
Floating floors - isolate

So, working down from the speaker:

For both floor types > Speaker > blu-tac > stand (omit blu-tac and stand for floorstanders)

Then, for solid floors > spikes > floor

For floating floors > spikes > spike shoes > solid plinth (granite tile in my case) > carpet > floor

If you have laminate or solid wood floors (in the floating instance), then a layer of carpet under the plinth can provide further isolation.

There may be oither ways of achieving the desired results, but on my particular floating floor the cavity under the floor wanted to play a huge part in the reproduction of bass, and not to good effect! By isolating as above it all cleaned up nicely.
Agree with all of this.
 

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