What do you put between stand mounted speakers and their stands?

Try Blutack, I preferred it to upward facing spikes when I had stand mounted speakers.

Same here although it’s been a while since I had standmounts. Last pair were EPOS ES14s and they had stubby upward facing spikes as standard. Blutack always worked for me on other standmounts and didn’t  stain the wood like sorbothane can sometimes do. 

Another vote for BluTack...

i use rubber protectors on the spikes to floor and sit the speakers on to stands as with Trickydickie with Blutack

Thanks for your suggestions and recollection of your experience.

PMC do actually recommend blu-Tack and include a piece with the stands for you to use.  However, there are some who I have spoken with who have suggested that Blu-Tack 'kills the sound' and having now installed the floor spikes I wondered if 'cones' or spikes between the stand and the speaker was the right thing to do? 

So I am interested to hear that Trickydickie preferred the sound with Blu-Tack over stubby spikes.

I can see that 'Blu-Tack' does have one advantage, that of secure mounting of the speaker to the stand.

If used sparingly, blu-tac can spread itself so thin as to barely do more than even out imperfections of the contact surfaces. If used thickly it creates a more resilient matrix between the speaker and stand. You can experiment to see if they sound different, and if they do choose which you prefer.

When I had big IMFs on a low stand (main purpose was to lift the speakers’ castors of the floor), I put some of the blu-rac release paper on top of the stuff so it would’t glue the speakers to the base, otherwise very difficult to lift off when desired.under their great weight any size blobs of blu-tak spread itself almost to nothing in a short space of time. With stand-mounters of modest weight, the adhesive nature might be desirable, while pressing down on top of lighter speakers could assist even out any variation in thickness.

ROOG posted:

Thanks for your suggestions and recollection of your experience.

PMC do actually recommend blu-Tack and include a piece with the stands for you to use.  However, there are some who I have spoken with who have suggested that Blu-Tack 'kills the sound' and having now installed the floor spikes I wondered if 'cones' or spikes between the stand and the speaker was the right thing to do? 

So I am interested to hear that Trickydickie preferred the sound with Blu-Tack over stubby spikes.

I can see that 'Blu-Tack' does have one advantage, that of secure mounting of the speaker to the stand.

The other advantage is that it’s easily removed (unless you use slabs of it!) and doesn’t damage the cabinets

Ravenswood10 posted:

 

The other advantage is that it’s easily removed (unless you use slabs of it!) and doesn’t damage the cabinets

It can discolour veneer, depending on the finish - but on the underside that might not be a concern

You can get black tack from the river web site, it may not be so visible as blu.

Karl

Again another vote for tiny blobs of blu-tac.

A ball of about 3mm diameter at each point and then flattened out is sufficient:  Under the pressure from the speaker it spreads to a disk about 10mm - 12mm diameter and about 0.5mm - 0.3mm thick.

I also used blue-tax on my previous speakers (pmc db1i's) with results as above.

I have bowers and Wilkins pm1's now that actually get bolted to the stands with nothing in between to a recommended torque.

Well I would never have guessed the feed back, I assumed Blu-Tack would be thought of as the work of the devil. :0)  

I'm going to experiment with small blobs and perhaps even smaller blobs of the Blue stuff to see what happens and if the price is right i might try three inverted 'conical feet' on each, although I may have to banish the dog from the lounge the day i try that. 

Another vote for small pieces of blue tack in each corner

About half a pea sized

I wouldn't mind betting that blutack will do the trick. Some accesories retailers make oak cones and such things but I'd always be worried about cabinets sliding off at the least provocation. If the old tac is good enought for PMC it's good enough for me.

Thin cork spacers.

I used cones, then blutak and finally potty putty (it might be called silly putty too). It’s sold as a novelty toy and if you hit a lump with a hammer it will shatter but it’s mouldable at low shear. It will flow out into a really thin layer so you don’t need much and don’t drop it on the carpet and think you can pick it up later, it will have flowed down between the piles by the time you look for it. Being rigid at high shear it willgive very good coupling between speaker and stand at audio frequencies. Whatever I found it preferable to blutak.

Hi Yeti42, I remember silly putty and yes as soon as us kids found out that you can test it with a hammer well there was no stopping us!   

Thanks for your thoughts.

Blutack

First time I came across ‘potty putty’ my brother bought a tub (about ping-pong ball sized at the Boys and Girls exhibition at Olympia, I guess around 1962 (we went every year for a few years). Next time I saw some was about 15 years ago when one of my sons had some.

But IIRC the old instructions for potty putty warned that it is volatile, saying it was necessary to  keep in its container to prevent it slowly evaporating away.  I never found out with either my brother’s or son’s because they disappeared (or maybe they evaporated?), however it’s composition does suggest it would indeed be partially volatile, causing shrinkage and probably hardening. Whether this would be an issue in the speaker application I am unsure, and in any case is likely to be very slow if only a thin layer with just the edges available for evaporation, but I suppose there is potential for a gradual change in the mechanical coupling and thus in the effect on sound.

I found that Herbie's Fat Dots gave a presentation that I preferred to Blu Tack. If you get some be sure to specify the sticky on one side option. No problems with staining or possibly tearing speaker veneer on removal either but of course the speakers could be more easily toppled. I tried 3 dots per speaker but thought it a tad risky so ended up with 4 dots on each, with the speaker centre of gravity over the stand centre.

BluTack - available at hifi shops and on the river........

Another ex-Blutac user here, when I used stand-mounted speakers. Only disadvantage I can recall was the staining on the veneer when the stuff was removed but being underneath the cabinet that isn't a real problem (unless you have OCD, I suppose).  

seakayaker posted:

BluTack - available at hifi shops and on the river........

If it costs more in hifi shops, would that mean it sounds better?

Innocent Bystander posted:

seakayaker posted:

BluTack - available at hifi shops and on the river........

If it costs more in hifi shops, would that mean it sounds better?

Maybe a certain hi-fi company could market some greentac? Bound to sound better. 

Also sold for cleaning styli if I remember correctly.

A search for borosiloxane putty came up with this:

Don’t try this at home: “https://www.wou.edu/las/physci/ch462/BouncingPutty.htm“.