Longer speaker spikes?

If like me you have wooden floorboards...I set four large cross head screws into the floor and then used standard short spikes to sit in the heads of them ...it works very well and better than messing about with long spikes ( I know as I made a custom set on my lathe and they were fiddly to adjust and get right)

???? JIMDOG,....Spikes should be screwed into the tripod as much as possible,..Then they sound best.
In other words,..As short as possible.

Try instead to have Naim Fram Chips between spikes and floors,they are incredibly good.
Borrow home from your dealer and try first.

But forget Linn's Skeet despite the fact that they are cheaper,they are not comparable with Naim Fram Chips.
And yes,..We've tried these on all types of flooring and Naim beats Linn Skeet every time.

Chord has a model of "Chips" in titanium,..They are even better than Naim Frame Chips.
But much,much more expensive..So try the Naim Frame Chips.

With Chips you also have the opportunity to make a new "tuning" of your speakers,..If you make a change to your music system.

That you have not with Japtimscarlet's suggestion.

/Peder ????

Peder posted:

Try instead to have Naim Fram Chips between spikes and floors,they are incredibly good.
Borrow home from your dealer and try first.

 

At least +1 for the Naim Fraim Chips. They save the floor and clean up the sound. Don't know why exactly.

I have a concrete floor.

I measured the height of the underlay and carpet this morning, which is 28mm - plus 1 or 2mm extra would be needed so the plinth base floats above the carpet.

At the moment the speaker spikes are temporarily resting on slate roof tiles on the carpet.

The original spikes measure about 35mm (or about 1 and 11/32ths inches!) long.

So the 5mm spare is not enough to screw securely into the plinth.

Hence why I'm considering longer spikes.

The original spikes measure around 5mm or 3/16ths of an inch in diameter.

Tim or Anyone - do you know what the actual diameter of those original Ariva plinth screws is please? (I can't find mention of it in the manual).

I like the idea of tuning the speaker with Fraim Chips. But I think that the 8 Chips would all sit at slightly different heights on the thick and not flat new carpet, and the speakers will not be securely grounded or level. The speakers currently wobble a bit on the 3 'location domes' that they sit on on the plinth.

Or did you mean somehow embed the Chips on the concrete under the underlay? But then I would still need longer spikes.

If I do get longer spikes, should I get brass or titanium ones or is steel just as good?

thanks for your help and ideas

Jim

Here’s a suggestion! 

Pull back the carpet and cut away a square of underlay under the speaker position. Replace it with a square of wood, or perhaps better, MDF, fixed firmly to the floor below. Replace the carpet, and the spikes then have a slightly higher surface to sit on, perhaps enough to sit clear of the carpet. 

Perhaps also put Chips under the carpet to gain a little more height still. 

I purchased some longer spikes for my rack off of the bay a couple of years ago they did various diameters and lengths,material used was stainless steel excellent quality and value.

That would mean that I'm strongly committed to that exact speaker position. And although the speakers as they are currently (very badly) set up might sound best in one place now, there is no certainty that that would still be the best place for them once they are properly spiked on the floor. Or at least it would be nice to be able try them spiked in a few places.

Also, I intend to get a 250DR or better power amp and also a power supply for the 272 at some point, plus upgrade the speakers, so the best place for speakers is almost certain to change over time.

Keep the offcuts of underlay, put them back, and put the boards under the new position!

Yep, that would get me maybe 9 or 10mm of extra height.

PCD - did you get spikes that had an allan key insert at the top end?

What diameter were your spikes?

thanks

Jim

JimDog posted:

PCD - did you get spikes that had an allan key insert at the top end?

What diameter were your spikes?

thanks

Jim

Jimdog, mine were 10mm diameter 75mm long custom made to suit my rack Quadraspire rack but they listed 6 and 8 mm diameter-of  various lengths but will supply other sizes than listed on ebay. They did not have a Allen key insert at the top just a longer version of a standard spike.

As I said very good value for money and a quick delivery they did the job for me.

Japtimscarlet posted:

If like me you have wooden floorboards...I set four large cross head screws into the floor and then used standard short spikes to sit in the heads of them ...it works very well and better than messing about with long spikes ( I know as I made a custom set on my lathe and they were fiddly to adjust and get right)

That would need great accuracy in the screws’ positioning, which Is not necessarily easy when trying to screw into a floorboard through a carpet, depending of course on floorboard material and carpet/underlay construction. I can see no reason why long spikes should be any more fiddly than short - the key thing would be to be sufficiently thin to penetrate the carpet, without being so thin as to lose rigidity. When I had spikes through a carpet on a wooden floor I placed 2p pieces under the carpet in the requied positions, ( a few mm error in placement unimportant., but the spikes were quite thin, 6mm shafts at thickest end IIRC. Much easier to get a rock steady speaker of course if you can safely arrange for the speakers to use only 3 spikes - but the relatively high centre of gravity can challenge security, especially if there are any children around.

Strangely, I couldn't find anything to fit the bill on t'bay or the google machine. Nothing that was 50-60mm long and 6mm diameter. But I have just discovered that Naim stock steel spikes that are 60mm long and 6mm diameter. If I make tiny cuts in the carpet and underlay with a sharp Stanley knife that should do the trick. I'm assuming that the 2p pieces were to cover a wooden floor, but mine is a concrete floor so I think I will first try steel spikes onto concrete, with the underlay around it as a kind of loose padding. And take it from there, depending on how it sounds.

Innocent Bystander posted:

Japtimscarlet posted:

If like me you have wooden floorboards...I set four large cross head screws into the floor and then used standard short spikes to sit in the heads of them ...it works very well and better than messing about with long spikes ( I know as I made a custom set on my lathe and they were fiddly to adjust and get right)

That would need great accuracy in the screws’ positioning, which Is not necessarily easy when trying to screw into a floorboard through a carpet, depending of course on floorboard material and carpet/underlay construction. I can see no reason why long spikes should be any more fiddly than short - the key thing would be to be sufficiently thin to penetrate the carpet, without being so thin as to lose rigidity. When I had spikes through a carpet on a wooden floor I placed 2p pieces under the carpet in the requied positions, ( a few mm error in placement unimportant., but the spikes were quite thin, 6mm shafts at thickest end IIRC. Much easier to get a rock steady speaker of course if you can safely arrange for the speakers to use only 3 spikes - but the relatively high centre of gravity can challenge security, especially if there are any children around.

Perhaps I'm mr accurate then

All I did was find a final position for the speakers I was happy with ...push spikes into carpet ... remove speakers and screw the cross heads into the holes left by the spikes....ok ..not hard at all !!!

???? JIMDOG,....Read my post above again,..Longer spikes = inferior soundquality..we have tested this very carefully.

Make a precise tuning of the speakers (can take several weeks),..Cut a cross in the mat,place Naim Fraim Chips under the mat,put the speakers back on the chip.
Make sure the speakers are "rock solid".. minimum movement significantly reduces the soundquality.

Even the "hifi-rack" gets better with the chips... regardless of the surface.

Ps: Hope I understood how your floor construction looks like. Ds.

/Peder ????

Hi Peder

thanks for that info

There is a practical problem - that to get the Chips undet the thick carpet I'd have to move lots of furniture, then pull up the carpet from the gripper rods along half of the room, then cut holes in the 11mm underlay where I think the four chips should be - hoping not to mess up the placement! That all sounds like very hard work and a recipe for mistakes by me. Not to mention spending 12 x 20 = £240ish for rack and speakers.

If I get the 60mm spikes, they will only stick down 31mm below the plinth through to the concrete - the rest of the spike will be solidly inside the plinth itself - any excess length could be cut off.

If it doesn't sound good then I mihgt have to try to get chips under the spikes.

I found these quotes in an old thread:

"My dealer installed my SL2'S with the spikes sitting on Naim chips on top of the carpet. To me they sounded o.k. but this was an interim measure while the speakers burned in etc.
Two weeks ago my dealer cut small holes in the carpet and let the spikes settle on the concret floor. The result: Better in every way! So I cannot believe that putting chips between spikes and concrete would be better still."

"I hope I never have to struggle with this flooring-type again. Concrete is so much easier. At least it is one constant we have in the room."

thanks

Jim

For anyone who's interested, Naim "have plenty in stock" of 6mm diameter x 60mm long steel speaker spikes, Part number: 14-002-0024 - current cost per unit is £1.88 [obviously to be ordered via a Naim retailer.]

This is very useful as I spent a couple of hours searching the net in vain for this size spike.

But, yes, Peder is surely correct that if one can find a way to do it without long spikes this will always be better.

Jim