ISOACOUSTICS GAIA-TITAN THEIS LOUDSPEAKER ISOLATION FEET

Loudspeaker cabinets move in response to the motion of their dynamic drivers, especially heavy woofers—that’s Newton’s third law of motion. In principle at least, that motion can smear a loudspeaker’s sound. The usual solution is to use spikes to couple loudspeakers rigidly to the floor—although those spikes must be carefully leveled and tightened to ensure rigidity; spikes that aren’t sitting square on the floor are useless. A rigidly grounded cabinet has a large effective mass, so it will move very little, and smearing will be reduced.

Sounds good, no? The with the floor, and that has consequences. Those consequences depend on the acoustic/vibrational properties of the floor, and anything it’s coupled with. A suspended wooden floor has a different impact on a speaker’s vibrations—hence, potentially, its sound—than, say, a concrete slab. As anyone who has ever put their ear to a solid surface can attest, surfaces themselves can radiate sound. They can also store vibrational energy and release it later.