Protecting Tile and Laminate Floors - RF7s

[John Pittman]

Hey Gang... simple question. I've got a set of RF7's that the rubber floor studs have broken off of... I'm now using the spikes on carpet.

Over the course of the next month I'm putting down porcelain tile and laminate (pergo stuff) flooring... one RF7 due to placement will now be on tile; one one laminate. Seems like I've heard that to protect floors with the use of spikes I should place pennies under each spike for each speaker... is this legit? What options are you using to protect your non-carpet floors?

Mucho thanx. John

[Malcolm]

You definitely don't want spikes in direct contact with either ceramic tile or laminate flooring. I have both. But my speakers are all in carpeted areas.

You will find that the laminate flooring manufacturer recommends using something like felt protectors under the feet of all furniture. This is necessary to prevent scratching the flooring. The top layer is very hard, typically imbedded with aluminum oxide, the same thing as used for sandpaper. But you still need to prevent scratches. Once they are there, they are permanent. You cannot refinish laminate floors. I don't think a penny is a good idea unless you put a felt disk on the botton side.

I think the same pretty much goes for ceramic tile.

[m00n]

How about something like small wood blocks under your spikes? Or cut a peice of 5/8" plywood the exact size of the RF7? Paint it black... It would look good.

[Quenten]

As a kind of perfectionist in home upgrades (ceramic tile now--Pergo in the last house), let us think about this a minute. Laminate and tile in the same room...hummm...to put it together...

First go to your local home supply store and get some of the "laminate manufacturers" step molding. This is the piece that wraps the outer edge of the step on your staircase (shapped like a piece of angle iron--some quite decrative).

Second, build a base for each speaker (90 degree corners,you decide the demensions--preferrable as small as possible & VERY SOLID--based on your floor/furniture/room layout) and wrap the outside with this moulding. Use a miter box to make the 45 degree angles perfectly match (furniture quality). Now you say "But this leaves a 1/4 inch lip where the moulding wraps over the base!" (Actually adjust this to allow for tile width + thinset) Then I say...

Third, arrange tile(matching the other tile in the room)in this area and set your beatiful Klipsch's on display where they belong.

Using the laminate & tile keeps the room tied together. While the grout is drying, replace those broken feet with new ones that Klipsch will mail you. You should also glue some felt or rubber pad to the bottom of the box. This will protect the floor and decrease vibration.

I rate this job about 2 hammers !

[Quenten]

Or just replace the feet & don't worry about it.

[Prana-Bindu]

You can find "footers" for spikes at www.audioadvisor.com

They are an attractive (read: not so cheap) alternative to pennies or other DIY bases. I've used coins to protect wooden floors, and I learned that they don't stay under the spikes very well, because there are four spikes and the speaker only needs to stand on three. In other words, the coins will slide off. The footers are basically small cups on which the spikes can stand.

If you want to go all out, you can build stands for the speakers that attempt to isolate the speakers from floor vibrations. For example: speakers on spikes, spikes on hard shelf (marble, granite, concrete slab, etc.), hard shelf floating on sand, sand in box, box on squishy stuff (racquetball halves or other audiophile vibration dampening material -- sorbothane, e.g.), squishy stuff on floor. It might improve things if you mass load such a contraption by adding weight to the top of the speakers (sand bags, marble or granite slabs, etc.) -- the mass loading would help (load) the above-described suspension system and it would help reduce speaker cabinet vibrations generated by the speakers themselves in their normal operation.

Or you could just protect your floor with some hard material under your spikes. How paranoid do you want to get?

[lynnm]

FWIW

I have Fir Floors and had my nearest Home depot cut a 12" X 12" granite tile into 9 pieces. I drilled a a small pit into the center of each,( 8 + a spare ) and blue tacked them onto the floor once I had determined where the spikes would land. That worked fine until my experiments yielded the best position for my KLF30's and unfortunately the left speaker needed to be partially on the hand tied Kashmiri carpets that came with this house. At that point the WAF kicked in and she said WE are not going to have any little squares of granite under our KASHMIRI carpets are we DEAR ?

Sorry Folks but Celibacy just don't cut it por moi and I said Yes maam! I have to admit that removing the spikes and the granite does not seem to have impaired the sonics.

[dougdrake]

Lynn - You Canadiennes sure have fancy floors. We just had shag rugs, but you have fir? Doesn't PETA have a fit over that?

DD

[Tom Adams]

I don't mean to go off-topic here, but someone help me...

It was my understanding that the speaker spikes were intended to "anchor", if you will, the speaker and allow it to be better coupled to the room when placing the speaker(s) on carpet. Yes? If this is true, then the spikes aren't necessary when placing speaker(s)on solid surfaces like wood, ceramic tile, concrete, etc. And if that's the case, then the answer to John's problem is to remove the spikes and get on with listening.

Which prompts my last question to John...have you tried listening to your RF7's with & without the spikes?? Just curious if you can tell the difference.

Tom Adams