KostasF
AVClub Enthusiast
- 28 April 2007
- 853
Speaker Spikes and Cones – What’s the point?
In some recent issues of the audio magazine, ‛Hi Fi News’ [ref 1], Keith Howard used an accelerometer to measure the levels of vibration in various objects. When he tried measuring the vibrations produced in a loudspeaker stand by playing the speaker he found a result that surprised him. With the speaker unit sitting on cones the level of vibration of the stand was over one hundred times greater than if the cones were replaced with small rubbery feet. This indicates that cones are of doubtful use if the intention is to stop vibrations passing from the speaker to the stand, or to any other solid objects against which the speaker may sit.
In fact, this result is also consistent with the predictions you can get by looking into the theory of vibrations in solid structures and objects. [ref 2] (Although such predictions sometimes need to be treated with care as the results depend upon the assumptions made when doing an analysis!) The theory and actual measurements seem to agree that hard cones and spikes are not necessarily a sensible choice if vibration isolation is what you require. An air gap or soft rubbery feet would probably be much better.
In some recent issues of the audio magazine, ‛Hi Fi News’ [ref 1], Keith Howard used an accelerometer to measure the levels of vibration in various objects. When he tried measuring the vibrations produced in a loudspeaker stand by playing the speaker he found a result that surprised him. With the speaker unit sitting on cones the level of vibration of the stand was over one hundred times greater than if the cones were replaced with small rubbery feet. This indicates that cones are of doubtful use if the intention is to stop vibrations passing from the speaker to the stand, or to any other solid objects against which the speaker may sit.
In fact, this result is also consistent with the predictions you can get by looking into the theory of vibrations in solid structures and objects. [ref 2] (Although such predictions sometimes need to be treated with care as the results depend upon the assumptions made when doing an analysis!) The theory and actual measurements seem to agree that hard cones and spikes are not necessarily a sensible choice if vibration isolation is what you require. An air gap or soft rubbery feet would probably be much better.
