To Isolate Or To Couple?

[daniel_ronquillo]

Then there's the well-published advantages of isolation pads for monitors.

Proponents of isolation pads claim to observe better and tighter bass after they placed their monitors on them (the pads).

But then, why are we advised to couple our speakers to the floor? Spikes, for instance, are recommended for carpeted floors. The reason being, the speakers need to be coupled to the floor well in order to sound their best.

Seems to me that these are conflicting princilpes.

Some light shed on this confusion will really be appreciated.

 

[Steve Williams]

There was a time when i decoupled my speakers from the floor using Aurios ProMIb under each spike however I felt using spikes only produced the best sound.

 

[DonH50]

Coupling to the floor presumably tightly couples the speakers to a firm immovable surface so the speakers themselves do not vibrate and cause potential image-smearing Doppler-like effects. OK in my basement, debatable in my upstairs family room, but they're better on spikes than on carpet.

Monitors are typically set upon a desk or console that is not nearly as rigid and so vibrates more; thus, decouple using some sort of viscous pad to damp them.

IMO - Don

 

[VernNeal]

I strongly feel amps/preamps sound best isolated and speakers always sound best coupled. My only exception is for HT I use a center Thiel speaker on a Billy Bags rack that has other componet equipment on it. I want to always isolate this speaker. So if the equipment is used solo I would say couple and if used where other equipment is on the sames stand or shelf-isolate

 

[tmallin]

I strongly feel amps/preamps sound best isolated and speakers always sound best coupled. My only exception is for HT I use a center Thiel speaker on a Billy Bags rack that has other componet equipment on it. I want to always isolate this speaker. So if the equipment is used solo I would say couple and if used where other equipment is on the sames stand or shelf-isolate

Fifteen years ago now, Stereophile published what I still find to be the best overall discussion of the coupling/isolating issue, one that comports with my own experience and subjective evaluation of various methods over many years of experimenting with this stuff. It is called "Bad Vibes" by Shannon Dickson and is available on line here.