The issue is the susceptibility of your floor to induced vibration. Adding a slab of granite under each speaker will raise the speakers but not add a significant mass to the speaker/floor vibrating structural unit. The speakers could benefit from the slabs of granite if the stone/speaker unit is then suspended from the wooden floor with some system such as I used for my subwoofer;(Vibrapods with a racket ball on each one to add a progressive spring rate to the Vibrapods' own limited supension) In fact my solution would probably be improved by your idea of increasing the unit mass of the speaker to be isolated through the use of a slab of granite.

Its important to make sure that there is No Wobble either between the :

1. Speakers & Granite

and

2. The Granite & your wooden floor.

I suspect that your speakers on spikes that pierce yr carpet and rest on the wooden floor would be the most commonly deployed solution.

The idea of spikes revolves around mass loading the speaker onto very small points of contact with the floor. The spike is useful since it pierces through the carpeting and gets down to the actual floor. Is your worry about the carpet or the floor?

Quote:
Hi,

I have a pair of Soliloquy 5.3 s. These speakers have a metal base, with spikes. I have a carpeted wood floor. I am considering buying some 1" thick granite tiles/slabs and placing the speakers on these. My hope is that the bass will tighten up and have more definition. Any thoughts?
I will let you know how my experiment goes.
MarcelB

If your concern is damaging the wood floor with the spikes put a penny under each spike.

If you want to splurge, use a nickel. High rollers can use a dime. Seriously, heavy speakers and sharp spikes can put holes in the pennies. Nickels are thicker.

Hi Anon,

Is the entire bass bloated, or just in the upper bass, around 100 to 150 hz? If so, what is the height of the woofer off the floor?

Take care.

Quote:
If you want to splurge, use a nickel. High rollers can use a dime. Seriously, heavy speakers and sharp spikes can put holes in the pennies. Nickels are thicker.

This is probably a good idea. In the past, I've used pennies under racks with not terribly much weight, and the pennies become concave over time.

what a great tip! I just moved into a new apartment with wood floors and needed a way to protect them, I hadn't even thought of that.

ps

I hear the susan b anthonies sound the best, stay clear of the newer sackajawhatever's.

Oh come on! This is High End audio we are talking about! Shouldn't we use at least 90% silver, pre 1965 coins for our isolation devices? Do you really want your audio buddies to know that you are too cheap to spring for real silver coins? I didn't think so...

Clifton would use St. Gauden's, Double Eagles. The rest of us will have to settle for Morgan dollars.

Some time back I was experimenting with this vibration thing ... I discovered (after receiving a bit of advise from somewhere else - no original thoughts here guys!) that bass etc can be tightened up much more by placing concrete / granite slabs on top of the speakers rather than underneath ... this no longer applies in my case because my main speakers are open baffles, so I'd have to balance the slabs on their edge ... risky business that

For under spike support, I have been known to use 1" square ceramic tiles ... but Monty is right, and he has made me feel a bit inadequate ... I should have made sure they were hand - made high density hot-fired silver / ceramic limited edition Tibetan tiles, in order to maintain any audiophile credibility...
ALF

Oh yes! I remember what else I was going to say.
Instead of spikes, try screwing little metal (or wood) cups or deep rings on the bottom of your boxes, and put large glass marbles in them ... contact point between solid glass sphere and floor is very small - works just as well as spike, and is much cheaper and more robust ....

I just had custom to their dimension 1.5” thick polished granite slabs made for every one of my components (Yamaha as801, Yamaha cdn301, Pro-Ject Carbon dc, Klipsch Reference Premiere 12” sub and Klipsch rp280f speakers. I originally started going on an isolation frenzy when my turntable had a serious bass feedback loop. I had two 1.5” slabs made for it. I haven’t been able to determine its effectiveness until the isolation spikes arrive in the mail. What I’m most curious about is my tower speakers. I’m getting a ton of vibration in my hardwood floors. My plan was to mount them on isolation spike seats on top of granite. Will this be effective in isolation and tightening up bass? I ordered a serious amount of isolation options including spikes and rubber bases and 2” bamboo cutting boards to fool around with. Any advice for mainly the speakers and turntable greatly appreciated. As for my CD player and integrated amp I figured just having them on granite and spikes would suffice. Not sure.