The current vogue is using spring based Isolators to isolate speakers and subwoofers, you know, such as Townshend pods or my Super Stiff Springs.

Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica

Joseph, you didn't mention your budget. But i've personally had great success with Stillpoints isolation feet. I use Ultra 6's + Ultra bases under my Vitus amp, cd player & conditioner. I also use Stillpoints Ultra Mini's under my Oppo . Stillpoints work extremely well in those applications, however they're not cheap!

On a more modest budget, i've had success with Taoc ASR racks and Isolation boards. For your TT, I could recommend the Taoc SCB-RS-HC boards which you can either use as a replacement shelf on your rack, or double-shelf by adding the matching SP-100 spikes & cups. (Note: the SCB-RS-HC boards are pre-threaded for the SP-100 spikes). You can also use the RS-500 spikes, however they're more designed to be used with the SCB boards as an amp stand - http://www.taoc.gr.jp/en/scbrshc.html Personally I replaced the standard shelves on my Taoc racks with SCB-RS-HC boards under my amp & cd player, then add Stillpoints.

Under your speakers, again on a sane budget I recommend the BDR carbon cones & pucks which are good value and work - http://www.bdrsound.com/about-us.html My previous Marten Coltrane Alto speakers used the BDR cones & pucks, and I found they were very effective in combination with the matching aluminium stands. Hence, your speakers might need something like the BDR cones/pucks in combination with the granite slabs. But you'd have to experiment and see what works. Hope that helps!

joseph_shumaker wrote:

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 have ggtwo 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. The speakers are already on spikes, so 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,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.

@ Joseph

Although I've never fiddled with isolating floorstanding speakers, my experience taught me that you can successfully apply a sort of "sandwich effect" to keep your speakers from emitting vibrations to your wooden floorboards.

If I were you I'd experiment with placing a softer materiel between (1) floor and slab, and (2) slab and speaker.

To give you an idea of what I mean:

Gaming mousepads from Steeel Series are made from a solid rubber compound, and they come in many different sizes and thicknesses. I believe the one I use beneath my subwoofer is around 7mms thick, but to prevent your tower speakers from tilting, I'd not go for thicker pads than that. Such a mousepad, cut to fit the size of the slab, would be rather effective IMO between the floor and the slab.

Now, between the slab and the speaker, I'd go for 4-5 Sticky Pads beneath each speaker. Sticky Pads are designed to keep your cell phone from sliding around in your car, as they are very sticky without emitting oils or rubber residues to whatever they are in contact with. One Sticky Pad beneath each corner of the speaker, and maybe one in the center, would do wonders for the resulting sound quality.

Such a "sandwich" is IMO very effective in isolating any kind of gear from its base. I have experimented quite a lot with isolating my turntable, my amps and CD-players, and especially my speakers and subwoofer, and a sandwich effect is (again IMO) the most efficient and at the same time a cheap way to get the job done. Spikes are simply a no go if you ask me.

Just my 25 cents - good luck