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Decoupling Gliders vs Spikes Alone for Speakers

Why use Herbie's Gliders over just spikes?

Cone/Spike Decoupling Gliders, Threaded Stud Gliders, and Little/Giant Fat Gliders will help to hold the speaker cabinet and baffle steadier, reducing distortion. The idea is to keep the baffle that the speakers are mounted to as motionless as possible for the cones to render the music most accurately.

Spike feet do not have much capacity to absorb and reduce speaker driver-generated cabinet vibrations. Some vibration is 'drained' to the floor, yet the floor, whether hardwood or concrete, will resonate some of those vibrations right back up the spikes the way they came and introduce both coloration and distortion to the music. Much of the vibration that causes a lot of distortion is higher-frequency, acute micro-vibration that you cannot really feel or readily detect. dBNeutralizer very effectively arrests these vibrations as well as a considerable amount of the more 'macro'- type vibrations. Having Decoupling Gliders between the spikes and floor physically absorbs a substantial amount of cabinet vibration, allowing the speaker baffles and the cabinet itself to remain more motionless in place, and eliminates any reverberation from the floor affecting the speakers. The Gliders also eliminate speaker-generated floorborne vibrations that can affect your other audio components.

With an effective and efficient isolation/decoupling of the loudspeakers, you'll get a better defined, more linear, and deeply extending bass with general improvements throughout the audio spectrum, bringing out more of the speakers' inherent potential. A little more life-like with more of the intangible ambience that helps to define a live sound, more faithful to the originally recorded event.

Spikes vs. rubbery feet

Spiking speakers to the floor instead of using a rubbery isolation material is an old-school golden rule. Compared to rubber feet, for example, spikes will generally give you a much more linear and better-defined sonic result, better focus and imaging, greater detail. Compared to the recorded source, however, spikes give you a compromise. For the benefit, you also have some detriment: you'll usually have a more harsh, rigid musical rendering, with some coloration depending on the spike material and floor composition -- and with some higher-frequency, acute micro-distortion you'll lose a bit of the ambient intangibles in the decay of notes, atmosphere and tonal textures.

Herbie's Audio Lab doesn't believe in trade-offs -- only improvements, and that's why our products feature an isolation material formulated specifically for loudspeaker use. Cone/Spike Decoupling Gliders, Threaded Stud Gliders, and Fat Gliders are an improvement over spikes alone, just as spikes are an improvement over rubber feet.

6 comments

  • I read about Herbie’s Audio Lab over on Copper Magazine. I’ve been using spikes under my stands for years. They are great for helping me to get my speakers perfectly level, which I am convinced helps to create a seamless left-to-right soundstage, but I had no idea how much the spikes were leaning-out the bass on my Fritz Carrera 7 BE monitors. I bought eight Cone/Spike Decoupling Gliders with low expectations. “Holy crap!” were the first words out of my mouth after I sat down for a quick listen. I don’t understand how these can have such a great effect, but it’s the best $135 I’ve spent so far on this system. I’m now wondering what other products I should consider…

    David C. Snyder
  • My music room is in my bonus room over the garage with carpeted floors. I have Emeninent Technology 8b’s That have been heavily modified with outboard crossovers using some of the best crossover parts available, inakustic wire, woofers c37 lacquered and cabinet blackout painted and sound anchor stands spiked. The sound was very good and resolving with the spikes but after I installed the giant gliders and the little fat gliders on the REL S510’s the improvements was very impressive. in every aspect of the sound spectrum ..ie.. detail, sound staging , imaging, clarity. Highly recommended. To think I was about to spend $2000 on seismic isolation platforms. No need with the Herbie’s. Very well pleased.

    Arthur Harris
  • The sound change was startling. I use the Giant Threaded Stud Gliders under my 118 lb. Tekton Design Double Impact speakers. The change in clarity with the speakers sitting on carpet was amazing. My search for a decoupling method is done. The Gliders beat out the spikes that I previously used.

    Don B
  • I have just purchase Titanium & Stainless Steel Cone/spike Gliders for Two systems, multi channel room on tiled concrete, & hi-end two channel on hard wood suspended floor. Both Paradigm Persona 3F & Premier 800F were on spikes into spike shoes, and exchanged the shoes for Herbies, and could not believe the improvement in sound quality we heard in both systems. Shocked! Sooo believable natural sounding with so much energy. Great job Herbie! As a Paradigm Central Regional Rep for 24yrs I have never been so shocked by a product before. I’ve told R&D staff about my experience. Thank you

    Jeffrey Armstrong
  • I have a thick-carpet-covered wooden-floorboard floor – about the worst environment to muffle and muddy speaker performance. I use Totem Arro front speakers and a REL T-2 sub. A couple of years ago, I tried using Agora Acoustics Magic Hexa + Shoes, and was moderately pleased with the improvement in performance, but hated how unstable and precarious-to-move they made the speakers.

    A few months ago I replaced those feet with Herbies Decoupling Gliders (Giant Gliders on the Totems, Standard Gliders on the REL). OMG. O M G !

    The improvement in performance going to the Herbies Gliders was gob-smacking! You cannot begin to imagine how profound this one modest change in the system was.

    And now I can move the speakers, sliding them easily from one position to another, without danger of them toppling over.

    UNRESERVABLY RECOMMENDED

    Warren Marshall

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