I am toying with the Wilson WP height in my set up by using spacer, no spacer and removing the spikes entirely. My feeling is that even with zero spacer and spikes installed, the speaker is too high. Wondering if anyone can share their experience trying other feets or resting the speaker on any other materials apart from the Wilson-provided diodes and spikes? I want to believe that the TAOC feet would work, but they are cUSD330/set of four so buying two sets just to try is too much of a gamble I think. Would love to hear your experience/thoughts.
Non-Wilson feet on Wilson?
- Thread starter leyenda
- Start date
Very interesting! Do you have too much or too little bass? If too little, do you have suspended flooring?
I have Stillpoints Ultra 5s under my X1/Grand Slamms...and now a set under my Zanden Transport PSU, Transp Ref Power Conditioner, plus a set on TOP of my Velodyne DD18 sub (with 76 lbs of brass weights on top), and an Ultra 5 on CJ GAT and LP Isolator on top of Zanden Transport.
Fortunately, my whole entire system from Power Conditioner all the way thru amps to speakers and sub are now completely and finally floating...whew! the Stillpoints madness is stopped...
Thanks for all the comments. It appears the Stillpoints get the nod. What does it bring to the table soundwise and was the speaker height changed? The only Stillpoints product I have tried was the LP weight.
Jack, my bass is not full enough when the spikes are installed (high floor to speaker distance). With spikes removed, bass is ok but wish for better defined stage and image.
Jack, my bass is not full enough when the spikes are installed (high floor to speaker distance). With spikes removed, bass is ok but wish for better defined stage and image.
Hi Leyenda,
When I read this (without knowing anything else about your setup)...I am guessing that the added bass you are hearing is reflection thru the floor. That will effectively resonate with your speakers and give you almost a 'bullhorn' enhancement of the lower registers. But that is also why you may not get the definition you are looking for. If I had to again purely guess, I really would say this is not the ideal way to get greater bass from your system...by resonating thru the floor.
Placement (relative to back wall but across the board...closer together, toe in, etc to help 'focus/tighten' the sonic picture and sonic signal a bit....perhaps increasing punch a bit) might help bass here. Of course, if you are just an out and out bass freak...I would query use of an exceptional sub as an option. For the cost of 4 Ultra 5s...you can get a long way down the road towards a great sub, particularly second hand.
Also what amp are you using? I have heard MBL ref monos with WP 8s, and they remain to date my favourite amps for that particular speaker even though I don't think I ever preferred that amp in other circumstances when I was a/b'ing them. It had a dramatic and positive affect on bass impact and slam.
As for height, you should be able to adjust the height of the Stillpoints to match the Wilson spikes exactly if you wish. Stillpoints makes adjustment screws that have different widths on one-half of the screw...one half goes into the Stillpoints...and the other half screws into the bass of your speaker in place the spike. The screws are pretty long and should give you the ability to adjust the height as you wish.
I admit I am off by just a hair on my speakers, but its fine, and the improvements net are positive across the board. We elected to leave a little extra screw inside the X1s because they are so heavy and we wanted to ensure the set up was secure and solid. So my speakers are just a tad shorter than normal, but its less than 1/4 inch.
did you adjust your upper modules accordingly as even 1/4" can make a huge difference at the listening position with respect to proper imaging
We did a little tweaking when we installed new tweeters shortly thereafter. (After 20 years one of the tweeters developed a slight crackle upon very high transients.)
But if the height of the speaker is 1/4" low that will affect image height and the upper modules will need to be moved back one or 2 clicks to compensate
Yes, sorry that is what I meant when I said we 'tweaked' when we installed the new tweeters.
Thanks for all the detailed comments. It is great to hear that Wilson spikes/diodes are not mandatory.
LL21 - indeed I think what I am hearing is floor-bounce of low frequency like you suspected. That is why I feel I lose out a bit on imaging and staging. But it is definitely more pleasing to the ears and encourage longer listening session. Will try to play with more positioning but I have a feeling in the end I will still need to lower the height of the whole speakers with after-market spikes/support system.
LL21 - indeed I think what I am hearing is floor-bounce of low frequency like you suspected. That is why I feel I lose out a bit on imaging and staging. But it is definitely more pleasing to the ears and encourage longer listening session. Will try to play with more positioning but I have a feeling in the end I will still need to lower the height of the whole speakers with after-market spikes/support system.
OK...seems like we may be speaking of the same thing even though I've not heard your system obviously. Here's the next question...how low exactly is the bass that you are looking for? Is it more punch in upper bass? Or is it mid bass that is lacking? If the latter, you might try a really good sub with very flexible controls for dialing in. If upper bass punch, that's either amp or room placement...setting aside your own current solution of using the floor to vibrate the bass and enhance. I am trying of course to see if we might come up with some alternatives for you, as clearly the clarity and staging of the speakers is excellent, and if you can avoid losing it by effectively having your speaker vibrate directly onto the floor, it would likely be worth trying.
LL21 - the deep bass is what I am looking after. I no longer have a dedicated listening room, now the audio set-up is in my living room so adding subs is unfortunately not an option.
JackD201 - what do you mean by are the floors suspended? I have a wood floor throughout.
JackD201 - what do you mean by are the floors suspended? I have a wood floor throughout.
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