ON THE INTERWEBS
Of late, Stereophile has written a lot about vibration-isolating footers under loudspeakers. I have been listening to the Magico M-Pods (under the Magico M2 loudspeaker, which won our Loudspeaker of the Year Award for 2020, and which I’ll review, in follow-up fashion, in an upcoming issue of this magazine). Following an impressive demo at a 2019 audio show, I also tried IsoAcoustic footers under the Revel Ultima Salon2 loudspeakers.1 Michael Fremer tried them under his Wilson Alexxes.2 We both reported positive results.
The idea of isolating loudspeaker vibrations from floors is controversial. Many (perhaps most) designers believe that dynamic loudspeakers in particular—those with significant moving mass in their cones—should be rigidly connected to the floor as is typically done with spikes. A rigid connection of the of the cabinet in response to the motion of the cones, heavy woofers in particular. Cabinet motion could be expected to smear the loudspeaker’s sound.
