mike@smu (07/25/85)
"Tip-Toes" connect the mass of the speaker to the floor, (called mass-loading), thus making the speaker and the floor act as one. It works to some advantage if your floor is very rigid (concrete), but can be a very resonant experience if your floor moves up and down easily. They also have the effect of stabilizing your speakers so that the forward movement of the speaker cone or panel doesn't cause as dramatic an (equal and opposite) backward movement of the speaker cabinet or frame, (which movement results in a blurring of the sound). Things like frequency response are not much affected by this, but depth and precision of stereo image are. Any spikes or screws have an affect similar to "Tip-Toes" if used in the same way. Some stands (Chicago Sound that I know of), come with spikes which occur between the stands and the floor and the stands and the speakers... M.H.P.