Sonus faber Olympica ll

[iamwappie]

I thought the same. The problem is that the spikes on the back of the SFs are much shorter than the front ones, leaning the speakers back for time alignment. If I used Gaias, the speakers would be level and it would look pretty horrible too IMHO.

Levelling-wise, I guess it depends how much difference - the Gaia's have a reasonable amount of thread and can be adjusted so you could have the front ones taller.  Whether to the same extent or not you'd have to try.

FWIW I'd previously tried some reasonably big granite slabs, and found they did little to improve the situation.  Personally I thought they were a different kind of ugly to the Gaia's (the demo pair of which I'm learning to like), since they drew attention to the base of the speakers where previously they just sat on the floor.  I also found them a bit of a pig as when you wanted to move speakers for placement experimentation, it was much harder with granite slabs to move around too - unless you're happy to have them not placed neatly and evenly under the speakers. Beyond that they did very little to the sound - much less than just chaining from spikes to rubber feet, and way less than what the Gaia's bring.  In my setup anyway.  Thats just reminded me I must sell those slabs!

But if you don't like the look of the Gaia's its a non starter. (But Id still try them just so you know where you want to get to with another solution! )

What is wrong with the Olympica spikes?

They don't isolate the speaker from the floor, so at higher volumes the bass is transferred into the suspended wooden floorboards under the carpet and booms. I can feel the vibration through my feet.
The Gaias would effectively decouple the speaker from the floor making booming impossible.

Don't know if the picture posted in an earlier post is the one with the booming issue but question is if the vibration you feel in the floor is caused by transfer via the spikes. I think another likely cause could be the bass energy concentration in the corners of the room 'leaking' into the wooden floor also.

I recently experimented with that in my living room as some songs were really boomy (I also have the SF O II). My room is quiet hard; wooden floor, nor carpet, clean side wall and wall to the back of the speakers. I put some couch pillows in the corner behind the speakers (I have really big pillows) and was totally amazed by the effect. No boom and considerably more details because the bass reflections were overwhelming mid tones.

I'm now ordered bass traps as I couldn't listen to my music without the couch pillows anymore and my wife was for some strange reason not ok leaving the pillows in the corners :-)

Knowing now that I've listened for all those years to a sub optimal sound is a kind of waist. I'd seriously suggest to just put some pillows in the corner and listen what happens....