Spikes vs caster wheels

Blasphemy? Or practical? From some of the description words I've seen: separating the speaker from the floor, how do spikes even accomplish that? They look cool. Would it be more ideal if the speaker was resting on a silent bed of air, like a shuffle board table? Then a happy medium: caster wheels. Provided they are of some quality not to rattle! Any thoughts?

Here's the one I'd probably go with, "raises furniture 1 3/4in" which is close enough to the 2in I'm going for.

https://hardwickandsons.com/products/solid-brass-pivot-plate-caster-3-4-wheel?variant=12150348873803
 

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If your speakers cabinets are weighty the casters should not rattle - and there's no rule that says you shouldn't use them!

The heavy 45 litre cabinets in my Man Cave are fitted with casters which settle into a carpeted floor. This possibly results in a sort of half-way house between spikes and foam isolation pads - cue comments from other members!

I need to be able to move the enclosures around easily, hence my decision on whether or not to use casters was an easy one.
 
Absolute worst choice is caster (or any) wheels, BIG source of vibration/mechanical noise/uneven pressure on floor, ugh!!!

I am often forced to add wheels , against my will, because I make Musical Instrument amplifiers which by definition are portable, so wheels do fill a need there, but .....

Specially on Bass amp cabinets.

Easy to check, just put wheeled cabinet on any hard surface (carpet tends to hide the problem) and sweep it 30 to 400Hz, then you tell me.

What do you need wheels for?

Need to move cabinets often under Mizzuz orders so she can vacuum behind them?
 
Grand pianos wold be a disaster if they had four wheels LOL. There'd always be one that would rattle because no floor is completely flat.

I have my Tannoy Ardens on dollies with heavy duty road-case type rubber-tyred castors so that on a balmy night I can wheel them outside and crank the system.

Spikes are not there to decouple loudspeakers from the structure they are one, but the opposite to stop them rocking. Spikes are quite fiddly to get the same pressure of contact so the speaker doesn't rock, especially through carpet. To decouple a speaker, say on a wooden floor in a multi-floor building, a use a heavy slate or concrete slab on resilient mounts and put the speakers on that.
 
Be aware that while 3 wheels on a loudspeaker will not rock (no pun intended) because 3 points define a plane. However three points can be unstable where mass overhangs those points (it doesn't on a piano). Even four points can be unstable if some mass overhangs, which is why office chairs have five wheels. An idea may be to put a wheel at each front corner and the third wheel on a rigid outrigger behind the loudspeaker to improve stability when moving.
 
Moving a heavy speaker cabinet without casters is not really a problem... The technology to do this has been around for hundreds of years...

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I tend to agree with JMFahey... Casters can cause problems... I am sure there are cases where they are totally benign, but there is ample opportunity for resonances and other mischief to happen...

j.