My priority is zero noise transmission to my neighbours, as I live in an apartment
Do spikes isolate or lock the speaker to the building structure? If I sit it on pads how much would that affect their quality of life?
Obviously volume is most key, that’s never over moderate, but I want to enjoy my music without being a total dick to those around me
Bass is usually the most problematic. Placement of speakers and seat should be biased towards being able to reduce the level of bass being generated. Yes, I’m thinking speakers against the wall/corner and listening seat against the back wall. Yes, this is rife with problems for you and the lumpy bass response this tends to net.
But using room boundaries does enable one to turn down the bass output which should lower the transmission thru the building.
Oh, those ‘out in the room’ systems your see pictures of do sound great but tend to end up with higher SPLs to get one to the fun part of music listening.
I guess it comes down to how much you want to sacrifice for being a good neighbor.