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Audioengine slanted rubber speaker stands - big improvement for desktop systems.

Xulonn

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I don't know if any of you are dumb enough - like m - to plop your little desktop speakers flat on your desktop next to your monitor (or laptop) and live with them that way for far too long. I just bought a pair of simple and elegant-looking $29 Audioengine engineered rubber desktop speaker stands and WOW! what a difference. Highly recommended

One could probably hack similar stands out of something like a chunk of polyethylene foam (not polystyrene foam) that was used to support an item that was shipped in a cardboard carton. Just be sure to use a material that won't compress over time, and won't transmit vibrations to your desktop.

Audioengine stands.jpg

My Q-Acoustics 3020i speakers are a fair bit larger than the pictured white Audioengine speakers in the image, and hang about 1.5" over the front of the stands, but the speakers are stable with no wobbling. With the tweeters now aimed right at my ears, desktop surface reflections reduced, and transmission of vibration to my drum-like desktop (actually, a 2" x 4" plastic folding table that is resonant as a drum) eliminated, the sound is much more clear - and imaging is actually startlingly apparent.

It's amazing how we so often obsess over technically irrelevant things in audio and ignore apparent, easily remedied deficiencies.

Also, I was aware of a midbass emphasis when playing music from my NAS that was irritating - more evident with the speaker stands - and that turned out to be a "leftover" little bump up on the EQ in Winamp that I used many, many months ago with my much smaller speakers - 2-way Yamahas with 3.5' mid drivers.

Like many others have experienced with this hobby, once such issues are corrected, I just cannot stop listening to my music.
 
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