Desktop Speaker Stands

[Jaimo]

I just doubled up on the Kanto SP9 stands- two stands per speaker worked very well for me.

 

[BoredErica]

I just doubled up on the Kanto SP9 stands- two stands per speaker worked very well for me.

LOL
That is also an option! Hahaha nice idea. Any disadvantages of that setup?
Which speaker is that btw?

 

[Hydrav]

Good analysis. The L shape stand you bought was this one right?

Functional, but seems very utilitarian. With the Kanto, I wonder if it's possible to get one and just return/ask for replacement if the quality is subpar. I've never thought of those L shaped stands sagging but I guess it makes sense. It just seems weird to me since both personal computers and speakers have existed for such a long time now, I figure there would be a lot more options (both in size and looks). But I guess most people, even audiophiles, do not care about height very much.

Yes, and the Kanto SE6 is this one:

As you can see it is slightly less functional because of the angled back which protrudes forwards, obscuring some vertical desk space. It also has no adjustable height. However I think it looks better than the K&M 26772 stands. The 26772 have the ugly knob on front (which I think they should have reversed and put on the back) and look a bit too industrial. But overall they seem to be the best option for me right now, and perhaps the sagging can be mitigated by sliding the speakers back on the stand. Anyway I don't even know how big of an issue the sagging is yet, I've just been reading reviews online.

About the lack of interest, yes I think we're not a huge market. Professionals probably have speakers standing on a raised table or on floor stands. Normal people on the other hand mostly care about looks over audio quality. And I understand why, I personally think lifted speaker stands look quite bad and prefer speakers placed directly on the table with angled stands underneath e.g.

Btw these nice looking angled stands are the "Dynaudio SF 1 Desk and sideboard stand". Kanto also makes an angled stand called the "Kanto S6 Desktop Speaker Stands".

The problem with these angled stands is: 1. I don't think they mitigate table reflections as much as lifted stands. 2: a lot of them don't angle the speakers high enough to point at your ears when in a near field application. 3. they take up a lot of desk space as it's impossible to place anything underneath the speakers. On the other hand they do look a lot better and the speakers are very stable with no wobble.

About the Kanto quality issues - I'm sure if you buy them from Amazon you would have no problem with returns. I just didn't like how expensive they were and the reports of quality issues (some people were complaining the top plate is wobbly, the screws are prone to stripping, the finish is not the best). But on pics they do look very nice:

Probably the best looking desktop lifted stands out there. Those are the "Kanto SP6HD Rising Desktop Speaker Stands" btw.

 

[Walter]

The Kanto SE6 appears to be made out of pretty thick aluminum, so it might handle the LS50 without any sag. I didn't read the reviews, however.

 

[Doctors11]

Interesting topic. Sometime next year I'll be building a nice desktop set up and proper stands are one area of focus. I've heard mention of the Isoacoustics stands. Their claim to fame is vibration dampening. How true/important is that in your opinion, as none of these other designs deals with that? Shouldn't that be as important as raising them high enough to mitigate desk reflections and reaching ear height?

 

[Hydrav]

The Kanto SE6 appears to be made out of pretty thick aluminum, so it might handle the LS50 without any sag. I didn't read the reviews, however.

According to official specs the Kanto SE6 should be able to hold up to 10 kg and the LS50 are around 7,8 kg, so it's quite a bit under the max rating. Anyway I'll test it with some 7 kg speakers (Kali LP6v2) and report back if I notice any sag.

Interesting topic. Sometime next year I'll be building a nice desktop set up and proper stands are one area of focus. I've heard mention of the Isoacoustics stands. Their claim to fame is vibration dampening. How true/important is that in your opinion, as none of these other designs deals with that? Shouldn't that be as important as raising them high enough to mitigate desk reflections and reaching ear height?

My understanding is that isolation makes no significant difference if the speakers have sufficiently rigid cabinets which don't vibrate much. See: http://ethanwiner.com/speaker_isolation.htm

What's most important is pointing the tweeter at ear height and lifting up the speakers to avoid table reflection.

That said, I've seen some speakers visually shake and vibrate when cranked to very high volumes, and I can't imagine that vibration doesn't add some noise? So having a bit of vibration dampening material under the speakers can't hurt. But I think getting the very expensive isoacoustic stands is way overkill.

The problem I've seen with some reviews and "testing" is that the variables are not isolated. Reviewers will both lift up the speakers and put vibration dampening materials underneath, so how do they know which variable made the change?

 

[Doctors11]

My understanding is that isolation makes no significant difference if the speakers have sufficiently rigid cabinets which don't vibrate much. See: http://ethanwiner.com/speaker_isolation.htm

What's most important is pointing the tweeter at ear height and lifting up the speakers to avoid table reflection.

That said, I've seen some speakers visually shake and vibrate when cranked to very high volumes, and I can't imagine that vibration doesn't add some noise? So having a bit of vibration dampening material under the speakers can't hurt. But I think getting the very expensive isoacoustic stands is way overkill.

The problem I've seen with some reviews and "testing" is that the variables are not isolated. Reviewers will both lift up the speakers and put vibration dampening materials underneath, so how do they know which variable made the change?

That makes sense. Are there any other companies offering some kind of dampening in their stands?

 

[Hydrav]

That makes sense. Are there any other companies offering some kind of dampening in their stands?

A lot of them do. Kanto has some sort of foam or rubber premounted underneath the baseplate and on top of the topplate of their stands. K&M provides som rubber pads along with their stands which you can stick on yourself. Genelec has some dampers underneath their stands, and also provide vibration dampers along with their speakers.

I don't think the Dynaudio stands have any dampening actually. But remember, you can always just use your own vibration dampening material. From what I've read a bit of cheap foam should be enough. So if you get a stand without any dampening, you could just buy some foam and place underneath the speakers.

As to the effectiveness of all these materials, I don't know how they compare or if the difference is even measurable. If you want something more expensive, a lot of people say Sorbothane is the best. But again I'm not sure if you can even actually hear the difference between having some foam or sorbothane under your speakers.

Here is a thread about vibration dampening: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/vibration-control.13057/

 

[BoredErica]

As you can see it is slightly less functional because of the angled back which protrudes forwards, obscuring some vertical desk space. It also has no adjustable height. However I think it looks better than the K&M 26772 stands. The 26772 have the ugly knob on front (which I think they should have reversed and put on the back) and look a bit too industrial. But overall they seem to be the best option for me right now, and perhaps the sagging can be mitigated by sliding the speakers back on the stand. Anyway I don't even know how big of an issue the sagging is yet, I've just been reading reviews online.

About the lack of interest, yes I think we're not a huge market. Professionals probably have speakers standing on a raised table or on floor stands. Normal people on the other hand mostly care about looks over audio quality. And I understand why, I personally think lifted speaker stands look quite bad and prefer speakers placed directly on the table with angled stands underneath e.g.

Btw these nice looking angled stands are the "Dynaudio SF 1 Desk and sideboard stand". Kanto also makes an angled stand called the "Kanto S6 Desktop Speaker Stands".

The problem with these angled stands is: 1. I don't think they mitigate table reflections as much as lifted stands. 2: a lot of them don't angle the speakers high enough to point at your ears when in a near field application. 3. they take up a lot of desk space as it's impossible to place anything underneath the speakers. On the other hand they do look a lot better and the speakers are very stable with no wobble.

Now I think about it, when it says the Kanto angled stands a 6.9in height, it better not be counting the back of the stand that keeps the speaker from sliding back. It should be 6.9in of speaker elevation otherwise that spec would be beyond stupid.

I do think the Kanto stands look good. Arguably better than the custom Etsy solutions I linked last time. I agree with you that they look way better than the Konig & Meyer.

I've mentioned the Kanto SP6HD multiple times in this thread so far and I lamented at the fact that the SP9 has a smaller top plate and holds a smaller speaker. That's just absurd. As the other user pointed out, it's still possible to just 2 SP9s and use that as a stand for each speaker. There will be tradeoffs there in terms of looks, but 9in gets me pretty solidly into the green zone.

When you mentioned the angled stands don't mitigate table reflections as much, are you talking about the shorter stands like the Dynaudio one? That would make more sense since those barely lift the speaker at all. The SE6 is taller than the SP6HD and also angles up. If anything I thought a 7in angled stand reduces table reflections more than a 7in normal stand. We're still working with no real knowledge of how far up a speaker needs to be to reduce desk reflections by X amount though.

Your final picture with the SP6HD really shows off how good speaker stands can look. I think they look cleaner than the SE6, but if SE6 has that nearly 1 inch advantage + tilt up, then that would win me over. Then there's the matter of that vs the SP9 or dual SP9, trading even more aesthetics for even more functionality.

That said, I've seen some speakers visually shake and vibrate when cranked to very high volumes, and I can't imagine that vibration doesn't add some noise? So having a bit of vibration dampening material under the speakers can't hurt. But I think getting the very expensive isoacoustic stands is way overkill.

The problem I've seen with some reviews and "testing" is that the variables are not isolated. Reviewers will both lift up the speakers and put vibration dampening materials underneath, so how do they know which variable made the change?

I'd imagine if one was using regular bookshelves on the desk and they were going so hard they were vibrating, one has larger problems to sort out than the choice of stands... Also the Isoacoustic ones are popular but maybe this is the WAF in my setting in, but they look really ugly. I'd rather use yoga blocks. They also have no color options (not that it would help in this case) and cost a lot for what they are.

--

I still think these look decent from Etsy (though they all cost like $200+ but they can be customized for height):

Wood bottom + metal top. Can be painted white. But it's metal up top and they can't send me a close up of how the finish looks because nobody on Etsy knows how to do photography.

My friend doesn't like these but I think they can look nice if a tabletop is of a similar looking wood OR if it's white. If the top of the table is white these wooden stands serve as wooden "accents". I'm no interior decorator though. Wish I was!

 

[Hydrav]

Now I think about it, when it says the Kanto angled stands a 6.9in height, it better not be counting the back of the stand that keeps the speaker from sliding back. It should be 6.9in of speaker elevation otherwise that spec would be beyond stupid.

I do think the Kanto stands look good. Arguably better than the custom Etsy solutions I linked last time. I agree with you that they look way better than the Konig & Meyer.

I've mentioned the Kanto SP6HD multiple times in this thread so far and I lamented at the fact that the SP9 has a smaller top plate and holds a smaller speaker. That's just absurd. As the other user pointed out, it's still possible to just 2 SP9s and use that as a stand for each speaker. There will be tradeoffs there in terms of looks, but 9in gets me pretty solidly into the green zone.

Yes, perhaps their reasoning is that they didn't want people placing big speakers at such a height. But they should really make a height adjustable model with different sized top plates.

When you mentioned the angled stands don't mitigate table reflections as much, are you talking about the shorter stands like the Dynaudio one? That would make more sense since those barely lift the speaker at all. The SE6 is taller than the SP6HD and also angles up. If anything I thought a 7in angled stand reduces table reflections more than a 7in normal stand. We're still working with no real knowledge of how far up a speaker needs to be to reduce desk reflections by X amount though.

Yes, so I categorize stands into the following:

• Table clamp stands/speaker arms - stands you clamp to the edge of the table to hold speakers
• L-shape table stands - Stands shaped kinda like an "L". Note, the top plate on these can be either flat (like the K&M 26772) or angled/tilted (like the Kanto SE6)
• Lifted stands - stands with a centrally place lifting pole, like the Kanto SP6HD. Most of these have a flat top plate, although I have seen some of them have an adjustable top plate which can be angled
• Angled stands - Stands with no lift, they only angle or tilt the speakers upwards. Like the Dynaudio SF1 or Kanto S2

Your final picture with the SP6HD really shows off how good speaker stands can look. I think they look cleaner than the SE6, but if SE6 has that nearly 1 inch advantage + tilt up, then that would win me over.

Remember that might be able to angle the speaker up yourself by putting vibration dampening materials between the speaker and top plate. Although that would diminsh the clean look of the SP6HD.

I was strongly considering getting the SP6HD, but then decided I wanted the increased functionality of an L-shaped stand like the K&M 26772 over the looks of the SP6HD.

I'd imagine if one was using regular bookshelves on the desk and they were going so hard they were vibrating, one has larger problems to sort out than the choice of stands... Also the Isoacoustic ones are popular but maybe this is the WAF in my setting in, but they look really ugly. I'd rather use yoga blocks. They also have no color options (not that it would help in this case) and cost a lot for what they are.

Yes, they look terrible. And way too expensive for me. But I'm certain they're very good at eliminating vibration.

I still think these look decent from Etsy (though they all cost like $200+ but they can be customized for height):

Wood bottom + metal top. Can be painted white. But it's metal up top and they can't send me a close up of how the finish looks because nobody on Etsy knows how to do photography.

My friend doesn't like thes but I think they can look nice if a tabletop is of a similar looking wood OR if it's white. If the top of the table is white these wooden stands serve as wooden "accents". I'm no interior decorator though. Wish I was!

I don't like the looks much either too bulky. But they seem very, very sturdy.

But as I said before, looks are subjective. Most important thing is that you like the design.

 

[DanielT]

Check with your local blacksmith/ welding workshop. If you are lucky, they have time and you can have them tailored.
If you want them made of steel that is.

 

[BoredErica]

But as I said before, looks are subjective. Most important thing is that you like the design.

The tricky thing is my table will change, and so will the overall decor both now and over time. I can't even select a desk right now in case I move to a 42in OLED TV as the main monitor (which requires a very deep desk which limits other options). Plus I have the imagination of a walnut until I actually see the setup IRL.

Right now though the Kanto SE6 are my leading option. If it's 6.9in height boost, that's a bit better than 6 and comes in white.

Check with your local blacksmith/ welding workshop. If you are lucky, they have time and you can have them tailored.
If you want them made of steel that is.

The metal would need to have a nice soft finish though!

 

[mkt]

I think these are 14”

K&M 233BK Table Microphone Stand

Table & Floor Stand Cast-iron base with special rubber insert for sound insulation, Twist, height-adjustable tube combination, Height adjustable 355-580 mm, Base - diameter 180 mm, Colour: Black, Weight: 2.5kg

www.thomann.de

 

[DanielT]

The metal would need to have a nice soft finish though!

$ ... Or..

 

[Somafunk]

I think these are 14”

Those stands don’t look like they’d be very stable, I certainly wouldn’t be placing a £3k genelec on one

 

[Fuzziekiwi]

Those stands don’t look like they’d be very stable, I certainly wouldn’t be placing a £3k genelec on one

Holy moly yeah.

 

[BoredErica]

Is that a microphone stand?

 

[mkt]

Those stands don’t look like they’d be very stable, I certainly wouldn’t be placing a £3k genelec on one

Or 3!

 

[mkt]

Is that a microphone stand?

With a stand plate + iso-pod on top.

 

[dshreter]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MTS4H7P/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use these adjustable stands to mount my speakers with VESA mounts. It offers a lot of precision to get the tweeter height just right, leaves my desk space clear, and there's also no way for the speakers to get knocked over.