Children safety and tower speakers vs. speaker stands

[Zedly]

Get heavy speaker stands, and tie your children to the stands so that they can't get to your speakers.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Tweeters have a sign on them that says "push me."

My granddaughter rode her tricycle right into one of my Apogee Duettas. I don't know what she was thinking.

 

[GXAlan]

I definitely agree. Seems like there should be an industry standard for mounting security hardware without potentially damaging the speakers.

Right. I think if a speaker is stable with low risk of tipping, you don’t need to worry. If it’s unstable (where the manufacture is already *telling you* to mount security hardware, it makes the most sense to have an eyelet or standardized screw thread.

What is the conesus on wall-mounted speaker stands, or even a wall-mounted shelf that you can put a bookshelf speaker on? They would be out of the reach of children and not a threat of toppeling over, but would they impact sound quality?

You will get the wall itself increasing bass, which may or may not be a good thing. Usually it sounds the best when the speakers are far away from walls. That said every room and speaker is different. Rear ported designs are worse.

 

[GXAlan]

My granddaughter rode her tricycle right into one of my Apogee Duettas. I don't know what she was thinking.

There has to be a good joke about the path of least resistance/impedance here. Too bad it wasn’t the Scintilla

 

[Chrispy]

What is the conesus on wall-mounted speaker stands, or even a wall-mounted shelf that you can put a bookshelf speaker on? They would be out of the reach of children and not a threat of toppeling over, but would they impact sound quality?

Great way to get them out of the foot traffic area. Being close to boundaries has certain issues of course.

 

[digitalmallrat]

Right. I think if a speaker is stable with low risk of tipping, you don’t need to worry. If it’s unstable (where the manufacture is already *telling you* to mount security hardware, it makes the most sense to have an eyelet or standardized screw thread.


You will get the wall itself increasing bass, which may or may not be a good thing. Usually it sounds the best when the speakers are far away from walls. That said every room and speaker is different. Rear ported designs are worse.

Great way to get them out of the foot traffic area. Being close to boundaries has certain issues of course.

I might have to experiment and see how it sounds... Thanks!

 

[JWAmerica]

Are tower speakers generally considered safer than speaker stands when it comes to children? My kids have been around a pair of tower speakers before and I hadn't really been concerned about their safety. I'm looking at buying a pair of ELAC DFR52s. Alternatively, I could get some stands for my DBR62s but am a little concerned at their stability. Are there speaker stands that are sturdy enough or are they not recommended around children?

Natural selection. You can train them to keep their hands off or you can not. r/K selection at work. My four wild animals have been trained to leave the speakers alone.

 

[DVDdoug]

I just had a flashback... One of my floorstanders (tall, wide, and shallow) fell over during the 1989 World Series earthquake. No kids, nobody was home at the time, and no damage to the speaker.

My current "speaker stack" is too heavy to accidently knock over (even by me). But in an earthquake the tweeter box on the top could fall off. My rear "floorstanders" are hanging by chains near the ceiling.

 

[Descartes]

Are tower speakers generally considered safer than speaker stands when it comes to children? My kids have been around a pair of tower speakers before and I hadn't really been concerned about their safety. I'm looking at buying a pair of ELAC DFR52s. Alternatively, I could get some stands for my DBR62s but am a little concerned at their stability. Are there speaker stands that are sturdy enough or are they not recommended around children?

In walls are the best way to be safer for children!

 

[Descartes]

My granddaughter rode her tricycle right into one of my Apogee Duettas. I don't know what she was thinking.

Hopefully she didn’t get hurt! You can always buy new speakers.

By the way how stable are the Blade 2 Meta, they look like they could easily topple over!

 

[egellings]

If you have young kid(s) you are on 24-hour guard duty.

 

[Trell]

I forget who, but someone around here has shown a speaker stand for bookshelves that goes floor to ceiling with the speaker held in the middle. That might be the safest for speakers and children.

Until the child wants to climb.

 

[egellings]

I'd forgo owning any kind of fancy stereo equipment until after the kids have grown up & left.

 

[Trell]

I'd forgo owning any kind of fancy stereo equipment until after the kids have grown up & left.

Not sure but what you mean by fancy here but depriving yourself and your family of excellent sound for many years is not what I would do, or did.

 

[jbattman1016]

I'm running bookshelves on stands RSL -CG5s, which have METAL covers. My child loves to attack the center channel when close to the TV, but I think (for now) we are safe. ...

 

[jbattman1016]

Not sure but what you mean by fancy here but depriving yourself and your family of excellent sound for many years is not what I would do, or did.

I would agree, also, kids can tell when Audio is garbage.

 

[egellings]

I would agree, also, kids can tell when Audio is garbage.

By fancy, I mean outrageously priced audiophile extravaganzas--turntables with multi-thousand dollar cartridges in them. Pretty good audio can be had with reasonably priced equipment. If a 300 dollar amplifier gets trashed, that's not as bad as having that happen to an expensive 3 thousand dollar one.

 

[DMill]

A walk around your house and I bet you could find a bunch of tipping hazards. Most dressers now come with wire to anchor them to the wall. I’d probably be most concerned with a bookshelf not screwed into the stand Over a floorstander. Funny thing is kids survive all kinds of hazards like stairs and sharp corners on coffee tables, but nothing wrong with being careful. At the end of the day I probably would worry way more about an electrical cord that could kill you over a tipping hazard that most likely results a
in a couple stitches and a damaged speaker.

 

[anotherhobby]

Tweeters have a sign on them that says "push me."

Cones proved to be the correct height for a toddler in my sample size of 1.

We don't have kids, but we do have cats, so I never use grills on my Focal Aria 936's. I do, however, keep the grills stowed very close by for when people with small kids come over. Unfortunately, those defenses fail when you aren't there to arm them. One time when I was out of town my cousin stopped by my house to check on my cat, and he decided to bring his toddler with so she could run around unattended in our adult only home while he dealt with the cats. After feeding them, he turned around and his toddler's finger was buried in my speaker cone. After inspecting it and recognizing the problem, he immediately called me on vacation to let me know what happened, which then allowed me to stew until I made it back home.

The good news is that the dent popped right out with a piece of tape when I got home, and the incident left no creases, discoloration, or other visual artifacts in the cone itself. It looks like nothing ever happened. Here is a pic of the carnage just before I fixed it:

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

Floorstander speaker aesthetics render many models ridiculously unstable. Effective outriggers should be standard.. A stove comes with a bracket to prevent tipping. Tipping requires a person or child to stand on open oven door. Serious or fatal injury can be sustained with fairly light weight. Purchaser should not be required to jury rig a solution.