Snake oil sales pitch

[Yorkshire Mouth]

Before we go any further, I'm not saying these speaker stands are snake oil (I quite like the look of them), or that filled speakers with sand, etc., is snake oil (I suspect it's a good idea).

But the technique used in this video is 100% definitely snake oil, and a very deliberate attempt to pull the wool over viewers' eyes...erm...ears.

To save you time, the slight-of-hand is at 12:00 to 12:30.

Utterly shameless.

 

[Pareto Pragmatic]

To save you time, the slight-of-hand is at 12:00 to 12:30.

HA! Thanks for the laugh, and pointing to the time frame so I did not have to search for it.

Without the video, that would have been an amazing difference. With it, meaningless.

 

[MarkS]

What is the sleight-of-hand? That one stand is hand-held and the other on the table?

I use tower speakers flat on the carpet ...

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

I didn't watch the video, I usually do not provide these people more eyeballs but.. I find these stands very nice.
If it weren't for the price ...

Peace,

 

[DVDdoug]

I'm not going to watch...

Stands CAN change the sound. Moving speakers off the floor, or out of corners, or away from walls can make a difference (for better or worse). Bringing the speakers to ear-level can also help (especially if you don't want the "soundstage" to come from above or below). If you don't care about the height of the soundstage (I don't), simply tilting or angling them to point-to your ears can help, especially with the highs.

To me, they look like stools...

 

[jeffhenning]

I wouldn’t say they’re snake oil, but they are expensive. Also, the fact that the legs are not totally vertical when aligning to the floor means that you’re stuck with using them with their pinpoint feet.

I wouldn’t say their snake oil, but they are expensive. Also, the fact that the legs are not totally vertical when aligning to the floor means that you’re stuck with using them with their spiked feet.

When the announcer does start talking about how the stands improve or optimize the sound of your speaker, that is when he lost me.

This again is one of those situations where you were looking for something to not add anything to the sound of the speaker. It will not improve the sound of the speaker at all.

One thing that I did find out by doing some research is that they are actually not solid. The legs are hollow. This means that the legs are going to vibrate if you play the speaker loudly. You’ll need to add some steel shot and sand into the legs too deaden them.

Also, this whole bit about having the top plate, suspended by ball bearings, and how that improves the sound of the stand… aaah, no.

In the past, I’ve owned less expensive stands, which I then filled with sand and shot and put SV sound subwoofer on them, and did that effect.

It cost me less than half of what these stands do, and the speaker stands were incredibly dead to vibrations, and the subwoofer were fantastic at isolating the whole system from the floor.

So, no, not snake oil, but certainly not as effective as they could be and expensive.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

I think perhaps a couple of people could do to read my first post again, where I specifically said the stands aren’t snake oil. It’s what he does in the video.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

What is the sleight-of-hand? That one stand is hand-held and the other on the table?

I use tower speakers flat on the carpet ...

For anyone who still hasn’t got it. When he hits the empty stand, when he strikes it he immediately removes the metal pen he’s struck it with. With the filled stands he keeps touching the stand and doesn’t let the stand bounce off. And he does this quite deliberately.

This is a technique used by musicians the world over to dampen sound after striking.

The daft thing is, I’m not sure he had to.

 

[Petevid]

Yeah, I thought they were kitchen stools at first glance.

Also there appears to be a slight contradiction in their thinking in that they’ve attempted to isolate the top plate from the legs, if successful then would it matter if the legs were filled or not? (Using their design principles).

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

Yeah, I thought they were kitchen stools at first glance.

Also there appears to be a slight contradiction in their thinking in that they’ve attempted to isolate the top plate from the legs, if successful then would it matter if the legs were filled or not? (Using their design principles).

I believe it’s more a case of the sounding your room making the stands resonate. The air, rather than the speakers themselves.

I suspect this would only happen if your music contained a note which was the same frequency as the natural resonant frequency as the legs, and it have to be loud and prolonged. I doubt it’d be much of an issue in most circumstances.