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Speaker stands - what to look at when buying

taisho

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I would like to buy speaker stands for 2-way bookshelf speakers with 6.5'' woofer. It's ELAC DBR-62 for now, but it may change - still, almost all of these have very similar distance from speaker base to the center of the tweeter.

Before someone would like to question the point of buying speaker stands at all, these are my motivations:
- no furniture to put them on at the moment, apart from PC desk where they would be too close to my ears and each other
- closely matching my ear level with tweeter level
- better flexibility in positioning within the room

At the start, I thought that getting adjustable height stands would be a perfect solution, but I quickly dropped this idea because of the following:
1. Less sturdy, possible problems with stability.
2. Higher price.
3. Not being able to fill them with sand to improve stability.
4. I can buy a fixed height stands that will match my ear level. Even if it narrows down my possible choices, the adjustable-height stands are less popular, so it pretty much balances out.

The distance from the floor to my ear is 117cm, the distance from DBR-62 base to tweeter's center 29 cm, so I need the stands with about 88cm height. Anything between 85 and 90 cm should be just perfect. No spikes - I don't have any carpets where they will be placed.

What qualities/features of the speaker stands apart from the correct height would You rate as the most important? What would be the best choice, keeping in mind that it's supposed to be a budget buy? Here is a couple of things coming to my mind:
- material: steel, wood, tempered glass, etc. or a mix of these. I'm a simple man who believes that steel is the answer.
- ability to fill with sand to increase stability even with cheaper and lighter constructions - no accidental knocking the stand. Possibly to eliminate resonances.
- foam on the tray to prevent the speakers from moving and make it harder to knock them off the stand. Possibly to eliminate resonances.
- tray size - should it really be a bit smaller than the speaker itself or it's some kind of audio shamanism?
- quality non-slip feet, possibly with adjustable height to combat uneven floor
 
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Vini darko

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Atacama se24 are my pick for stands. Can be loaded up with 40kg of mass no problem and have tank like build. Personally I've always bluetac'd speakers to stands. They'll take spikes or feet. Can be had cheap second hand.
 

sergeauckland

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As far as I'm concerned, the only thing that matters is the height. They need to get the tweeters to ear height at your normal listening position.

After that, what they look like is entirely cosmetic, and rigidity only matters if they're likely to get knocked over by pets or children.

As far a spikes go, I far prefer castors, as they can then be moved about conveniently for vacuum cleaning or just repositioning.

S.
 

Wes

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Filling with sand is to reduce Doppler modulation of HF by the cabinet moving from the woofer.

I'll let people argue about whether the putative benefits are real...
 

Eetu

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I've always wondered why is it that the 60 cm / 24 in tall stands are so popular? My ear height at lp is around 115 cm so that would require a speaker that has the tweeter center 55cm from the base of the speaker :rolleyes:
 

dgswim

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Suggestions for the Focal Aria 906 Bookshelf spears? Im not interested in paying the $400 per set for Focal stands. Sure I would love to have them but Im just not going to pay another $800 to put my side and rear speakers on them. They also give me zero flexibility. Arent rear speakers supposed to be higher and tilted down some anyway? They have to get over the back of the seating.
 

sergeauckland

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Filling with sand is to reduce Doppler modulation of HF by the cabinet moving from the woofer.

I'll let people argue about whether the putative benefits are real...
I used to think that until I did the sums.
If the cabinet weighs, say 20kg, and the woofer weighs, say 20gms, plus a couple of grams for air-load.

The woofer displacement is, say 1mm, so what will the cabinet displacement and hence tweeter displacement be?

Answer, not a lot, given also that the cabinet won't be completely free to move, so I wouldn't be at all concerned about doppler distortion on the tweeter.

S.
 

zelig

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Atacama se24 are my pick for stands. Can be loaded up with 40kg of mass no problem and have tank like build. Personally I've always bluetac'd speakers to stands. They'll take spikes or feet. Can be had cheap second hand.
UK only by the look of it.
 

Wes

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I'll let people argue about whether the putative benefits are real...
 

dfuller

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The primary point of speaker stands as opposed to placing on a desk or bookshelf is to isolate them so they don't have their frequency response changed by whatever they're sitting on. As much as we don't want it to, the cabinet itself still does resonate some, so stands should be reasonably stiff.
 

Gorillz

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I would like to buy speaker stands for 2-way bookshelf speakers with 6.5'' woofer. It's ELAC DBR-62 for now, but it may change - still, almost all of these have very similar distance from speaker base to the center of the tweeter.

Before someone would like to question the point of buying speaker stands at all, these are my motivations:
- no furniture to put them on at the moment, apart from PC desk where they would be too close to my ears and each other
- closely matching my ear level with tweeter level
- better flexibility in positioning within the room

At the start, I thought that getting adjustable height stands would be a perfect solution, but I quickly dropped this idea because of the following:
1. Less sturdy, possible problems with stability.
2. Higher price.
3. Not being able to fill them with sand to improve stability.
4. I can buy a fixed height stands that will match my ear level. Even if it narrows down my possible choices, the adjustable-height stands are less popular, so it pretty much balances out.

The distance from the floor to my ear is 117cm, the distance from DBR-62 base to tweeter's center 29 cm, so I need the stands with about 88cm height. Anything between 85 and 90 cm should be just perfect. No spikes - I don't have any carpets where they will be placed.

What qualities/features of the speaker stands apart from the correct height would You rate as the most important? What would be the best choice, keeping in mind that it's supposed to be a budget buy? Here is a couple of things coming to my mind:
- material: steel, wood, tempered glass, etc. or a mix of these. I'm a simple man who believes that steel is the answer.
- ability to fill with sand to increase stability even with cheaper and lighter constructions - no accidental knocking the stand. Possibly to eliminate resonances.
- foam on the tray to prevent the speakers from moving and make it harder to knock them off the stand. Possibly to eliminate resonances.
- tray size - should it really be a bit smaller than the speaker itself or it's some kind of audio shamanism?
- quality non-slip feet, possibly with adjustable height to combat uneven floor
Indeed the height is in my view one of the most important aspects but I would consider other points as you said: the stability that you mentioned, the beauty (aesthetics can be a concern for some) and the coupling/decoupling question.
The two first speak for themselves as for the last point, it's always interesting to assess the type of flooring you have. If it is heavy and dense such as concrete flooring or something more inclined to vibrate such as wooden floors. In the first case you could be considering stands that you can couple to the floor by attaching them otherwise try to isolate them would maybe be best.

For the specific points you mentioned:
- Steel is indeed a safe choice in my view as well
- Filling them and increasing the density is always a plus and is also achieved in some cases through coupling the stands to the floor
- foam is , I think, a must whether thick foam or even simple EVA pads
- The logic would be that if the tray is smaller there's less surface for the vibrations to transmit so a bit more isolation. Depending on your setup it might be irrelevant though
- Once again EVA pads are great

I've written a short blog post about the different points to consider when choosing speaker stands (obviously disregard the adjustability point lol)

 
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