Speaker Stands

Been researching and in need of speaker stands for my pair of Focal 905. Speaker stand prices all over the place. I know i need to invest in steel speaker stands but is there a huge difference in quality and influence on sound production from the speaker from different manufactures? As of now considering the Sanus SF26 steel foundations and audio advisor has a Pangea LS300 on sale for $119.00(28"). The sanus stand is $150.00. The B&W STAV24 S2 looks like a good stand for the price, but cannot find it anywhere online, maybe discontinued model

 

Speakers stands absolutely matter. You want to get the ones with the least resonance and the most mass.

Metal stands are my preference, and you'll also want to fill them with sand, cat litter, etc.

Stands with skinny tubes like the LS300's are OK, but I would advise spending a little more and getting the Pangea DS400's instead. They have much more mass (once filled) and that will upgrade your speakers' performance significantly vs. the skinnier stands: better imaging, more impactful transients, and tighter, more extended bass.

I'm actually using the DS400's, so I am not just flapping my gums!

 

Good deal alert:
Target Audio HS Series Heavy Speaker Stands-Audio Advisor

 

I had a heck of a time finding some solid, decent looking stands at a reasonable price. The selection is quite narrow compared to 20 years ago.

 

I was told by an audiophile that sometimes quality speakers stand might be more expensive than the speakers themselves. (For Vintage Speakers Like JBL Rogers etc.. .)

 

Yes. These used to be £1380:
| Track Audio - Speaker Stands, Isolations, Mounts, and spikes Engineered for Life |

 

I think Focal make specific stands for thier speakers. They do for the 906 for sure.

 

I think you need 24" stands for the Focal Aria 905. To get the tweeter (in the 13" high 905 cabinet) at ear height, when you're sitting, you only need 24" stands. Check out the 24" high models from Target - they've got hollow legs that you can fill with sterile sand or clay-based kitty litter to absolute deaden the things and provide nice heavy, non-vibrating and non-moving anchors for your excellent Aria 905s.

Cheap stands don't anchor well.

 

If I may express a dissenting opinion: I use plastic milk crates as stands. They're just the right height, and they slightly (not visibly) deform under the weight of the speakers, which is a good thing. If I give them a push I can actually count the cycles, which is a very good thing. The more rigid the stand, the higher the resonant frequency. Something soft will have a resonant frequency too low to be audible. Again, that's a good thing.

If you do get rigid stands, consider putting something soft between the speaker and the stand. A small rug, for example.

 

I use this to isolate and help secure the cabinet to the stand. Not a lot, just a small blob under each corner.

 

Atacama Speaker stand Isolation Gel pads( pack of 8)

Anyone heard of this product?

 

Target Audio MR Series Maximum Rigidity Speaker Stands-Audio Advisor
I use these filled with sand, unbelievably heavy..

 

I agree with this

 

For that price can purchase a pair of custom sound anchors for $340.00

 

May of found pair of Target FS on CL, can you touch up speaker stands with new paint?

 

www.skylanstands.com

 

Contact Jim Salk at SalkSound.com and he can custom make some for you at a reasonable price. I had him make some for my rear surround's, measured to the height I needed with a veener to match them. Worth a look.

 

That's exactly what I do with these;

Home Theater Speaker Stands Custom Hand Made SOLID OAK

 

Skylan or if you can find any, Sanus Ultimate Foundations.

Other than that, these are incredible.

Lautsprecherständer, Boxenständer by Liedtke Metalldesign

 

I bought mine years ago for $199 so I guess they are expensive now..

 

For my Rogers LS5/9s, heavy stands killed the tone.
Light open frame always sound the best to me, but it depends on the manufacturer.
I would ask Focal

 

I fully cover the mounting pad with a large slab of Blu tack and then pack the tubes with ultra dense memory foam and fine lead shot, ramming it in with a rod until it's jammed tight, the 2 materials form a really dead material that kills nearly all vibration and resonation.

 

I don't think your application of physics is accurate. I think it's possible that you're confusing the resonant characteristics of membranes, meshes, solid dimensional objects and variable density filled castings/moldings. Unfortunately, they're all different.

Your milk crates made of molded plastic sheet, are a hollow dimensional object with the resonant characteristics of a stretched membrane. Unloaded, they can easily be made to resonate in a particular frequency range which is very annoying. Place a load on them (e.g., your speakers) and you merely raise the resonant frequency range. In fact, most speaker cabinets (even cheap ones) don't resonate at a high enough amplitude to cause any audible sympathetic resonance in milk crates or any other sort of stand. However, crank up the volume of the amp high enough and those crates will resonate to the point that you can feel the vibration with your fingertips aganist the crates when the music ranges around the resonant frequency. The other issue with milk crates is that they partially trap and prevent dispersion of certain frequency ranges when the hollow crate area is facing forward, and unnaturally reflect certain frequencies when one of the partially solid sides is facing forward. Placing a large enough speaker on a milk crate will allow the speaker to move slightly during high excursion periods of the mid woofer and/or woofer, something which is either non-existant at low to moderate listening levels, but cumulatively deleterious to sound quality at high listening levels. The only virtue of using milk crates is that they're, ahem, free.

At a minimum - and admitedly there are no verifiable test reports on this - in my estimation a speaker stand should be absolutely dead and at least twice as heavy as the speaker being supported. The heavier the better. That makes steel stand with hollow posts that can be filled with sand or clay-based kitty litter in order to drop the resonant frequency into the subsonic - although the energy is entirely absorbed anyway and never makes it into the room - ideal, as are solid wood stands with very heavy bases and thick post and top plate dimensions.

Coupling to a top plate vs. point contact vs. decoupling vs. hybrid coupling (the most popular example of which is Blutac) is actually dependent on speaker cabinet design. For example, Harbeth's typically lively cabinets do best when mounted on heavy stands with a top plate the same size as the bottom of the speaker cabinet, and separated from the top plate by four rubber buttons close to the corners. In that way, the deliberately designed resonant cabinet characteristics are undisturbed, the speakers can't move on their own or be readily bumped out of position, and then perform their best.

By contrast, a speaker from Diapason in Italy typically has a thick, solid hardwood cabinet into the bottom of which the speaker maker integrates four, small brass mounting posts specifically for custom stands. As with many speaker cabinets, the designer has tuned then to resonate minimally and only in a certain way in a certain range of frequencies. To that end, the designer has determined that the best way to support the speakers is through the four brass pin/posts that mate with receivers in the top plate of the custom stand (which is also a heavy steel configuration).

By contrast again, a low price, good quality speaker like the Elac B6 has a comparatively inert cabinet (synthetic veneered MDF) designed to make the drivers and port do all the work. The speakers do best on heavy wood or metal stands. But because the speakers are rather light in weight, they do better when they're fully coupled to the top plate of the stand with lots of Blutac.

Milk crates are either dirt cheap or free, but they're lousy speaker stands in any circumstances. Anybody who uses them is unlikely to be getting anywhere near the best out of his speakers.

 

Thanks for your very thoughtful reply. You mentioned Harbeth speakers in your post; mine are Harbeth M40s. As you say, they have "lively" cabinets (the manufacturer calls them "lossy"). The idea that the stands should be "soft" enough that when you push the speakers, you should be able to count the cycles comes from Robert E. Greene, a reviewer and acoustic scientist I respect. I think the point is, as I said, that the more rigid the stand, the higher the resonant frequency. What one wants to avoid is the resonant frequency's being in the midrange where the ear is most sensitive.

Harbeth itself recommends light, open-frame stands (or used to). My plastic milk crates fit the bill. However, I haven't had the Harbeths on any other stands. I would be more than willing to try other options and hear them for myself. Unfortunately, swapping many different stands is an expensive and awkward proposition. My M40s sound amazingly good to me as they are, but I don't say that different stands might not make them better yet.

Too bad I'm in New York and you're in Toronto! I'm sure a visit would be very stimulating.

BTW, what do you think of the stands custom made by Skylan for the M40s? You can check them out here. I would couple the Harbeths to them with soft rubber feet. They retail for CDN$695 - a lot to spend on an experiment that may or may not result in an improvement. If I could be sure they would sound better than my milk crates, I would consider them.

P.S. I see that the Skylan stands are 14" high. This would place the tweeters about 40" off the floor, well below ear height in my room. I have the tweeters 48" off the floor.

 

I think there is some misunderstanding about Greene's theories or about acoustic resonance in general. Could be me, though. As I understand applied theory, a pair of plastic boxes made of extruded or vacuum-formed plastic don't generate a meaningfully measurable frequency when they're pushed or rocked from side to side or from back to front. The actual measurement of such movement is a long wave on the order of a fraction of a cycle per second. It has an amplitude that is so far below the threshold of hearing that you need million dollar instrumentation to measure it. It's irrelevant. However, the plastic material used to make the milk crates can and does resonate at audible frequencies when sufficiently excited by sufficient amplitude of music playing in the plastic material's resonant frequency range. That's the problem with milk crates.

The other problem with soft/flexing stands is that any undamped, uncompensated in/out movement of larger drivers playing at high amplitude will allow very slight movement. Such very slight movement reduces the efficiency of the driver and very slightly contributes to muddiness or blurring. Boo hiss to that.

You're welcome to hit Toronto any time you like, of course. A critical listening session will be on the agenda.

The Skylan stands are excellent. I use a pair for my Monitor 30.1.

As for having tweeters precisely at ear height, it's simply not neccessary to be so precise and it's also often somewhat self-defeating. In general, I think speaker makers try to ensure that listeners get standmount woofers/mid-woofers up off the floor by at least 12" in order to help control unwanted reflections (among other things). The Monitor 40, 40.1 and newest 40.2 are designed with tweeters that radiate significant energy angularly upward. That means (and most dealer showroom setups and dealer home demo setups of Monitor 30/40 series speakers show the point clearly) that the 14" Sklan stands that peg the 40-series tweeter at about 40" (or whatever the measurement is, exactly) is the ideal height. That's the sweet spot for the Monitor 40 series and helps the speaker do its best irrespective of flooring, floor covering, room nodes, LEDE rooms, and so on. Wonderful speakers.