I"m looking for stands for my Spendor A1. I was thinking of getting the Hifi Rack Duet (Duet Speaker Stands (Pair) ).... does anyone have an opinion about those? I would love to avoid black stands!
Hey there @action pact, A pair of second hand Sound Anchors that sound suitable just came on US Audio Mart. Still spendy but this is an heirloom level product for fans of "shoebox loudspeakers". Sound Anchor Signature Stands For Harbeth P3 Speakers or Other Small Monitors 3 Post Version
One benefit with going custom would be measuring the perfect distance from your ears to the floor while seated on your listening chair or couch. You would need to spend real money on the steel and hired fabricator costs which might surprise you. The alternative is building stands with a very hard wood. Ipe, is the hardest and heaviest wood you can readily find at quality lumber yards. Not the big box stores. You can rip Ipe with a table saw. You have to pre drill all screw holes and use special screws that will not rot in the wood. A nice project and quite doable in my opinion.
If they fit the seller's P3s, they will accommodate your near identical Spendors. The upside of heavy mass loaded stands like these is that they notably "firm up" the bass reproduction of the bookshelf speaker sitting on them.
I bought a pair of Hifi Racks Fortis stands to my Spendor Classic 2/3. Fortis Speaker Stands (Pair) They are within your budget, but perhaps on the pricier side. The Fortis line is taylor made for the current line of Spendor speeakers. I have no complaints about aesthetics or build quality. Though the stands are somewhat expensive. I justified the cost by that I am not buying a new pair of speakers for a long time (famous last words). The Fortis stands are a simple design and maybe it is worth investigating have a pair maid by a local carpenter. Other options could be Linton Heritage, or maybe a pair of IKEA ODDVAR stools.
I've come across a fabricator in Pennsylvania called Timber Nation that makes some nice-looking wooden stands (see below) that look similar to the Hifi Racks Fortis, but are much less expensive. Visually, I like these a lot, but I'm not sure that wooden stands are superior to metal stands. Can anyone offer any insight? I'm still considering the Skylan SP-24, but again, I am not convinced that PVC and MDF stands are superior to metal. I've read many positive things about these stands, but some have said that they negative affect bass performance. I hate being so indecisive, but I'm struggling to make a choice.
Wood and metal offer different characteristics but I don’t completely prefer one over the other. However, I bet that one’s preference will also depend largely on flooring type. I sometimes wonder if a hybrid design would work best — maybe wood stands with some type of mass loading.
The midrange is cleaner with my Sound Anchors and their supplied sorbothane pads. It does come at some expense to bass output. The speakers also “disappear” more with the Sound Anchors, and the soundstage is a little wider. I use 1” felt furniture pads with my wooden stands. In that configuration there is more snap to the bass, highs seem a little more pronounced and there is greater midrange body. Overall bass output is greater. I believe I hear more of the speaker’s cabinets with the wooden stands, but mostly in a good way. I imagine species and thickness of wood also plays a role though, so you might end up with different results. All-in-all, I don’t find the differences are quite as stark as I expected.
Extremely helpful, thank you! If it's not too much to ask, can you show me what your stands look like, or let me know what they are?
interesting. with my lossy speakers the wood stands gave me a bass peak that gave me a headache, i could not get rid of it. the sound anchors with the correct dots fixed it and i know what you mean about the perception of reduced bass, it seems as if they drain some bass energy directly into the floor. did you ever try skylans? the bass and midbass sounded rich and glorious using them filled with cat litter. if i didnt drop all that money into the 4 post sound anchors i would buy the skys back in a heartbeat.
My vote would be for Sound Anchors I use them myself but since I haven't used anything else with my speakers I can't make comparisons. I will say my dealer sold me these with my Audio Note speakers as much better than the AN stands. They are certainly rock solid and give me peace of mind in terms of stability. I've never heard speakers on wood stands but I personally would have an aesthetic issue putting a wood veneered speaker on a "clashing" wood stand. However as my GF would tell you my sense of aesthetics is somewhat challenged so best ignore what I just said.
My dealer sold both Skylan and Sound Anchor when I purchased my Spendors. IIRC, they were priced about the same and the dealer steered me away from the Skylans. He had always been a very candid salesman and never hesitated to denigrate a brand they sold, so I figured that was his legit preference. I concluded the bass reduction is mostly from the Blue Dots. The bass is stronger with other coupling materials but then the feedback from my concrete-slab floor impedes on the mids some.
My Sound Anchors didn't come with Blue Dots what are they made of? I just use 3 pea sized blobs of blue-tac.
Sorbothane. I had some reservation about them because I usually don't care for Sorbothane products, but they've remained my overall preference with the SAs.
A follow-up question would be whether there's any difference in SQ whatsoever between the Sound Anchors 3 and 4-point stands.
