I'm buying some new mini-monitors... specifically the Epos ELS-3s. Epos also makes a speaker stand specifically for these speakers. I balk, however, at the cost of the stand as compared to the speaker: Speaker ~$270 Stand ~$180 Can anyone comment on whether a stand built specifically for a certain speaker will perform significantly better than a "generic" stand? If a generic stand is no problem, can anyone make recommendations on inexpensive but good quality stands? My goal with these speakers is to use them as a bridge between my decidedly non-audiophile current speakers (see my poll from a few weeks back) and some future, rather expensive speakers. So I'm really just looking for bang for the buck out of them. However it would be nice not to have to spend 60% of the cost of the speaker to buy a stand, and yet I don't want to skimp on a stand to the effect that it seriously degrades the performance of the speaker. Thanks for your help...
(ahem) Bump... How about it guys? I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on this purchase and I need some advice...
That's pretty cheap .... Most decent generic stands here in Uk cost around $150 and upwards. Anything less is frowned on. Have you seen this stand? Does it compare well against a good generic stand. Get the best stand you can afford, imho.
When considering standmounted speakers I suggest you consider the speaker/stand as an integrated speaker system. Sitting the speakers on a "bookshelf" will most likely not get the best out of them. Prices of good Target stands run around the same as the Epos stands so you might as well stick with them. Alternatively you can sit the speakers on some concrete building blocks. Worked pretty well for me in the past for little $. Ugly though.
I had a blacksmith around here build me some stands for my speakers. They are made of heavy gauge iron, and have Parts Express spikes on them. I paid around $60 for a pair... they do made my monitors sound a lot better. They got rid of a bit of a "nasal" midrange and boomy mid-lows the speakers had, and made them sound quite lean and tight.
Thanks for the sanity check, everyone. Looks like I'll just go with the stands designed for the speaker...
Even though, starting out in this hobby, I deemed it outrageous that I had shell out over $100 for special audiophile stands for my speakers, I've come to realize that stands DO make a difference. The first pair I owned were a generic set of the steel tube kind which I bought only because my dealer all but insisted that the new speakers I was buying would sound terrible without them. Once I got used to the idea that there was merit in what my dealer kept telling me, I went back to upgrade and swapped them with light, rigid Linn stands and, lo and behold, I could actually hear a difference! And then a few years after that I upgraded again to heavy, sand-fillable Sound Organization stands and, I swear, the sound got even better. I don't know if there's a big argument over which is better—light and rigid a la Linn or massive and heavy a la the sand-fillable designs—but I've concluded that spending money on good stands is well spent. Especially with mini-monitors, the amount and quality of the bass you get will be largely a reflection of the stands you place them on (all other factors, like room acoustics, being equal).
Plus, those Eposes (?) are great little speakers for the money and deserve all the extra attention you can lavish on them. I wouldn't be surprised if a cottage industry pops up with mods and tweaks for them, since they seem to be really popular right now.
I've got my Snell J's on lead-shot filled Target speaker stands. The speaker stands cost me $150 and the lead shot was fairly inexpensive. The stands/lead-shot made a huge difference in sound, all for the better. Speaker stands (and what you put in them) does make a big difference, at least in my system.
I bought a some speaker stands from Tweeter called Podium POMR29 and they made my Def Tech ProMonitor 200's sound a little better than when they were sitting on a wood table with my TV. I can fill them with leadshot but right now I have the speaker wires snaked through one of the center columns. PAT
