Home Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

Speaker stands??

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I am about to purchase speakers that will require stands and need some help. This seems to be a controversial area. At one extreme are people who claim that massive stands of steel, often filled with sand or lead, are required, while the other extreme says it doesn't really matter all that much as long as the speakers are at an appropriate height and unlikely to be tipped over. As I understand it, the former camp appeals to Newton's laws of motion. As the driver cone moves forward, the speaker cabinet must move backward to conserve linear momentum. No argument from me there. But, the mass of the moving part of the driver is tiny ( around 1/100) compared to the mass of the rest of the speaker, so the speaker response is miniscule. The argument is that this motion, small as it is, must be eliminated or poor sound will result. It isn't clear to me that whatever motion there is of the speaker as whole will have a profound effect or any discernable effect on the sound one hears. (Note that I am not discussing here the coupling of the speaker to the floor, which is another matter.) I had planned to have some very sturdy ones built out of wood, but my speaker dealer said that would degrade the sound significantly, that I must buy heavy steel ones. Which leads me to my question: are there any published reports which examine the importance of stands based on either lab measurements, which would be straightforward to do, or on blind listening tests? Any help would be appreciated.

jsm


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Topic - Speaker stands?? - jsm 17:24:04 11/12/00 (8)


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