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I need to buy a pair of speaker stands to elevate a pair of bookshelf speakers up to ear level, for use with my brand-new Sony TV. I'm looking in the $100 range, and there seem to be three basic types available: metal, wood, and MDF. The wood ones look nicer, but I recall reading somewhere that the metal type provide a better foundation, especially if I get the type with sand-fillable columns. Right now I'm considering the Sanus NF-30B, and the VTI DF or RF series. Any sage advice?
"Music is the medicine of a troubled mind." -- Walter Haddon, 1567
Follow Ups:
No one has ever been able to identify speaker stand materials and construction in blind auditions.
How could they?
The stand doesn't make any sound of its own!
Only an audiophile with an 'overactive imagination' will think he knows what a stand is made of simply by listening to music from speakers placed on it.
Since most stands are wood or metal, I guess he'd have a 50% chance of boing right!
A stack of books could be used.
Or a stack of cinder blocks.
No one could hear a difference if the stands located the speakers in exactly the same place (assuming the pedistal under the speaker wasn't wider than the speaker enclosure, which could be audible).
The problem with most (all?) stands is you can rarely adjust their height and the tilt back of the speaker ... yet you rarely know the exact height and tilt back you will prefer with new speakers on the day you buy the speaker stands!
To tilt back my speakers for the best near-field sound quality, I had to remove the rear spikes from my stands and place barbell weights under the front of the stand bases (the front spikes were not long enough for the tilt back I eventually decided on).
I had no idea that would be what I wanted when I bought the sstands and speakers.
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Richard BassNut Greene
Subjective Audiophile 2007
JM Reynaud standmounts sound best on MDF 'Magic Stands.'
Audio Notes sound best on sand & lead filled steel stands.
Harbeths are said to sound best on solid wood stands.
The truth is seldom helpful when you're looking for a simple answer!
They're worth it at your budget -- or any budget. Avoid steel stands at all cost -- why the industry continues with them is beyond me. Even with sand-filled expensive ones I could hear the ringing overtones on higher frequencies.
NT
The Skylans are my favorite looking and sounding.
I've been singing in the Skylan church for years. I'll never go back to metal stands....
-M
Consider the application. You're using the speakers with a tv and looking at them all the time. I assume they're small since you mention what I presume is a 30 inch tall Sanus stand. Wood is just fine.
________
"Occasionally we list eccentrically, all sense of balance gone."
I used sand-filled metal stands for a long time. Then, started using
Harbeth speakers, which are based on the BBC principle of low-mass construction yielding lower colouration due to less delayed release of stored energy, which you get with heavy stands. Also, wood is better damped and rings less than metal.
I had custom stands made of hardwood. With my Harbeth M40's on the new open-frame wood stands, I was quite amazed at the openness of the texture and the varied colours of instrumental timbre. The speaker sounded much less monotonous, with less of a smeared quality and metallic resonance, which I now know comes from the heavy metal stands. This freed the recordings to sound more uncoloured.
I would recommend lightweight open frame wood stands if you listen to lots of Jazz and Classical. If the wooden structure is not rigid enough, you might lose a bit of bass slam. However, you will gain a great deal in terms of varied bass colour and texture.
I now use the Magico Mini stands by default. These are partially aluminium (which is lighter than steel and not as resonant) and wood.
One post and fillable for extra mass, so not necessarily in support of your theory. Btw, long before his speakers became popular in the US, I asked Alan for advice on stands, and he said the only, only, purpose of the stand is to get the tweeters up to ear height, and mass and material don't make any difference to the sound. With your speakers in particular, an open frame is better than a massive stand with solid posts because the posts would reinforce some part of the bass spectrum, acting as an elongated baffle.
___"Occasionally we list eccentrically, all sense of balance gone."
But our ears tell us different, don't they? Some things that aren't supposed to make a difference nevertheless do. Alan Shaw knows his stuff but on this point, experience seems to contradicts him.
You have an overactive imagination. Certainly metal stands ring, and there's no reason to prefer them to concrete. A large stand mount speaker with a rigid cabinet and a big or long throw woofer is probably better put on a high mass stand. And nothing will sound good on a stand so flimsy that the speaker moves noticeably with the music. But within reason, mass and material don't matter at all with small speakers or speakers like Harbeths Notice what I said about the open frame wooden speakers that some Harbeth users like. They work well with the bass heavy M40 because of the absence of an elongated baffle ordinarily created by high mass 4 post stands.
________
"Occasionally we list eccentrically, all sense of balance gone."
Not mine, which are filled with sand and lead. They don't ring, they plunk.
Concrete Blocks.. Ugly , declasse and almost Free are amoungst the very best things to use to raise one's teeny tiny speakers to ear level.
IMO it's the Almost Free that keeps the Audio Weenies away.
Birdbath pillars. No, really.
They're made out of concrete, heavy as hell, pretty inert, and about the right height. I use cones underneath them and blutak the speakers to the pillars.
Available in a variety of styles. ;-)
My wife isn't thrilled about having electronic boxes and speakers in our living room to begin with, and there is ZERO chance that she'd go for concrete blocks! Whatever I go with, it has to meet her aesthetic standards (higher than mine) or at least be unobtrusive!
"Music is the medicine of a troubled mind." -- Walter Haddon, 1567
depending on your wife, of course!! :-))
In my second system, I have a pair of bookshelf speakers which I bought with a "normal" kind of stand ... an 11" x 9" spiked steel base-plate, a pair of rectangular cross-section steel tubes (about 2" x 1" and filled with lead shot) and a steel top-plate about 9" x 7".
They were "inoffensive" without looking in any way good! ;-))
I did notice that the suspended wooden floor vibrated when CDs with substantial bass transients was being played. So I decided to have my friendly metal workshop make up a pair which consists of a 9" x 7" x 1/4" aluminium top-plate with 4 splayed tubular aluminium legs welded underneath ... which are spiked to the floor.
These tubular legs are damped with clay-based cat litter (as I wanted to make up a lightweight structure, there was no point filling the aluminium legs with lead shot!). See here:
http://www.audiocircle.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=626&pos=5
I think these look much more interesting than stock stands ... not unobtrusive, certainly,but "purposeful"!! And they also work well, too, in that the floor is excited less by bass transients because the four spikes are at the corners of a much larger rectangle than with riginal stands, with their 11" x 9" base plate! :-))
So will your wifey go "eek" or will she approve of something like this?
Regards,
Andy
.... BUT I can’t imagine that stand passing any type of acceptance with many people.
If it works for you and you like the look of them then that is great.
Smile
Sox
... doesn't mean you have to diss my "invention" in front of all these Yanquis! :-))
WHY can’t youse imagine that stand passing any type of acceptance?
"Please explain" why not! :-)) Yes, some "more conventional" folk might not cope with their looks - but what technically is wrong with them IYO? By all means PM me if you're too embarassed to expose yourself to being shot down in flames! :-))
Regards,
Andy
...If you were a Queenslander your post would make a lot more sense. If you were a New South Welshman you would completely understand.
You ask me \\\but what technically is wrong with them IYO?/// I don’t have the first damn clue mate what’s wrong with them performance wise, if anything?. BUT on a wife acceptance scale they are fugly. They kinda remind me of something I’d stick me theodolite on.
Now if you note I did qualify my post to you in the subject line. \\\Without doubt beauty is in the eye of the beholder/// - So please no dramas or hysterics – I know, I know, a very difficult thing for a Victorian. :o)
Smile
Sox
I thought I remembered from a prior post that you live north of that border? :-))
Well, yes, my wife is a very forgiving soul (she puts up with my 1800 x 600 Maggies in the living room! :-)) ) but she's quite happy with those "WotW" stands I had made. IMO, normal stands look pretty ugly too, so it's just a matter of which "fugly" you prefer! :-))
In terms of "do they work better, technically" ... well, *I* think they do. But then I'm just a stupid wetback, right? :-))
Regards,
Andy
..... Yeah I have always been south of the Qld border.
Hey, you made the stands and they work and everything is kool. I am not really into stands as I have floor standers in my systems. I also have concrete floors and don’t have the problems associated with timber floors.
I kinda like the Cremona Auditor stands & a few others I’ve seen of similar appearance.
Like all things in life, including audio, you do what best suits your own requirements.
I have a 380mm sub that I built measuring 800mm high, 500mm wide, 600mm deep and weighing well over 100kg. It is powered by a 400w Redgum amp and it’s painted gloss red! I know Mrs Sox would prefer if it wasn’t inside or in sight but I let her have the house any damn way she chooses as long as I have the audio system any way I want. It works well.
So I know most will think my sub looks butt-ugly but I don’t give a shit. It is not something I’d ever suggest to someone else, if you get my drift?
No doubt you are having lovely brass-monkey weather down there in the deep south? (shorts and t-shirt here)
Smile
Sox
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