B &W bolt thread size?

I needed to know stand bolt sizes for my 805N's a while back. I emailed B&W and got a detailed reply by the next day, even though my speakers were second hand.

The 805N stands have four small spikes that come up from the stands to the bottoms of the speakers, and two bolts that keep the speakers firmly on the stand. The result of them being fixed firmly on the spikes/stands makes a noticable and worthwhile sound improvement over being placed flatly on the stands or with bluetac, IMHO.

I hope this helps somewhat.

Thanks for the response Do the spikes mar the speaker bottoms? I called B & W the other day with no response.

Hello Tntate - Coincidentally, a pair of CDM 1NT's just came to the main audio shop I frequent today. I lifted up the CDM's and saw no holes on the bottom, just four rubber disk-feet on a wooden bottom. Could be a version difference from yours, I suppose.

The 805's, on the other hand, have two threaded holes on the bottom for mounting to the stands. The speaker bottoms are steel plate. The spikes poking up from the stands can each leave a tiny indentation point on the speaker bottom, depending on how much pressure you use to tighten the screws. If you don't use the screws, I suppose the spikes migh leave no indentation. I tighten the screws down hard to prevent the speakers from falling off the stands, and the indentations in the bottoms of mine from the spikes are just deep enough to barely sense them when you slide the the speakers into place over them when replacing them on the stands.

Where are the threads/screw holes are you referring to in your CDM 1NT's?

When I needed my stand screws, I emailed the local B%W rep, rather than calling them, and had good luck.

Thanks for the response. The CDM 1NT's have four screw holes in the bottom, the rest is finished wood. I also have the rubber feet screwed into those holes. When you remove the rubber feet those holes line up exactly with the holes in the speaker stands. I want to utilize them for securing the stands. In doing so I will have the speaker sitting flat on the stand, I understand that this is not optimal for sound. If I place some sort of spike I will ruin the wood, that is not an option. Any remedies, or just forget about the spikes?

Hello Tntate - Oh, I see, I couldn't see the screw holes because they were under the rubber feet!

In my case, with 805N's, when I bought them they had some cheap, lightweight stands, and I was skeptical that stands would make much difference. I wasn't so impressed with the speakers at home, and was ready to dump them at one point, but then on a whim took them to a shop and put them on some very heavy stands made for them by TOAC, and it made such a difference I bought the stands kept the speakers longer. Eventually, I discovered that the 805's needed more power than I was giving them. I switched from a 50W/ch amp I had been using to a 150W/ch McIntosh amp, and found that the 805's are totally kicken' speakers when given some power! Eventually I found some original B&W stands for them, and with an amp powerful enough to run the 805's beter I could really hear improvement between the TAOC's, which are fine and good-looking third-party stands (and not cheap!), to the B&W stands, which were cheaper but designed together with the speakers. I had them on the stands with blue-tac for a while, then tried various types of feet and such, until I finally emailed B&W to find out the proper screw size, and later got all the original spikes and screws, and the sound became more refined and detailed.

The moral of this story is, in my case at least, after many attempts at cobbling and much time spent, in the end the original B&W parts sounded much better than anything I had tried. I'd therefore just try the original stuff first if I were you.

I found a manual for your speakers online easily, but it doesn't mention mounting on stands.

I'll dig through my old emails and see if I can find my communications with B&W regarding my stands here in Japan. If I can, I'll ask them about the screws/spikes for your speakers and post the result here for you. Might take a day or two...

My new stands are in fact brand new B&W's, but they are not the stands that were originally offered with the speakers. I filled them with sand, sat them on their rubber feet and their sound was nicely enhanced. Now that they are secured directly to the stand they seem to be somewhat muted. Security over sound? Not a good trade off. I need to figure this out...
Thanks again for your interest in helping me out.

Hello Tntate - I emailed them moments after my last post. No reply yet.

My stands are also filled with sand, but putting the speakers on them and tightening them down sharpens the sound rather than muting. In my case the speakers are bolted on with two screws but are also on 4 spikes between speaker and stand.

Suggestion: You could try placing some small hard items (ballbearings, etc., whatever you can find) between the stands and the speakers, then bolting them on but not tightly enough to mark the wood, or also placing a thin sheet of hard material (805's have steel plate) under the speaker to protect the wood from marking by whatever you place under them as "spikes"?

This should be similar in principle, me thimpks.

Hello Tntate - I emailed them moments after my last post. No reply yet.

My stands are also filled with sand, but putting the speakers on them and tightening them down sharpens the sound rather than muting. In my case the speakers are bolted on with two screws but are also on 4 spikes between speaker and stand.

Suggestion: You could try placing some small hard items (ballbearings, etc., whatever you can find) between the stands and the speakers, then bolting them on but not tightly enough to mark the wood, or also placing a thin sheet of hard material (805's have steel plate) under the speaker to protect the wood from marking by whatever you place under them as "spikes"?

This should be similar in principle, me thimpks.

My response from B&W is that they should sound better??? And, I should check for a blown tweeter. No blown tweeter on both sides. Anyway, your suggestion is the direction I will pursue. I searched last night for isolator's etc. I'll keep you posted.
Thanks again.

At least you got a response. Mine on your behalf so far has been nill. Perhaps the person I emailed is no longer there, who knows? Anyways, these are good speakers and worth tweaking all you can out of them. BTW - Google imaging "B&W CDM 1NT stands" (no quotes) I see one pic with what looks like significantly high spacers over the bolts between the speakers and stands. Take a look!

Once you get the most out of your stands, let me know and I'll tell you another very significant tweak I did to improve mine further...