Filling speaker stands: sand, lead, steel, rice. Full, half, etc?

Promote that person!

Obviously a super big advantage to fried rice, spam, grapes, pecans, and other delicious 😋 foods that are not too hard, not too soft, is you can eat them if they don’t sound good.

How did it sound? Lol. For those who admire sand or rice solutions, I suggest taking a gander at super smooth and super spherical glass microspheres, the operation of which is rather quite superior to non symmetrical sand and rice. These little babies are not cheap, what price glory?

Holiday Tip

Cone material, Order of effectiveness/sound quality,
best to worst 

NASA grade ceramic
Cryo’d high carbon steel
aluminum
brass
carbon fiber
lead

Remember, cones are directional so always use them points down.

Lots of folks have explanations for lots of stuff. My advice to people is never try to explain anything. It will only get you into trouble. Everything is arguable!

There is no doubt that most box type speakers need a little damping as the cabinet resonance is not really good for the sound. So, in addition to a good sounding stand I some effective method of damping cabinet resonance should be explored. Too bad Tekna Sonic Dampers for speakers and subwoofers are no longer available as they were very effective in allowing cabinet vibrational energy to exit the speakers without storing energy, which is an unfortunate side effect of many damping techniques. Also, as I mentioned somewhere last week, large cones act as node Dampers on speaker cabinets a la the “Beaks.” Those Gabon ebony things sometimes work when placed on top of the cabinet, too. Marigo VTS Dots (very small constrained layer Dampers) are effective for damping the internal crossover elements, speaker driver structure, speaker diaphragm, and the cabinet itself.

In addition, I kind of doubt that the ear should always be at tweeter height as it really depends on the actual radiation pattern of the tweeter, the room acoustics, and the location of the listener’s chair. In fact, Pierre Sprey over at Mapleshade is find of saying that the best sound is usually when the listener is sitting on the floor. So, opinions vary. Obviously the speakers should be carefully placed for best results.

The Frog Jump in Water Tweak is based on the concept that ice cold water in bowls on the floor causes the sound waves to bend downward slightly towards the listener so he hears more of the sound.