I was told to put Kitty Litter in my new speaker stands. Was he joking?
I guess i realize he was NOT joking, but it seems strange. I've always heard sand was best. He told me to get unscented kitty litter and fill em all the way up. The stands are 29 inches with 4 columns (2x2). Monitors are 23 pounds each.
Yes, I used unscented kitty litter in my Skylan stands, 3/4 full. You can use sand, I don't think it makes that much difference. The point is to create some mass.
Do not use kitty litter if you live in a humid area. The litter will absorb the moisture and clump up making it difficult to empty and could corrode the inside of the stands. Sand can leak out if the welds aren't perfect. If you use sand, make sure it is dry. I use small pebbles or pea gravel. They pack in very well if you shake the pillars during filling and easy to deal with if you need to empty. Available, by the 40lb. bag at most home improvement stores. Make sure they are dry too before using.
I've used kitty litter on some stands with very good results. The stands I had used thin aluminum tubes with glass plates on top and bottom. They had a distinctive ring to them when you tapped them and this came through when the speakers were playing. The kitty litter in the tubes completely eliminated the problem. Dill makes an interesting point about humidity. I haven't looked inside the tubes since filling them so I can't say if there are any clumping problems. I don't live in a humid climate but if you do that would be something to consider. You might leave some kitty litter out in a tub for a few weeks and see if starts to clump together on it's own.
Its like this everywhere. There are guys who say use peanut butter to recondition the black rubber trim on cars. Some monkey says it, some bird parrots what the first monkey said, eventually whole flock of sheep baaa-baaa-baaa-ing the same blather.
All because using the old noggin, ow makes my head hurt.
So it has been. So ever it shall be. Participate or not. Choose wisely.
go to a pet store that has fish, they will sell clean and dry sand, small pee gravel etc. of various sizes pick the one you like. I've used the sand many times with good results. if its not sealed along the bottom run a bead of silicon around the bottom area simple and easy. pet stores have a variety of sized gravel you can use if sealing for sand isn't practical. better then kitty little, wont attract moisture and will be denser then litter and will be cleaned and sanitized (more or less).
Expensive, but Atacama atabites are what I use. They are tiny bits of metal uniformly round and flat in shape. They are said to be better than sand and lock together once settled, creating a very dense damping medium for speaker stands. A bit hard to come by in the US, but can be had from UK dealers who ship to the US. Can sometimes be found on Ebay.
You can buy lead shot at Cabelas or Bass Pro. I used a mask (happened to have a few) and gloves, while filling with a funnel. A 25lbs bag was plenty for both stands. Music Direct sells a product by KEF that costs about $25.00 a bag. I believe it takes 2 bags per speaker stand.
Look up Poly-Pellets weighted stuffing beads. They're widely available in craft stores and in various sizes. These are the cleanest item I found for filling speaker stands. They are good for adding mass, don't attract pests, have no issues with humidity, and probably dampen and/or prevent floor vibrations from getting to your gear.
I built some stands in the first part of this year, as they are steel I was concerned with moisture embedding in kitty litter as it is hygroscopic. Steel and aluminum are both susceptible to corrosion/oxidation. I recall deciding that if budget is no concern, copper pellets or BBs would have been best. Steel shot that I have encountered, already has evidence of oxidation/rust so I would not introduce that into the stands. I spent an inordinate amount of time researching material and I decided on quartzite. If I recall correctly it is heavier than silica sand, it naturally breaks to a rough edge and therefor locks together really well once inside the stand columns. There is a company that produces crushed quartzite and it is labeled as Cherry Stone. I purchased a 50lb bag from Rural King for $7.99. It has worked out really well for me.
The filling options are endless, sand blasting media, epoxy sealed aquarium gravel, or as mentioned above, glass beads.
I would avoid kitty litter for sure.
I suggest using osmium shot or pure iridium. If not fill your stands with mercury. If you have any mercury left over mix it with equal parts vodka and lime juice and drink it while listening to the results of your labors.
I think stuffing kitties themselves into the stands will be more effective at damping harmonic resonance but you may start getting some howling feedback...
A friend of mine suggested rice. Another friend tried it, with good results, so I did the same. Plain ol' white rice, though I don't think it much matters. Very inexpensive, as well. If humidity is an issue with this choice, or cat litter, it'll be one only in a more humid climate.
If going with cat litter, make sure it's unscented. If it is scented, your cat/s might take an interest in sniffing around it, and, well, you get the picture.
If not fill your stands with mercury. If you have any mercury left over
mix it with equal parts vodka and lime juice and drink it while
listening to the results of your labors.
Wouldn't be the best choice. There's a very good reason they stopped using those mercury filled glass thermometers decades ago...(mercury toxicity). Unless of course there's some other kind of mercury you're talking about.
Whether you use sand or kitty litter do not just pour it into the stand. Pour it into appropriately shaped thick plastic and seal it. Then you don't need to worry about leaks or moisture ingress.
The moisture absorption might be an issue. I used lead weights (free from my local tire store) and added sand.
JUST AS IMPORTANT as the material is the level of fill. I experimented with quarter, half and all the way filled. Surprised at differences, settling on about 2/3. Clearly, like everything else: try and experiment.
Renowned speaker designer Andrew Jones uses kitty litter in his stands at the audio shows. If it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me. I put lead shot in the bottom of mine, then filled them with kitty litter. Works great!
Kidding aside, kitty litter has been used since the beginnings of this hobby for those who couldn't afford lead shot or something better. Some even preferred it to sand.
I am still waiting for the stands to arrive. But it seems logical that since enough of you have used KL successfully and it was recommended by the speaker designer - ill use it also. Yes it absorbs humidity, but thats its function, and wont matter unless i try to remove it ( cant imagine why i would do that). I bought my old stands used, over 20 yrs ago and have no idea what the original owner put in them. I should check.
The retro looking stands that I use for my JBL 4319s use some kind of injectable sound deadening foam. When I first got them, I tried rapping on different spots/locations and got different, thought deadened, responses. Seems to work well enough.
Just a follow up in case someone else has the same question. I used non clumping clay based unscented kitty litter. I filled both Pangea DS400 stands with two 15 pound bags. The stands were heavy before filling and now they are like statues. It worked out great, sounds clean and tight.
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