Impact of speaker stands?

Thx for all responses. I don't have a dedicated room so the stands have to look good as well as function effectively. The system is on the ground floor of my townhouse which has wood floors over a concrete pad. Anything that spikes into the floor is not going to fly. (Space in Hawaii is at a premium and at 57 my townhouse is paid for and it would cost me another $200k to buy a house to gain another room. I love audio and music but I have to make this work here.) So its not clear to me whether I want to couple to the floor or I so late from it? I looked at Timber nation stands and could ,"sell" those to my wife. Skylan stands would be OK...less WAF. So I buy the stand argument but still a little fuzzy on the right way to go?

The higher end Raidho's require there 3k dollar stands...thats insane..

With the Raidho the stands de-couple the speakers. Talk about wobble!! But they sure look good. I never tried a solid stand like my Dynaudio Stand4 but I would guess it would ruin the sound. What was very interesting when I had the D1's I added 3/4" granite slabs under the stands (I have padded carpet on concrete). It made the sound more forward and tighter. Sounded great. Very similar as adding the spikes to the Dyn stands when I had the C1's

The day I spend $3K on speaker stands is the when they put me away for my own good. My Timbernation stands were a little more than 1/10th the cost of those Raidho stands and the amount of image focus was dramatic.

Kick drums no longer emanate sound from the whole surface of the skin but start from the center and work their way outward. It's that much better. Images shrink ever so slightly due to this focus lock and everything seems a lot more real. With the tighter focus comes a darker background and better separation. You get the picture. I didn't think it would be this good.

All the best,
Nonoise

The higher end Raidho's require there 3k dollar stands...thats insane..

Call Noel at Skylan in Canada and he will take good care of you

Set Symposium shelves between the speakers. Tweeters at ear level and short out the unused speakers with some speaker wire (plus to minus) or get stands and put Symposium shelves underneath or on top of the speakers and put the other speakers in another room if you are not using them.

Factors to consider are height ability to tilt if needed and if stands couple to floor or isolate.

I have dynaudio stands that couple to floor that work best on a more solid foundation and isoacoustics brand stands that sit lower to reinforce bass and also decouple from the floor which helps keep bass clean on less rigid suspended plywood floors on upper levels. They also provide option to tilt up which helps with lower placement.

I also put my ohm 100s on auralex sub dude platforms to isolate those from unwanted floor interaction on the same upper level. Not needed in finished basement where floor is thin dense carpet and pad over concrete foundation.

The drivers in the JBLs will be contributing something to the mix just from the fact that active speakers are on top of them...so there's that...also I've found that small-ish conventionally stand mounted speakers have a "singing" pleasant quality if there is less stuff to couple with around them. There is some discussion regarding "spikes vs. rubber feet" where the rubber might be winning in many cases...I put Vibrapods under my skinny Silverline Preludes and they sound better than they did with spikes...go figure. Some high end speakers are being sold with some sort of "decoupling" feet these days...fanatical indeed.

Although the height is where you want it, the foundation your speakers rest on isn't inert enough in my opinion. Isolation can't be achieved by use of foam and speakers to the degree necessary to isolate your speakers, not to mention the coupling needed.

From what I understand, the base should be firm enough as to not allow vibrations to travel up to the speakers and the speakers should be coupled to the base in such a way as to add another degree of isolation and to help drain vibrations from the speaker itself.

Foam and speakers just won't cut it. Microscopic though it may be, the amount of vibration that foam and speakers allow should be enough to smear or veil the sound to a degree that should be detectable in comparison to a really inert stand.

All of this will sound fanatical, but that's what this hobby is about. :-)

All the best,
Nonoise

There are many articles on the internet about the speakers stands (use Google). There is also the litrerature dealing with this subject, for example Jim Smith: Get Better Sound. However, the stands must be rigid and must damp the vibrations as much as possible. Considering the height of the stands, there is "golden rule" - the tweeters should be as high as the the listener ears. I think, the placement of your Kefs on stands would be better solution.

Stands are a must, as your set up now does not isolate the speakers and no matter what padding you use, it will be truly isolate them. Best to find stands that you can spike on where they meet the floor and also spike them where the speakers meet the stands. Yes, it is called a 'double spike'. Don't use blu tack or moon gel. Enjoy.