Sand or shot for speaker stands?

Lead shot on its own is less successful that mixing it with a bit of sand, but the difference is subtle. Be careful to listen before and after as it is not a given that you will prefer the sound with your stands loaded. The sound can smooth out, the noise floor reduce and apparent bass extension improve. Equally the sound can become closed in and sluggish. How come? It depends on a variety of things, one of which is the floppiness or otherwise of your floor. For example a very floppy floor is best mated with light and rigid supports, whereas a rigid floor can work best with heavily damped supports.

I reckon the spikes are best to support the speaker, particularly if you have loaded your stands, and this will probably get rid of the "closed in" sound. Another issue I didn't mention was the nature of the speaker cabinet. With very dead cabinets, or ones with a low resonance point - such as the birch ply used for some UK speakers, I have found that aluminium stands can be best ie. very light and rigid. With most speakers now using MDF however, steel stands with some damping is usually best. Albertporter knows this well - don't get sucked into thinking that any tweak gets rid of resonances, they just shift them around. Whether it is lead or sand, you are just shifting the resonance point. What you try to do is smooth the resonances so that they dispell their energy quickly and over a wide band. Steel stands get rid of their energy quickly but over a narrow band. Filling them you spread the band, but the speed is compromised. Filling them with poured lead would probably be a disaster. You can get back some of the speed by using the spikes to support the speakers. Sorry for the rambling nature of the post.