Lead (~11g/cc) is approximately seven times more dense than dry sand ((~1.6g/cc) or similar materials. Unhappily it is not environment friendly and its poisonous.
Mass is important for speaker stands and affects mainly low frequencies performance - the heavier your stand, the less it will move. Damping it will eliminate resonances that will affect mid and high frequencies and I remember reading advice from a speaker manufacturer that you should mix both to get the optimum filling, as thin sand is much more dissipative than lead.
Some years ago, as I did not want to use lead, I have used a filling of iron small parts (~7.8g/cc) and sand in my speaker stands.
But if an audiophile is really concerned with bass and ecology he can mix sand with gold (19.3g/cc) or uranium (19g/cc) to fill his stands!
Mass is important for speaker stands and affects mainly low frequencies performance - the heavier your stand, the less it will move. Damping it will eliminate resonances that will affect mid and high frequencies and I remember reading advice from a speaker manufacturer that you should mix both to get the optimum filling, as thin sand is much more dissipative than lead.
Some years ago, as I did not want to use lead, I have used a filling of iron small parts (~7.8g/cc) and sand in my speaker stands.
But if an audiophile is really concerned with bass and ecology he can mix sand with gold (19.3g/cc) or uranium (19g/cc) to fill his stands!