Speaker Stands adapters for Heavy Speakers?

Roy,

Thanks for your response. I did contact you recently about the grill cloth and you gave me some additional testing ideas.

I hope everyone on this forum realizes how involved you are in the community and how much time and energy you put into supporting your users. I am definitely becoming a customer for life!

Per your other email - I am going to take some measurements close up using one speaker at a time to see if I can pinpoint room effects. The speakers still sound amazing, but as a bass player, I want to make sure I get all that I can out of them. I will update on my results. I am planning on using the 1 Hz test tones available from realtraps.com.

drew.

Drew,

I would stay with small dots of Blu-tak, say less than 1/4" balls before the speakers' weight flattens them out. They will stick well enough to the Q-Stone marble of the Europa cabinet, but still release someday. Blu-tak does penetrate wood surfaces that are not sealed or painted, which should not be the case with your stands.

Your top-plate dimension is fine.

If your stands are well made, the vibration you feel is the floor itself moving. However, do make sure all four spikes (for carpet) or four feet (for wood or tile floors) are touching down. That can be a source of wiggle, and most easily checked for by pushing on the top plate of the speaker stand in a certain manner:

Push diagonally from corner to corner, only in the horizontal plane, parallel to the plane of the floor. Do not apply upwards or downwards pressures.

Hot spots in the midrange your meter will exaggerate. If they are audibly there on, say, female voices, then I would make a guess you need sidewall acoustic treatments. A photo of the setup would help anyone advise.

Good work on resolving your subwoofer issue! You received good advice from everyone. That remaining 10dB rise in the low bass is half room-caused and half from the subwoofer's design, from its too-small box size and likely some built-in low-bass EQ. Do not add extra stuffing to that box.

Instead, use your ears to determine if that measured bass rise is audibly OK, probably tested listening to string bass, because the Fletcher-Munson curve is somewhat applicable to what you 'need to hear.'

Feel free to contact me directly. I would appreciate knowing your results.

Best regards,
Roy Johnson
Designer
Green Mountain Audio

This is an interesting topic - Roy, the designer of Green Mountain recommends Blu-tak to decrease resonance from the stands. Green Mountain's cabinets are made from Q-stone and have low resonance.
I also found this article http://www.stereophile.com/features/806/index5.html
that measures the effects of using blu - tak vs cones. I can feel some vibration from the stands so am currently getting some resonance from them, though I don't know what frequency range.

I am getting an SPL gauge and test CD to measure frequency response. Sounds like I need to experiment with some options and try to figure out what the impact is. My current speakers and room already exhibit some hot spots in the mid-range that I would like to eliminate

If the stands are metal I would consider decoupling the speakers from them. I have used Blu-tak but mine sound better with a set of cones with point upward between the speakers and stands. If I did want to couple them to the stands I would use cones with point downward. Metal stands are quite resonate even when filled with lead shot as mine are. If you have some small cones [Mapleshade, Valid Points, Star Sound, others] try them and see what you think. You do have to be more careful not to knock them over. Blu-Taked speakers have to be pried off.

Thanks for feedback. I am planning on using blu-tak. It sounds as though it holds well enough to secure the speakers. Thanks for the suggestion about the lead, I think I will try that as well.

Drew.

D, most monitor mfgrs recommend blu-tak. The smaller plate would also be a design criteria. If the base plate is small I would use lead, not sand.

Have to agree I wouldn't fret over an inch or so either way.If you needed a little more hieght you could add a piece of maple or Granite but I don't feel the extra added cost is worth the trouble...Just make sure you have a Herbies ( or something similar ) big Fat Dots in between stands and Monitor...........

Your top plate is just fine, really. Going to the edge won't make it any better. 1/2 or so around the edge is very normal.