Of the myriad audiophile topics that come up here, I haven't noticed any real discussion recently of speaker stands. What gives? Does everyone own floorstanders?
I mean, there's plenty of room for disagreement, errr, discussion. Optimal height? Material of manufacture: metal (which), wood, other? Single material or mix? Design: single upright, multiple uprights, open top or top plate? Over-engineered and heavy, or minimalistic and light-weight? Interface between the monitor and the stand: high-tech gizmo, cork, nothing at all, Blu-tack, other? Mass loading--yes or no? If yes, kiln-dried sand or kitty litter, or lead buckshot? Brands? Best? Best bang for the buck?
Call ME crazy, but why buy a stand mounted speaker that takes up a footprint and needs to be further out in the room that a properly designed floor stander? I've always felt this way. Vandersteen started the baffleless floor stander in his model 2 as all speaker were using large baffles. Now days, we have plenty of great choices at all price levels that are able to get a floor standing speaker to do on top what the stand mounted speaker does, PLUS they are much more full range or close enough.
My wife even said she loved the look of my Treo's (now Quatro's) than the monitors she saw with me. JMHO...
Lots of choices when it comes to speaker stands. For my Kef LS50s, I chose 24" Skylan and filled the vertical columns with sand and used Blu-Tack between speaker and stand. Have hardwood floors over slab and use spikes w/spike cups.
As a general rule, stand height should place tweeters at ear level with mass loading of stands for stability and vibration/resonance control. IMHO, speaker cones should move but NOT their enclosures
ctsooner2,291 posts05-13-2020 3:49pm"Call ME crazy, but why buy a stand mounted speaker that takes up a footprint and needs to be further out in the room that a properly designed floor stander? I've always felt this way. Vandersteen started the baffleless floor stander in his model 2 as all speaker were using large baffles. Now days, we have plenty of great choices at all price levels that are able to get a floor standing speaker to do on top what the stand mounted speaker does, PLUS they are much more full range or close enough...."
The location of floor-standing speakers in a room is always a compromise between imaging and bass performance. With stand-mounts and subwoofers, the monitors can be located for best imaging and the subs for best bass performance.
FWIW, I had Vandersteen 2CEs for many years but, after moving, found that they just didn't work well in a small listening space. The Vandies need space for the various drivers to blend properly. The Kef LS50s don't have that problem because of the coincident/coaxial driver design. A sub was required, however,to fill out the bottom end.
Nice system by the way. I'm sure the Quatros are very pleasing to the ears.
turnbowm: " The location of floor-standing speakers in a room is always a compromise between imaging and bass performance. With stand-mounts and subwoofers, the monitors can be located for best imaging and the subs for best bass performance.
+1 turnbowm. I agree completely.
Independent positioning of bass drivers in a room, and in relation to the designated listening position, is very important for high quality bass performance just as independent positioning of mid-range and treble drivers, mainly in relation to the listening position, is very important for high quality mid-range, treble and stereo sound stage imaging performance. It makes little sense to have all drivers vertically aligned in the same cabinet, fixed in place and ultimately occupying the same specific footprint location in the room for each channel’s floor standing speaker. It’s highly unlikely that the 2 specific room footprint locations, that are determined by the listener to be the best locations for the mid-range and treble drivers for optimum mid-range/treble/imaging performance, are the exact same 2 specific room footprint locations that are determined by the listener to be the best locations for the bass drivers for optimum bass performance.
Given all the above facts, the approach that makes the most sense to me is treating our systems as 2 systems:
1. Mono Deep Bass system for reproducing all frequencies below 80 Hz. 2. Stereo Mid-range, Treble and Sound Stage Imaging system for reproducing all frequencies above 80 Hz.
Noone's left out, however, since floor standers or stand mounted monitors can be utilized for #2- a Stereo Mid-range, Treble and Sound Stage Imaging system.
So, what do my comments have to do with general considerations on speaker stands? Woops, sorry. I don’t have a lot of experience with speaker stands, although I did recently order a pair of Mye stands for my Magnepan floor standing speakers that are due to arrive by the end of the month. It’s just that this thread topic triggered me to contemplate the different approaches we all take with our systems; stand mounted monitor or floor standing type speakers, restricted low frequency or full range speakers, with subs or without, etc. The above just summarizes some of my thoughts on those thoughts.
You can also Beard a stand to increase bass response and not lose the imaging. That being said, 60-80 and down, like Noble100 said, really needs to be somewhere else, timing is just too far off.
I like 60-300 hz placement too, it's just too directional. It also will add depth and clarity, without just tons of room treatment. I like separate monitors. PERIOD, no bass in them
The beard can be wide or narrow, from the floor all the way to the base of the enclosure, it can be behind or in front. It can be flat, convex or concave. They can really help with blending and capturing lost bass response.
Or the squat and grunt crowd... Opps I did it again. I call it the "Swarm Flu". Very contagious too. LOL
As heavy a stand, as you can lift or stack. They should sound like green concrete, with the ol knock test... Especially the beard....
Guys, I have to disagree with some of what you are saying IRT floor standing speakers. I own Vandersteen's and the Treo on up have been designed to be placed close to the back wall and still give you a great stage etc... I have Quatro's with the 11 band bass EQ, so I just dial in the bass to be smooth in my room. It works exceptionally well and my wife loves how the speaker look in the room.
I don't miss anything as I've had then into the room, but put them back as I'm not losing anything putting up close to the wall. I'd must rather have what I have than miss the lower octaves.
If you need to install a sub into the system, that means two in order to do bass properly and it's very difficult to integrate a sub into most system, plus that takes up way more space than a floor stander that was designed to be coherent from the lower octaves up.
Many folks just think a stand mounted speaker does things that the floor stander can't, but that was in the past, not the present.
One lasting impression of speaker stands happened at a dealer several years ago listening to Dali, KEF and other stand mount monitors on some Sound Anchor stands, spikes on the base, thin layer of blu tack between the speakers. The bass was simply solid, deeper and more well defined than I have heard with other stands including filled plastic, wood, etc. The rigid, high mass stand gave me the benchmark for what could be possible for a stand mounted speaker. The sound of the bass response is what was most impressive- leading edges with impact, quick non bloated decay. Since that impression I was reluctant to buy them because they were pricey. With a variety of stand mounts and larger monitors that have passed through my listening room I have used cat litter filed plastic, DIY open wooden frames, basic metal and MDF stands and nothing gave me that sound that was my benchmark. Finally bit the bullet and purchased them- 4 post sound anchors for my Harbeth SHL5+. Finished.
i have 4 bose 901 series 2 speakers hanging from the ceiling. i know all out there will say that the 901's are outdated but i like them. they are hanging around 2 feet from the ceiling. my ceilings are 7 feet high. is that about the right distance from the ceiling???
I’ve been using Dynaudio stand 2’s filled with sand and spikes on the bottom. Blu tak on top. These are really nice, solid and heavy stands! I like them quite a bit.
In general I prefer towers, but not all listening environments are suited for them. Take my secondary bedroom system. Each time I listen, due to space/storage/walking lane constraints, I need to move the right speaker five feet from its dormant position to its optimal in-room listening position. Using Pangea LS300 sand-filled, bluTack secured stands to Spendor D1 mini monitors, it takes 30 seconds, including measuring with tape measure from side and front walls to match the distances of the left speaker (which is out of the way enough to remain in constant position).
Doing that with towers would be much more cumbersome, and for that reason I’d probably end up listening less.
Have been impressed with the BlueTack. I used a lot to really snug the speakers to the stands. On initial installation I accidentally pulled too hard on a connected speaker cable and toppled the speaker and stand, but the speaker ended up falling to rest against a plastic bin (those plastic storage tubs) and the BlueTack held so that the stand did not break away from the speaker, which would have caused damage as the stand would have fallen completely to the floor and the speaker then would have fallen down onto the metal stand on the floor, surely scratching the speaker at a minimum if not damaging the drivers. When they came to rest, the speaker and stand were probably at about at 45 degree angle. As it was, no damage because speaker side just stopped against the plastic tub, and the bluTack held. Thankfully! I woulda been really pissed at myself for not paying attention if that BluTack wouldn’t have held!! Granted, Spendor D1 mini monitors are small and light.
The responses on this thread topic just illustrates the different approaches we all take with our systems; stand mounted monitor or floor standing type speakers, restricted low frequency or full range speakers, with subs or without, etc. It also demonstrates that there's more than one way to skin a cat, which btw I no longer enjoy due to all the blood, screeching and clawing.
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