Stands for small floorstanders?

Outriggers, or better yet, screw-on steel base plates with cones make a tremendous difference in the speakers performance. Specifically. much improved focus and more solid bass. It is very easy to hear the difference. I recommend oregondv.com. They will make what you need, and they are good to work with.

Roxy,

Thanks for the input. I live overseas and I'll have to make my own bases, which is a non-issue, but would appreciate if you could describe these a bit more. How heavy are the screw-on steel plates? How much do I need to raise the speakers from the floor?

Does it make a difference if, given a base of the same weight, I use granite or steel?

Thanks again!

Rubber footers are not the best for coupling speakers to anything.

Here is a budget alternative that I have found works very well on hard surfaces - a very thick/heavy chopping block or cutting board (Maple, bamboo or similar material), slightly larger in area than your speaker's base. Separate from and attach your speaker to the wooden "platform" with four small dots of blutack or similar adhesive. Remove the stock rubber feet so vibration drains away from the speaker through bluetack into the wooden platform. Try with wood platform either directly on the floor or with blutack attaching it to floor too once your speakers are properly positioned in the room. Experiment to determine which configuration sounds best to you.

This REALLY cleaned up the bass on my set up, and improved treble definition at the same time - or perhaps I could just hear things better once muddy bass fixed.

This solution can be done for significantly less than $100, depending on your access to good quality wood slabs/cutting boards. Try a commercial kitchen supply store or the Internet.

The next step up in cost and complexity would be to use 3 or 4 brass cones or other metal "points" between speaker and wooden platform in place of the blutack, and between the platform and floor, as sounds best to your ear. This solution can actually reduce stability, but will be more similar to steel outrigger and points you describe in terms of function and performance.

Brass cones can be quite pricey, but work well in most applications.

Check here for visual description of what I am talking about:
http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/audioproducts/stands_floorstanding_hub.php

One final suggestion would be to get some Totem Acoustic "Claws" - see here:
http://www.totemacoustic.com/products/accessories/

Good luck.

Knownothing,

Thanks for the tips. I spent a fair amount of time looking at the Mapleshade website. They actually explain their beliefs, which is very helpful.

I could source a 2" heavy wood platform from a local wood shop and fit it with heavy brass cones (similar to the Heavyfeet). The platform/feet section would be rigidly attached and stable. I'm concerned about the speaker/feet resting on the platform section. As you noted, that piece is not very stable.

Stability is an issue for me as I have 3 small children who love to play and dance while I'm listening to music and chances are at some point a speaker is going to go down...NOT GOOD! So I'm willing to sacrifice some sound for added stability, for now.

With this in mind, I need some sort of rigidly attaching the speaker to the base. Do you believe a screw-on heavy wood plate sitting on heavy brass cones would sound better than a similar arrangement using steel plate? From what I read at Mapleshade I might want to try leaving a 1" space between the speaker and the platform.

Thanks a lot!

I'll second Roxy54's suggestion that you try the outriggers from oregondv.com. The staff is very helpful and the outriggers work very well. I had Acoustic Zens on carpet, and the outriggers made them rock solid. I had the same concern as you with the kids, but in my case its the grandkids. If you don't like them, you can always sell them on Audiogon... they move fast.

"With this in mind, I need some sort of rigidly attaching the speaker to the base. Do you believe a screw-on heavy wood plate sitting on heavy brass cones would sound better than a similar arrangement using steel plate? From what I read at Mapleshade I might want to try leaving a 1" space between the speaker and the platform."

I'm not crazy about advising you to screw something into the bottom of your speaker, if that is what you mean. I also like wood better than steel for it's acoustic dampening properties.

Honestly - try using Bluetack to attach speaker to the wood platform for this application. I know this is not one inch or more above the wood, but it can be extremely secure (requiring many pounds of force to remove), and acoustically it works well to couple your speaker to the stand. It's what I use right now and it works very well - maybe not quite as well as brass cones for sound, but much better than rubber feet. And it will reduce outings to the hospital which is a very good thing!

Or, you could try the outriggers others suggest.

Or, you could really simplify things and just try using Bluetack to attach your speakers directly to your tile floor and see how stable it is and how it sounds. I guarantee it will be an improvement over the rubber feet. Start simple and go from there...

Thanks guys.

Knownothing: Not thinking of making holes in the speaker! Just going to use the existing holes for the threaded rubber feet to attach the speaker to whatever I make.
Anyway, I hear you about trying with Blutak. The issue is I live overseas and we don't have Blutak here. Same thing for oregondv.com outriggers (it makes no sense to ship heavy weights intl').

Luckily I find my way around with DIY. I'm thinking of making my own stands. Either 1/2"-thick steel base (cut with a panthograph) or a 2 or 3" thick hard wood base with outriggers (and heavy brass cones like Mapleshade's).
I wonder if using 1" spacers between amp and stand and having the 1/4" bolts to attach the speaker to the stand would help "drain" the vibrations out of the speaker and into the stand. Any thoughts?

If the connection between the speaker and the stand is very secure, my feeling is that it should work (i.e. no loose parts to rattle). I am also sure that we could get into a detailed discussion about what kind of materials would work best for the bolts and spacers in this application!!! Whatever you do, I would get the basic rubber/plastic out of the coupling system.

Try it a report back to us on what you decide and how it works.