Speaker stands can make or break the performance of a speaker. The idea that all they have to do is raise the speakers to the right hight really is bollocks - the sort of utter bollocks spouted on the Harbeth forum (for example).
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Speaker stands can make or break the performance of a speaker. The idea that all they have to do is raise the speakers to the right hight really is bollocks - the sort of utter bollocks spouted on the Harbeth forum (for example).
I completely agree Mark, and YEARS of experience in that area backs it up :)
There's a danger sometimes in hi-fi, with people of a certain mindset, automatically dismissing as "foo" anything that doesn't neatly 'fit' with their belief system, and it annoys me immensely because it stifles genuine learning!
Marco.
From experience I know that speaker stands can make a huge difference. My stands originally had steel baseplates that allowed the stands to sway a little. Never was happy with how the speakers sounded. I changed the steel baseplates for beachwood bases that solved the swaying issue and it sounded like I had bought a new set of speakers. A while back I experimented with some silicone pucks under the bases and they seemed to suck the life from the speakers and ruined the imaging. Changed back to some metal adjustable feet that coupled the stands direct to my concrete floor overlaid with solid oak. Again a huge change for the better. Added some hard coupling between the stands and the actual speakers, another change for the better.
You really do need to get the stands and how they connect with the floor and the speakers right. However, I do agree there is a lot of foo out there as to howmit all works.
Thanks for replies, I wasn't being intentionally luddite, as I've bought these new (to me) speakers, I want to make sure they perform at peak (or close to) level. They are rather small though - 305 x 165 x 180 mm, so I'm guessing they might need non standard stands.
At the most basic level I guess it makes sense to be able to move the speakers around to find optimum listening position.
This is an 'old chestnut' discussed numerously on forums, and (also with equipment coupling/decoupling) needs some resolution.
I've been reading on this for a long time, and gradually it seems have got to some hard truth.
Spikes in floors do seem to couple, and in the extreme, (nails in wood, running spikes in the ground), and therefore cannot decouple the floor from vibration IMO, but they will stabilise the speaker's position and stop it moving in reaction to any cone movement, but a heavy floorstander is unlikely to move in reaction to cone excursion.
A soft and lossy footing or pad will tend to decouple vibration but will allow some movement of a speaker, and there is an art to finding a good compromise between these conflicting factors.
Presenting a high mechanical impedance to energy which might travel from a lively cabinet through to the floor is IMO the best option; I have used granite plinths with a 10mm EDPM rubber pad between the speaker and the plinth, the density of granite presenting a massive change in mechanical impedance to the energy both leaving the speaker and returning to it, which when travelling through the rubber is to an extent attenuated both towards the floor and when reflected back to the speaker.
Surely the main and primary role of a stand with standmounts is to get the right height and angler of incidence of the sound waves to the ear. They of course should be dead, (some ring quite badly, sand filled perhaps?), and their weight could be a help, (as with the granite above).
I'm not keen on spikes into my floor with 77kg speakers, and the fragile and vulnerable nature of standmounts always worries me; they are asking to be knocked off, and a non contacting retaining bolt would be obligatory to me if I had them, but even so the whole thing could easily be tipped over.
It used to be argued in the 80s that standmounts were visually less imposing, and that may be subjectively so, but the stand is still visually there, and costs money, and the space it occupies is useless whereas a floorstander uses this for greater bass extension. Unless there are acoustic advantages to a standmounter I see no point in them.
That sounds about right Dennis.
I think many of us will have experimented to find agreeable solutions. I don't worry too much these days. As long as stand mounters are steady, I don't use spikes and just rely on the combined speaker/stand mass to keep things stable.
I think deliberately trying to decouple speakers from whatever they stand on is not the greatest idea, but it may be applicable in some circumstances.
99% of what a stand does is due to the height of it. This will change the relationship between ears and drive units, and the distance between the bass driver and the floor. Both these things will make a noticeable difference in how the sound is perceived. Pretty much everything else to do with the stand (what it is made of, how many legs etc) is irrelevant, assuming it is solid and stable to begin with.
However uncontrolled experimentation with speaker supports may lead people to believe that other factors are at work; mystical factors. Especially if the speaker stands were really expensive and come with pages of blurb from the manufacturer.