Speaker surface area

[Wakefield Turntables]

My current speakers stand on some atacama stands. My gripe is that the atacama stand dont fully house the foot print of the speaker, the speaker is both deeper in depth and wider in width than the speaker stand. Dont get my wrong they do a good job but I cant help wondering that more could be had from a properly fitting stand. I intend getting some solid oak stands made to the correct dimensions of the speakers foot print.

Would this be more beneficial to accomodate the full surface area of the speaker rather than have half of it dangling over the sides of the atacama stands?

[Tim]

Interesting, I have the same issue with my Atacama stands, but it's only a small overhang. I'm considering some Something Solid stands or getting some made by a professional carpenter I know . . . . what to do :scratch:

[Stratmangler]

Provided that the speakers are stable on top of the stands, and don't overhang the top plate too much, you shouldn't have any problems.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Interesting, I have the same issue with my Atacama stands, but it's only a small overhang. I'm considering some Something Solid stands or getting some made by a professional carpenter I know . . . . what to do :scratch:

It may be cheaper to seek out a timber merchant. I was quoted £122 for two solid pieces of solid oak 40cm tall, 30 cm wide and 36cm deep. I'm not too happy with the position of my tweeter i think its a little high so another reaso for the new stands is to hopefully get a better soundtage down to my lug holes :fingers:

[Tim]

Mines not actually that bad to be honest, about 1" all round, a little less front to back, but it looks wrong to me, as the base plate is slightly smaller than the speakers footprint :scratch:
I will address it when I have funds - I would be interested to know what you decide on?

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w63/greatgig/harbeth1-1.jpg

[Wakefield Turntables]

Dont hold your breath I have a garrard 301 to fettle first and then there are some birthday pressie upgrades for my 1210, it may take some time!! :)

[Barry]

It may be cheaper to seek out a timber merchant. I was quoted £122 for two solid pieces of solid oak 40cm tall, 30 cm wide and 36cm deep.

£122 for two pieces of solid oak, each over a cubic foot in size! :eek: What is the name of your timber merchant?

What does our resident forrester (Chris, The Grand Wazoo) think of that?

[aquapiranha]

My partners brother in law, who has his own joinery business makes complicated staircases and door and window frames out of oak as commissions.I was talking to him the other week about an ornamental foot bridge he was charged with building for a local park. He said he loves oak, but there are times when other woods, such as Iroko or ash would be better, especially if the piece is very thick as oak (English oak at least, not French) tends to split.
Of course there are other nice woods available and some like the way oak splits as it gives a rustic look to it.

Iroko..

http://www.fmcproducts.co.uk/images/iroko-hardwood.jpg

[Wakefield Turntables]

£122 for two pieces of solid oak, each over a cubic foot in size! :eek: What is the name of your timber merchant?

What does our resident forrester (Chris, The Grand Wazoo) think of that?

Its a local timber yard. It is OAK so it may split but I suppose thats the chance you take, they dont sell any (or dont want to sell me) other woods other than the oak.

[The Grand Wazoo]

I'd expect to be paying somewhere between £25 & £50 per cubic foot for Oak of that sort of dimension.
The reason for the rather wide range is that the lower end of the scale would be green, with no seasoning at all to speak of (don't stand it on your carpet though!) The upper price would be seasoned for several years, or kiln dried.
If it smells strongly of vinegar, then it's green!
If you do buy large dimensioned Oak, make sure what you get is all heartwood. Sapwood is lighter coloured - it's from the outer part of the tree and will fall off eventually!
You can see it on the edges of these boards under the bark.

http://www.lanarkshirehardwoods.co.uk/images/homepage/2.jpg

[Barry]

Its a local timber yard. It is OAK so it may split but I suppose thats the chance you take, they dont sell any (or dont want to sell me) other woods other than the oak.

I'm just amazed at the low price your timber yard wants to charge for two enormous chunks of hardwood.

I recently paid about £60 for 30' of pine planks to use as shelving, and that's a bog standard fast growing softwood. Don't think I was ripped off as that seems to be the going rate for timber - but in the light of the price you were quoted, I'm beginning to wonder. :scratch:

[Wakefield Turntables]

I'd expect to be paying somewhere between £25 & £50 per cubic foot for Oak of that sort of dimension.
The reason for the rather wide range is that the lower end of the scale would be green, with no seasoning at all to speak of (don't stand it on your carpet though!) The upper price would be seasoned for several years, or kiln dried.
If it smells strongly of vinegar, then it's green!
If you do buy large dimensioned Oak, make sure what you get is all heartwood. Sapwood is lighter coloured - it's from the outer part of the tree and will fall off eventually!
You can see it on the edges of these boards under the bark.

http://www.lanarkshirehardwoods.co.uk/images/homepage/2.jpg

many thanks, thats excellent advice. I'm still toying around with the idea as I have a few things I would like to buy like a new power supply for the 1210, a few bits for my garrard 301 and, well the list goes on............. :(

[The Black Adder]

I've been using Something Solid stands for a while. I had some on my Harbeths and currently getting some made for my Tannoy Lancasters.

A very decent upgrade!

[Alex_UK]

Tim - the Harbys will definitely benefit from some open-framed stands i feel, i.e. the Something Solid ones, as the design of the "thin wall" cabinets benefit from being supported at the extremities, I think. The same applies for my Spendors - they sound better on the specific Spendor stands which only support the outer edges, albeit the stands themselves are too low for "modern" thinking of getting the tweeter to ear level.

[Wakefield Turntables]

I've just had a quick look around the net and the ATC's which I own seem to benefit from large amounts of mass under them. I have the ASL50's which weigh nearly 50kgs each so they are not light weight. I'm in the process of pondering what to buy next for my 1210 system so it may be some time before I buy the oak blocks.

[Welder]

My view is don’t place stand mount speakers on solid supports; particularly if they’re decent studio monitor type. A quick look at how sound issues from the driver array will explain why better than I can.

Supporting the edges of the enclosure rather than deadening the base of the enclosure can make a lot of difference.