Metal Speaker Stands V Wooden Stands.

[Qwin]

I prefer open framed wood, with no top plate, the speaker supported at each corner and the underside panel of the speaker allowed to resonate in free air.
Metal can work well, but the design and damping needs more attention in my view, so wood is an easier DIY option.
These are all I use, which have interchangeable spikes or swivelling feet, depending on the type of floor they are set on.
The tops have a large thin rubber disc, that contacts the speaker.

[sailor]

I generally prefer metal, provided it is not solid or an unfilled hollow section. Metal being a high Q material, compared to wood can be damped easily. If the pipe, square or oblong section is filled with builders sand it behaves very differently and I find the sound to be noticeably cleaner.

I look at it this way: take a crystal glass (high Q) standing on a table and flick it with your finger nail, it will ring. Now pick it up by the rim with your finger tips and flick it again and hear the difference. If you do the same with a plastic tumbler or piece of wood (low Q) there is no change in sound indicating that a low Q material is very hard to damp. Wood varies a lot but is inherently low Q.

A high Q for a speaker stand is undesirable because it has a slower loss of energy which obviously is not good, but damp the column by filling it with clean and very dry sand and you have a sink for vibration/resonance. A side bonus is the increased mass also adds stability.

I use sand inside some speakers too for the same reason and see no reason why a wooden hollow boxlike speaker stand could not be filled with sand and provide much the same performance. It would be interesting to compare them side by side. I much prefer the look of natural solid wood but suspect the metal version to win.

[brian2957]

I decided to build some open frame wooden stands and I'm very happy with them. The metal stands are now going into the loft

[Bencat]

Just a personal view but I think much depends on the design of the speaker to help decide what you do . Many moving coil speakers (most) try and damp the vibrations the cabinet produces to reduce colouration and in these cases it is probably sensible to follow the same path and use a stand that also is designed to damp and control vibrations .

However some designs like the Sl600i and Harbeths are made with a stiff but light cabinet and they try let any vibrations get out and away from the cabinet as quickly as possible. Using these speakers then any stand that tries to damp the vibrations will stop the cabinet from doing its designed function. So for this type of speaker then a stand that is light but rigid (Torlyte or other honeycomb material) but above all rigid and light which allows vibrations to pass through is the way to go and produces the best sound when I have tried it.

I have also found that this same type of stand often works very well with the type of speaker design that tries to damp vibration as well and so wood stands would be my choice were possible .