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How much difference do Speaker Stands make?

N

Njb

pfm Member
I have a pair of Dynaudio Focus 160s on a pair of Atacama HMS stands that I picked up second hand. The stands are reasonably heavy but are not quite as solid as I expected. The hollow columns rang like a bell, so I filled them with paper based kitty litter and that has dampened them very effectively. However, the whole result is still short of what I anticipated in terms of solidity.

Also, without wishing to sound like a complete hifi numpty, they are pretty ugly. Dynaudio make some nice looking single column stands. Can I justify getting them? Will it detract from the sound? Perhaps it will improve it. What do people think?
 
Hi,

I have a pair of Linn Saras on the Linn stands, I decided to try another stand and bought a pair of Atacama SL300i stands.

I also bought the Atacama Atabites to fill them 2/3 full, as per the instructions and very helpful telephone call I had with Atacama.

http://www.atacama-audio.co.uk/p/at...-filler/accessories_atacama-accessories?pp=24

Result was an improvement over the Linn stands, not a huge difference, just slightly better in the areas the Saras do well in.

Maybe as they are not a spiked base into the Saras, the speakers sit on small (semi soft plastic) pads, they also sit lower to the ground than the Linn stands and again this may help.

I would suggest your Atacama stands would be better with the Atabites than the kitty litter.

Cheers

John
 
I don't have a cat, but would have thought kitty litter was much too light to do the job. As suggested above Atabites or sand are what you need.
If looks are a problem, it's really a case of how much you want to spend. An e-Bay seller will make you some in wood which are elegant, although not to everyone's taste.

(Whatever you decide, getting height and rake absolutely right for your listening position are critical for 'serious' listening.)
 
IMO you cannot fairly compare two different stands unless they both site the speakers in exactly the same place in all three axes, as even small differences in speaker placement within a room can cause significant changes in frequency response that can potentially swamp any sonic differences between stands.
 
Opinions on the importance of stands varies wildly across the hi-fi world. Personally I would say they are (or certainly can be) very important and would always recommend that they were as solid and rigid as possible.

Edit: I've just seen post #4 and would agree.
 
Stands make or break the performance of a stand mount speaker, there's a clue in the name. ;)

You will only hear ProAc Response 1SCs at their best on a very high mass stand, conversely the opposite is true of the Linn Kan which like light, ridged and open fame stands.

Quite what would suit the Dynaudio best I don't know but I'd be surprised if there was no difference between different types of stand.
 
As per Mark an immense difference!

I went from Atacama stands with my Dynaudio Contour 1.1's (superb speaker!) to Partington Dreadnoughts and it was a huge improvement in every area. Have had similar experiences with other stands, MAF with Neat Petites, Broadsides with my current Opals too.

Internal damping and the need to do so varies from design to design.
 
Yes, I rather understated the relevance of the stand in my previous post. I should say that personally I consider the stand and speaker to be a single unit and went so far as to make my own stands for my current speakers as I didn't think anything on the market did what I wanted.
 
Personally i would stick with the light stuff for filling, i use wood pellet cat little from Tesco http://www.tesco.com/groceries/prod...Nw5dT3SVG0_tSmQVN7lM8aAoWt8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds, it damps superbly but without the mass, which in my experience dulls the sound of the speaker, just my experience, you may prefer this, so worth a go with sand, atabites are a complete waste of money.
I owned a pair of Dynaudio stands recently & they were very solid once filled 2 thirds with wood pellets, they looked stunning too once placed. Prior to this i owned the HMS 1.1, dull doesn't even begin to describe the effect, the Dyanudio stands were far better IMO.

Having said all that, i would still go for oak stands personally, i know, i'm the only one here who believes this but they make my speakers sing like a bird, way more stable than any metal stand i have tried & half the weight of my light atacama stands.
With my speakers sitting on the oak compared to a pair of partington dreadnought i had here, well, if you prefer music to sound real, avoid the metal.
 
Personally I go for the mass-load effect and I completely filled the hollow columns of my last Elac speakers with sand, to good effect. The stands were spiked into a concrete floor.

Also worth experimenting with the speaker-to-stand coupling. I found 3 tiny pieces of blu-tac under each speaker was the best.
 
Yep, I also prefer a relatively heavy filling (lead shot in my case) but in an open design (no top or bottom plate which also makes a difference). As above, the way the speaker contacts the stand is also clearly audible, felt dots, gel dots, Blu Tack or spikes - all sound different. Personally I prefer a hard rather than compliant solution but taste varies.
 
GavinB said:
Check with a Dynaudio dealer to see what they recommend / sell?
Click to expand...

Dynaudio recommend their Stand 6 over the X3. No real surprise there. My current HMS1.1 claim to be designed against the spec of a well known top end speaker brand. I am tempted to buy some sand and see what happens with adding weight to them.

They still look ugly, but most metal stands struggle in this area. The wife, bless her, wants me to get those bespoke oak stands. They do look canny, but are they looks over function? Not sure yet.
 
seriously, if you decouple adequately your speakers to the stands, I doubt anyone in a blind test could hear much difference IF well decoupled.
 
murphythecat said:
seriously, if you decouple adequately your speakers to the stands, I doubt anyone in a blind test could hear much difference IF well decoupled.
Click to expand...

Erm.. I don't see how you can argue the stand makes no difference as long as you remove the stand from the equation - isn't that rather self evident without proving anything?
 
My Guru's sound so much better on the custom design stands and the triangle before them I even had then on the ikea shanian elves ( i think) stands for a while they sound slightly different on the two conventional stands and really different on the ikea wider but less bass
 
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