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Wood speaker stands; anyone compared them to metal?

Tony L

Tony L

Administrator
I’m increasingly getting an itch to try some wood speaker stands for my JR149s. A lot of what I have learned over the past 20 years or so with audio seems to come down to challenging widely accepted orthodoxy/groupthink with regards to “rigidity” (bolt tightness etc), rejecting high-mass turntables and speakers, spikes etc etc, so it strikes me it may be time to rethink my speaker stands. I currently have two pairs of very highly regarded high-mass stands; Target R4s, which are just insanely heavy, and in fairness superb with many speakers (especially little ProAcs etc). The other pair are Falcon’s own LS3/5A stands, which I’ll certainly keep for that speaker. I really like the look of the AudioChic tripods and I could custom order round tops and whatever height I liked for the 149s, plus I could put my money where my mouth was and get rubber feet rather than spikes. They are bloody expensive (especially as I’d want walnut given teak is sadly not an option), so a hell of a gamble even if I factored selling the R4s.

Basically I’m right out in theory land, I’ve never listened to this. I am convinced one of the reasons the JR149s are so bloody good is they are low-mass (compared to typical naff MDF boxes) and non-resonant, so chucking them on big heavy mass-loaded stands might not be the answer. I’ll admit there is also an aesthetic aspect here too, they’ve never looked right on boring square stands!

So, has anyone moved from metal to wood stands? The closest I’ve done is I moved from mass loaded stands to Something Solid when I had Harbeth Compact 7ES, and they certainly improved, but they are still a resonant metal stand and not as light as they look (I’m not knocking them, they are superb stands).
 
Yes, well sort of, I did own a pair of Diapason Adamantees II with matching wooden stands and also a pair of Partington A4 stands, I tried the speakers on both but could detect very, very little difference if any, it was one of those scenarios where I wasn't sure I could actually hear any difference at all, to be honest I can't really remember, it was 20 odd years ago, the Diapasons were lovely speaker, heavy and dense solid canaletto walnut cabinets so perhaps very different from your 149's
 
The audiochic stands certainly look really nice.
If you wanted to try wooden stands you could put together some fairly cheap prototypes to give you an idea of the affect on the sound.
The basic forms would be quite easy to replicate.
 
I've used wooden Ikea Oddvar stools (GBP10 a piece) for more than 10 years now to support my (2 subsequent pairs) Harbeth C7ES3
A little low (45 cm) maybe, but reasonably stiff, non resonant and not heavy weighing
Very pleased with the soundresult; easy to get an idea of the result of wood for cheap money
 
Could always ask for someone in your vicinity if you could borrow a pair of wooden stands just to try. Your 149's would certainly be shown off to full effect with a round top, my only thought there would be a very limited market if ever you did decide to sell. I don't know how the top plate is attached, but it might be worth ordering an extra one which could be changed over should you want to use a different speaker. Good luck with this one Tony
 
Cyreg said:
I've used wooden Ikea Oddvar stools (GBP10 a piece) for more than 10 years now to support my (2 subsequent pairs) Harbeth C7ES3
A little low (45 cm) maybe, but reasonably stiff, non resonant and not heavy weighing
Very pleased with the soundresult; easy to get an idea of the result of wood for cheap money
Click to expand...

I had a pair of light, rigid IKEA dining table chairs under my Snell J’s for a while. Later, I got a pair of Skylan stands and filled them with stand. I’m not sure that the Skylan stands sound better than the ikea chairs.
 
Search eBay for “wooden kitchen stools” - then filter for used in your local area. Might find something the right height etc. to at least prototype the idea.
 
Cyreg said:
I've used wooden Ikea Oddvar stools (GBP10 a piece) for more than 10 years now to support my (2 subsequent pairs) Harbeth C7ES3
A little low (45 cm) maybe, but reasonably stiff, non resonant and not heavy weighing
Very pleased with the soundresult; easy to get an idea of the result of wood for cheap money
Click to expand...
Good shout. I was just about to suggest some cheap stools.
 
I have moved from metal to acrylic for the reasons in the OP. And yes, more agile and tuneful bass, more boogie factor, was the result. I've used Quadraspire and MusicWorks acrylic stands to good effect. I still have them both, but am currently not using the QS ones so @Tony L you'd be welcome to borrow them to try, if you like. The main downside with them is they don't have a top plate, so the speakers rest on very small contact patches and can move around. It's fine, as long as you don't have kids, cats or other things that might disturb them.
 
Have you thought about mounting the 149's on a wall, back in the day there was a bracket available for wall mounting them?
 
amazement said:
Have you thought about mounting the 149's on a wall, back in the day there was a bracket available for wall mounting them?
Click to expand...

I feel that is a compromise, they like a bit of space behind them to my ears. Not anything like as much as LS3/5As, but they don’t like sitting where Kans would either. I feel 8-12” from the wall sounds about right, though I’m sure that would vary room to room.
 
Along the lines of the IKEA/stools ideas I suggest you search "Indoor plant stands" since they would seem to have the right sort of form-factor. I just had a quick look on Amazon and there seemed to be a number of suitable candidates. There might be other sources such as Wayfair and the like. Good luck.
 
Anything hard like metal or glass etc is going to sing along at its resonant frequency, unless it's damped. Also, a stand with a solid front will have a different frequency response to one with legs.

A simple, braced, rectangular box made out of plywood constrained-layer-damping would be good. You could turn it to see if a solid baffle sounds better than just the edges of the plywood facing you.
 
Go the whole hog and suspend them from the ceiling. Bet something gorgeous could be devised.

kidding.

I’d spec up a local carpenter making something bespoke in the finish you want.. could be fabulous following the form.
 
amazement said:
Are these too small?
https://audiochic.co.uk/products/jim-rogers-jr149-speaker-stands-140-900mm-pair-shaped
Click to expand...

They do them in different heights, though if I ever went in this direction I’d custom order from scratch as I really don’t like the top-plate being wider than the JR’s black metal base. I reckon with that sized correctly and in a nice dark walnut they’d look really good. I’d prefer teak as that’s the finish of my 149s, but I assume CITES regulation has done away with that. I’d definitely not go lighter in colour than the speaker.

At this stage I’m just fishing for experiences to see if anyone has gone from a super-heavyweight stand like an R4 to a light wood support. The design makes a lot of sense to me being a fairly wide-legged tripod they are stable (unlike say the AW acrylic stuff), they are slender, so should be fairly light, and being solid wood are inherently self-damped. They are a nice piece of aesthetic design that will certainly suit a 149, and though they likely sell mainly on looks they make a lot of sense to me logically too from a structural perspective.
 
I have carefully demoed all the Harbeth line on TonTräger wooden stands:

https://www.tontraeger-audio.com/lang/en/reference-stands.html

against 'classic' iron ones, and must say that for what it's worth I've had a very favorable impression of the wooden ones, almost like if the speakers were sitting on no stands. They are light and rigid - much as Ivor Tiefenbrun used to recommend that his Linn Sondek was placed on a light, rigid coffee table - and apart from being visually gorgeous, if one likes them visually, they really complement the speakers in the most discreet, aurally disappearing way.
 
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