adamdea
You are not a sound quality evaluation device
@Tony L is your thinking taking you towards Russ' Torlyte?
https://www.russandrews.com/torlyte-loudspeaker-stands/
https://www.russandrews.com/torlyte-loudspeaker-stands/
Wood speaker stands; anyone compared them to metal?
- Thread starter Tony L
- Start date
Tony L
Administrator
I suspect I’m thinking in that general direction, but not exactly as I’ve pretty much given up on spikes and certainly rejected cones. To my ears felt furniture pads are the best way I’ve so far tried to couple speakers to stands, certainly better than top-spikes or cones, and an improvement on Blu-Tac too. I’ve long since rejected spikes and cones as equipment feet, or on supports, racks etc.
Darren L
Egalitarian
The Partington A4 stands though constructed from cylindrical steel used three little cones on the top in conjunction with a little concave deep washer, effectively de-coupling the speaker from the stand, they were very effective in use, indeed a better stand than my brothers R4s, they were filled with a mix of lead shot and kiln dried sand, if you ever get the opportunity to buy/try a pair I think they would be an excellent aesthetic match with your 149s but only you could deem whether they're a preferred sonic match in your system @Tony L
Big Tabs
looking backwards, going forwards
About 30 odd yrs. ago I came to the conclusion that hanging speakers from the ceiling would be a positive move.
I still think it would work very well. Some nice heavy hemp rope
Those Rogers speakers would look good hanging.
Martyn Miles
pfm Member
I moved from a pair of metal stands ( B & W ) to Hi Fi Racks ‘Duet’ wooden ones for my
Stirling V3s.
I think there’s an improvement in the sound and also they look so much nicer.
Have to admit it was the look of them which first attracted me.
Incidentally, I’ve never had spikes of any sort on stands, especially under the speakers.
I’ve a wooden floor, so spikes were out anyway.
Stirling V3s.
I think there’s an improvement in the sound and also they look so much nicer.
Have to admit it was the look of them which first attracted me.
Incidentally, I’ve never had spikes of any sort on stands, especially under the speakers.
I’ve a wooden floor, so spikes were out anyway.
John
Rack’em Up!
I bought these Sound Organisation stands back in 2006 along with the matching three tier stand that’s used for a 32 inch TV and Sonos Amp in my three season porch.
The stands are much lighter than the early Linn Kan stands or the latter made SO speaker stands that resemble the heavy Target stands the I think Tony wants to replace. I wonder what the difference in weight would be between these and comparably sized wooden stands. I wouldn’t be surprised if these metal stands are less weight.
The stands are much lighter than the early Linn Kan stands or the latter made SO speaker stands that resemble the heavy Target stands the I think Tony wants to replace. I wonder what the difference in weight would be between these and comparably sized wooden stands. I wouldn’t be surprised if these metal stands are less weight.
Helen Bach
if it ain't Baroque ...
I think, in cases like these, it's important to consider what 'speaker stands are for. I suppose, primarily, they are to get the tweeters to ear height. Another important aspect is to stop (or reduce) swaying too and fro (Newton's Third Law of motion). Then there are vibrations to be considered.
I have placed a pair of 3/5 clones on wooden chairs before now, and Epos M5 on heavy metal stands, but passed those on!
Sand and/or lead particle damping doesn't work unless displacements are huge! The added mass just helps to keep the heavy stands from moving too much.
Metal stands will (and do) vibrate in sympathy, and so will wood, to an extent depending on construction and type of wood. Most hardwoods vibrate a lot, and are not damped. And as the Rogers drums are prone to vibrating, you might consider why you like them so much. Do you want to damp them?
And just for the record, I use Usher floor standing 'speakers, with spikes well pressed into large pieces of veneered mdf, which sit on a carpet (over a concrete floor). Certainly stops the Ushers from rocking (bass improved) and the carpet damps the mdf, so clears up the treble frequencies.
I have placed a pair of 3/5 clones on wooden chairs before now, and Epos M5 on heavy metal stands, but passed those on!
Sand and/or lead particle damping doesn't work unless displacements are huge! The added mass just helps to keep the heavy stands from moving too much.
Metal stands will (and do) vibrate in sympathy, and so will wood, to an extent depending on construction and type of wood. Most hardwoods vibrate a lot, and are not damped. And as the Rogers drums are prone to vibrating, you might consider why you like them so much. Do you want to damp them?
And just for the record, I use Usher floor standing 'speakers, with spikes well pressed into large pieces of veneered mdf, which sit on a carpet (over a concrete floor). Certainly stops the Ushers from rocking (bass improved) and the carpet damps the mdf, so clears up the treble frequencies.
gustav_errata
pfm Member
Have you tried isolating the speakers from the stands? It might be interesting to stick with the heavy stands, but put some IsoAcoustics pucks (e.g. OREA) between the stand and the speaker.
foxwelljsly
Me too, I ate one sour too.
I use some very chunky hi fi stands oak speaker stands with my 103.2s.
I have long suspected that all stands have to do is support a speaker firmly at the correct height and ensure that vibration does not travel into the floor and vice versa.
I have long suspected that all stands have to do is support a speaker firmly at the correct height and ensure that vibration does not travel into the floor and vice versa.
Tarzan
pfm Member
Or the Mini Pucks- got a nice uplift in sound with my ProAc Fab 10.
Tony L
Administrator
This is where audiophile thinking starts going very wrong to my mind. Even in a fairly light speaker like a JR149 there is more than enough mass to stop it moving anywhere meaningful due to broadband audio-frequency vibration. If you think of a typical music signal it contains all frequencies from low bass to high treble and even the very lowest isn’t going to be able to move the cabinet far enough to impact the highest. I suspect what is actually happening can all be put down to exciting sympathetic resonances in the cabinets themselves, in the stands, and in the floor. The drivers are as still as that given cabinet design allows them to be.
No, I certainly don’t want to damp them. I’ve come to the conclusion that low-mass cabinets that lose energy fast in a controlled way (e.g. BBC designs) are *vastly* preferable sonically to my ears to those that attempt to damp and store energy with mass. Most of the speakers I like the least are very heavy boxes. I’m on pretty much the same page with record decks. Beyond a decent rotating mass for speed stability I think weight is best avoided here too. Mass strikes me as very lazy design. Just shovel more crap on until you’ve masked the inherent design limitations!
Tony L
Administrator
Yes, that is pretty much where I’m ending up, but minus the mass or metal’s tendency to ring in the audio band. I like the idea of wood as any resonance will be low-Q and well below the midband (this basically being how BBC cabinets work).
Jono_13
Duffer
This is not so mad a plan. I have done similar in the past and using chairs or stools to test the theory is a good test bed.
Fatmarley
"It appears my intelligence circuits have melted"
Constrained layer damping will do everything the BBC cabinets do, but better.
Watch from about 36 minutes
Yup, 2 months ago I posed this question on another forum and got no replies, so I decided to build myself a pair of lightweight speaker stands for my Dali Oberon 1 speakers. I was using a pair of heavy Alphason metal stands. Having bought a table saw for another project I could now cut the wood to any size/thickness I wanted. The only wood available to me at the time was pine unfortunately.
As soon as I placed the wooden stands under the speakers I was rewarded with a more natural sound. Bass was just as deep but it was more natural and much better layered, and voices sounded a bit more natural. All in all a very worthwhile improvement to these ears.
The metal stands are now in the loft
As soon as I placed the wooden stands under the speakers I was rewarded with a more natural sound. Bass was just as deep but it was more natural and much better layered, and voices sounded a bit more natural. All in all a very worthwhile improvement to these ears.
The metal stands are now in the loft
mandryka
pfm Member
I posted a picture of mine mounted on the wall in the wine thread today, they work really well like that I think because of the alcove, which is effectively 8-12” deep.
What are those stands made out of some really dense and heavy composite wood type material? We discussed them once Tony. They’re the ones I’d like you to try!
Mike P
Trade: Pickwell Audio
I'm a big fan of Sorbothane hemispheres for decoupling speakers from their supports.
I was delighted by how much difference they made in my dining room system which has some Wharfedale Diamonds on a sideboard.
The better sellers have a calculator to help you select the right hemispheres for the mass of object you want to isolate.
I was delighted by how much difference they made in my dining room system which has some Wharfedale Diamonds on a sideboard.
The better sellers have a calculator to help you select the right hemispheres for the mass of object you want to isolate.
Tony L
Administrator
That’s encouraging. The bass is the area I was worried about as way, way back when I had ProAc Tab 50 Sigs I remember the huge upgrade R4s brought from some cheap far flimsier Atacama stands I’d had previously. It was quite remarkable, like moving to a much larger speaker, but the R4s were designed for the ProAcs so obviously a synergy there. I suspect 149s being an infinite baffle play by different rules.
No idea! To be honest I’m drawn the the stands I link to as I think they’ll look great under the 149s and very few if any normal stands do. I’m also looking to drop them down a bit as the Falcon LS3/5A stands have them sitting a bit too high (they are a bigger speaker). This exacerbated by my listening being on a low beanbag. I do like being below a speaker rather than above, but I’m actually below the bass driver in this case. I suspect 520-540mm or so would be about right for beanbag listening, the Falcons are 600mm. I’d obviously need to agonise over that one for months…