Speaker stand damping

[DirkDirkin]

Hi everyone,

Recently brought a pair of Mission Stance speaker stands which I would like to fill with damping material of some kind.

Can I please have some recommendations of what to fill them with that won't cost an arm and a leg!

Attached files

[Owen Y]

Dry sand fill is OK, but fill only say 1/3rd full - don't overdamp, just enough until ringing disappears.

[Guest Guest]

The stands I have are filled with sand if that helps.

[Brian Ono]

Ive used iron sand and find it suitable.I also used a plastic bag as a sleeve inside the column.

[DirkDirkin]

 

Owen Y;131199 wrote:

Dry sand fill is OK, but fill only say 1/3rd full - don't overdamp, just enough until ringing disappears.

 

Good advise thanks

[Gainz]

Little plastic bumpers as an interface between the speakers and the stands work well, as does good old bluetac. I'm not a fan of spiking speakers to stands or spikes to suspended floors...

[DirkDirkin]

 

Owen Y;131199 wrote:

Dry sand fill is OK

 

LOL but living in a city where it is always wet, where can you buy dry sand?

[Omegaspeedy]

 

Brian Ono;131202 wrote:

Ive used iron sand and find it suitable.I also used a plastic bag as a sleeve inside the column.

 

Be very cautious with iron sand as you don't want to present an opportunity for it to work it's way to the voice coil gap due to the BIG magnet, ouch!! The plastic bag is a good move BnO:)

[Petard]

It would appear there are more opinions than hard facts on this issue. I have Royd A7Xs mounted on sand-filled steel stands spiked bottom and top, and the dealer who sold the speakers recommended that I take the sand out as those speakers supposedly work better with a little resonance. So I did, and whether there was a gain in sound quality or not was negligible to my ears, certainly less than a difference obtained through playing with placement. On the other hand, a friend who recently followed commonly- accepted advice and used Blu-Tack to isolate his Image References from his steel stands went to remove them after a few weeks and ripped the veneer off the cabinets in eight places. All a bit trial and error, innit?

[whale]

 

DirkDirkin;131210 wrote:

LOL but living in a city where it is always wet, where can you buy dry sand?

 

Just leave it in the oven on low for a few hours

[Robocop]

 

 

Little plastic bumpers as an interface between the speakers and the stands work well, as does good old bluetac

 

Plastic or rubber as interface are no go in my book for any interface. Blu-tack is good or spikes or cones point down.

 

What you are trying to achieve is removal of energy to ground. Rubber or plastic derivatives tend to insulate and therefore not effectively remove energy. In every case thicken the sound or dull it.

 

Shame about veneer coming adrift Petard it must have caught an edge. It is unusual for this to happen but possibly a shortfall of glue in manufacturing created this.

 

Iron sand mixed with lead shot but as Owen suggests fill till ringing stops is a go try a gun shop for the cheapest lead shot.

[joe90]

A product is available from most hardware stores called dricon handi sand

it is kiln dried sand

i used it in my stands and when robert had sound creations thats all he used

[Electra]

Another source of good dry sand is sand blasting sand...

 

Available from.... Sand blasting peoples

[Gainz]

 

Robocop;131266 wrote:

Plastic or rubber as interface are no go in my book for any interface. Blu-tack is good or spikes or cones point down.

 

 

 

What you are trying to achieve is removal of energy to ground. Rubber or plastic derivatives tend to insulate and therefore not effectively remove energy. In every case thicken the sound or dull it.

 

 

 

Shame about veneer coming adrift Petard it must have caught an edge. It is unusual for this to happen but possibly a shortfall of glue in manufacturing created this.

 

 

 

Iron sand mixed with lead shot but as Owen suggests fill till ringing stops is a go try a gun shop for the cheapest lead shot.

 

Not in every case. I use granite slabs as plinths and rubber squares as interface between my floorstanders and the granite. Haven't tweaked the missions since...

[Robocop]

The worst possible place to have them, you want rigidity at this point, cabinets still and only drivers moving with excess energy drained to ground so plinths spiked or coned to floor(bearing in mind old Kauri floors move also, you can't win them all but eliminate most). Granite is great I use under my speakers/sub-woofers.

 

One day try blu-tac, it is a pain to try these things but whoa and behold if its better you won't regret it.

[kaka]

 

Robocop;131295 wrote:

.... Granite is great I use under my speakers/sub-woofers.

 

 

analogism;131291 wrote:

Not in every case. I use granite slabs as plinths and rubber squares as interface between my floorstanders and the granite. Haven't tweaked the missions since...

 

So what is the granite sitting on? Carpet+underlay, wooden floors ... ?

[Gainz]

 

Robocop;131295 wrote:

The worst possible place to have them, you want rigidity at this point, cabinets still and only drivers moving with excess energy drained to ground so plinths spiked or coned to floor(bearing in mind old Kauri floors move also, you can't win them all but eliminate most). Granite is great I use under my speakers/sub-woofers.

 

 

 

One day try blu-tac, it is a pain to try these things but whoa and behold if its better you won't regret it.

 

I'll try it. Definitly wasn't winning with spikes straight into carpet, so the granite was a major improvement.

[Robocop]

I run speakers blu-tacked to granite(30mm x 500 x 450) and stainless steel cones from granite to kauri floor boards through carpet and underlay.

 

You need to spike or cone to floor on speakers to minimise cabinet movement. By all means float your components on the carpet I do that. If you spike rack and speakers to the same floor you have a direct connection which is not good either but depends on floor content.

[Citroen]

I've used Dricon Fine Sand 25kg packet from Placemakers (which actually isn't that large, as sand is quite dense). Half went in the stands, some in the rack and some in the "Zen Garden".

[jasper1553552693]

Iron sand has a lot more weight to it than ordinary dried sand and is not expensive. It is extremely fine though and will happily pour out the smallest hole or gap if given a chance. So care is needed when using it. And as mentioned earlier keep it well away from any magnets!

[EtheB1553552753]

 

Brian Ono;131202 wrote:

. . .I also used a plastic bag as a sleeve inside the column.

 

Excellent advice, thanks.