Speaker Stands (our national shame and neglect!)

[was_a]

I've seen some sporadic posts on the subject of speaker stands but nothing substantial, so I thought I'd get some feedback on the subject - specifically sourcing good quality stands in Australia. Considering the number of hi-fi'ers who prefer standmount speakers over floorstanders, I believe the importance of stands is an overlooked aspect of our hobby.

 

In my case I'm chasing high-mass stands that are well-made, not too unattractive, at a 'reasonable' price. This seems to be an impossible task.

 

 

Locally the best I can find is the Tauris SP121 ($350).

https://www.digitalcinema.com.au/tauris-sp-121-24-inch-post-speaker-stands-pair.html

 

Or the new B&W Stav24 stands for B&W's budget standmounts. (This new stand looks to be lesser quality than the previous FS700 stands).

https://www.todds.com.au/p/bowers-wilkins-stav24-speaker-stands/BW-STAV24

 

 

Then it's a step down to $200 with the Selby stands or some run-outs of the discontinued Apollo Olympus. 

 

I know Mike Lenehan makes stands for his speakers but can't find any info on the website or anywhere else.

 

 

 

Which leaves overseas brands like the Target MR series (now distributed by Bryston);

http://www.musicdirect.com/p-327928-target-mr-series-speaker-stands-pr.aspx

 

Atacama HMS stands

http://atacama-audio.com.au/products/hms-11-speaker-stands-black-pair-600mm

 

or the Partington range.

http://www.audioaffair.co.uk/partington-super-dreadnought-speaker-stands-pair-black

 

 

Of course the prices are ridiculous once imported into Australia.

 

Of the options I'm leaning towards the Partingtons, which would be $650 or so landed (no VAT tax outside the UK of course).

 

 

But why isn't there a dedicated speaker stand / hi-fi rack manufacturer in Australia taking this seriously?

 

This has stumped me for years.

 

Looking forward to your comments.

[darth vader]

Its down to economies of scale.

 

Theres just not the numbers to set up for a "generic" style of stand. Given most speakers have different footprint, different mount requirements and the owners have different preferences, theres no option for a manufacturer here to gear up for the production runs required to return a quality product at a reasonable price.

 

For example, I could make you a fine set of custom stands from polished stainless, aluminium, or other exotic metals, but they would easily be 3 to 5 times the price of some in the links.

If you ordered 200 pairs, I could bring the price down significantly.

[gemini07]

Great post - I couldn't agree more with your views. 

 

I've spoken to a number of speaker manufacturers and most seem disinterested in this issue, possibly because it's not mainstream electronics and mainly just cabinet making. That said, there's certainly a market opportunity for someone who perhaps already does speaker cabinets, to open up business in this field.

 

Perhaps if people on SNA who might be interested can start to list contacts that might yield some help or advice, we could make some progress. I for one am making do with some rudimentary stands until I can sort out precisely what I need and where I can get it. Being able to see some possibilities, especially handcrafted in wood, would be really helpful.

[pete_mac]

 

Locally the best I can find is the Tauris SP121 ($350).

https://www.digitalcinema.com.au/tauris-sp-121-24-inch-post-speaker-stands-pair.html

 

 

The above stands are very, very good once mass loaded. I love mine to bits!

 

FYI they are identical to the RVM SP121 stands which can be sourced for nearly $100 cheaper:

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Speaker-Stands-RVM-SP-121-24-Black-Heavy-4-Post-Design-List-Price-349-/161866733133?hash=item25b002564d

 

These do have quite a large top plate though, and won't necessarily suit narrow/small standmounts unless you mind the speaker being much smaller than the stand!

 

 

 

Edited March 21, 2016 by pete_mac

[gemini07]

Its down to economies of scale.

 

Theres just not the numbers to set up for a "generic" style of stand. Given most speakers have different footprint, different mount requirements and the owners have different preferences, theres no option for a manufacturer here to gear up for the production runs required to return a quality product at a reasonable price.

 

For example, I could make you a fine set of custom stands from polished stainless, aluminium, or other exotic metals, but they would easily be 3 to 5 times the price of some in the links.

If you ordered 200 pairs, I could bring the price down significantly.

 

Fair enough, but you'd think that for every pair of standmounts sold, there'd be an equivalent demand for speaker stands. Many of the standard black metal stands, polished or not, are pretty ugly and very basic. Surely there's some cabinet makers out there who have sufficient skills to put something together??

 

I knew I should have studied more woodwork at HS...

[gemini07]

There's some great looking stands available via Cattylink, but trying to get information out of these guys is a challenge and a half. I don't know what size they are, whether you have to assemble them yourself (probably) , and what sort of weight they can hold.

 

http://www.cattylink.com/page224a.html

[Happy]

You guys should try stands that cannot be disassembled

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Guest Misterioso]

Completely agree with you. It is frustrating.

 

Locally the best I can find is the Tauris SP121 ($350).

https://www.digitalcinema.com.au/tauris-sp-121-24-inch-post-speaker-stands-pair.html

 

I am using these with a pair of Neumann KH120A. This stand is excellent! At some stage, Tauris started shipping these with a second (smaller) top plate. Make sure, your dealer sells you the new version with the second top plate (otherwise unchanged). This adds some flexibility. In my case, the second top plate fits my speakers perfectly.

Edited March 21, 2016 by Misterioso

[darth vader]

@@gemini07 Some nice stuff can be made from metal, they dont have to be rudimentary in design.

 

Unfortunately I cant help you with wood.

[Guest Misterioso]

Here is a picture of the Tauris SP121 using the smaller top plate supporting a Neumann KH120A monitor. Next to it is a Hifi-Racks stand for the Harbeth Super HL5 Plus supporting a Quested V2108 monitor. Both stands can be bought locally. However, the Hifi-Racks stands have become very pricey.

 

 

[legselevens]

Material costs aside the price to make a single dining chair out of wood would be slightly less than the cost to make a set of 8 or more.

 

Why?  Because of the time it takes to set up the different machinery for each stage of the process. I'm sure it's similar in many areas of manufacturing regardless of whether it's made from wood or metal.

[Guest Muon]

Not specific to the OP, but maybe appropriate to ask here.

 

I'm still humming and harring about loading mine, they are constructed of quarter inch plate metal with the upright being hollow but still quarter inch. Actually I don't know if they are filled or not! As i tore some back muscles carrying one of them on the move into here.

 

i would need to drill them to see if they are loaded or not, when I rap my knuckles on the upright it's a thud sound. They at a guess weigh around 16Kg or 18Kg per stand.

 

Any opinions?

 

Old pic, have spiked them since.

 

 

[matt200sr]

Ol' school ML1.. Very cool!

The stands look the buisness too and about 150% of the speaker weight is what Mike would recommend.

[matt200sr]

@@Nap250

C'mon buddy tell them about the P & Co stands.

Beast of a thing.

[Guest Muon]

Ol' school ML1.. Very cool!

The stands look the buisness too and about 150% of the speaker weight is what Mike would recommend.

Yup, HD3.

I have the brass screws in them though, since Mike moved to them.

 

Should make that 150% easy the more I think about carrying a speaker verses one of the stands. This is what i wanted to hear, Matt. As i was not looking forward to drilling and filling these, let alone moving them once done

Edit: These stands where custom made for Bose 901's, stands turned 90 degrees and 901's bolted to the top plate.

Edited March 21, 2016 by Muon

[matt200sr]

If they already weigh in at 16kg and sound good then you are already there.

I have found that the "coupling medium" is particularly important with ML1s and ive previously used Herbies Audio Lab Square Fat Dots on the top plate of previous Lenehan stands. I just put an order in for another 8.

A good stand should be spiked to the floor and adjusted until as rigid as possible. Zero movement is best. With the square fat dots on all for corners of the top plate the speaker feels perfectly coupled and SQ is improved.

A former SNA member put me on to Herbies Audio Lab. No witchcraft here unlike similar products.

[Guest Muon]

@@matt200sr

 

Herbies hay?

 

I'm using small blobs of blu tac ATM, have these adjustable things attached to the base of the stands using a metal epoxy, and stand on bamboo cutting boards.

 

[JukKluk2]

There used to be a guy in Perth who made speaker stands and equipment racks to order. I had him make a set for my Gale GS-402's back then. He even made me, upon request, a cabinet for my LP collection which had the capacity of about 2000, which was a reasonable $400 about 30 years ago. It's still with me after all of that time and has traveled everywhere with me since its delivery.

[unclemack]

If stands were made from wood, what properties would you look for. I might talk to my brother about making some up. He's a cabinetmaker always looking to do something diferent so this might be a nice project. I can envisage flexibility in top and bottom plate sizes as well as post height. But would timber be as effective as weighted metal?

 

M

[Guest]

If stands were made from wood, what properties would you look for. I might talk to my brother about making some up. He's a cabinetmaker always looking to do something diferent so this might be a nice project. I can envisage flexibility in top and bottom plate sizes as well as post height. But would timber be as effective as weighted metal?

 

M

I'm currently making a set of stands using veneered solid mdf as the uprights with 10mm steel base and 5mm steel top plates. Certainly an inert material when it's not hollow and I reckon would work as well as a filled steel upright though without the extreme mass. A lot more effort in finishing though!!

[Guest Muon]

Whatever wood it is made from, it's own resonance would need to be sympathetic to the audio frequencies we value.

 

Edit: myself, I'll stick to something that is both inert and heavy.

 

I'm no expert on these things so take my view with a big pinch of salt.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Muon

[unclemack]

I'll have a chat with my brother and see if we can come up with something.

[PKay]

@@Nap250

C'mon buddy tell them about the P & Co stands.

Beast of a thing.

I am still waiting on the outcome of my claim. The stands are brilliant but they were so badly packed and I have'nt got much of a response from the manufacturer. One of the downsides of bringing in from the UK directly (in this case I had no choice as there isn't a distributor in Australia).

[PKay]

If they already weigh in at 16kg and sound good then you are already there.

I have found that the "coupling medium" is particularly important with ML1s and ive previously used Herbies Audio Lab Square Fat Dots on the top plate of previous Lenehan stands. I just put an order in for another 8.

A good stand should be spiked to the floor and adjusted until as rigid as possible. Zero movement is best. With the square fat dots on all for corners of the top plate the speaker feels perfectly coupled and SQ is improved.

A former SNA member put me on to Herbies Audio Lab. No witchcraft here unlike similar products.

Mike's current stands for the ML1 weigh about 28kg so it is approximately 2.5 times the weight of the speaker.

 

I think it has a lot to do with how inert the stands are and minimising the ringing that they generate.

 

@@Muon

[Guest Muon]

@@Nap250

 

Just rapped my knuckles on the wider side of the upright again, midway up...ouch! hurts to do so and just a dull thud