Speaker Stands Orthodoxy

Posted by: Shropshire Hills on 31 March 2018

Apologies to those who read my previous long post about speakers at Bristol Show  but getting the right sound in a room is hard

A couple of weeks ago I took delivery of a pair of demo Kudos Super C10A speakers to replace my 9 year old n-Sats (with Nova/250DR) and I thought I had it cracked. Even with the speakers resting on the floor the sound was impressive

However, today I finally got a pair of stands for them - Custom Design heavyweights as recommended by Kudos and the sound in my little 3m X 3.5m room took a turn very much for the worse. I ended up with one speaker on a wooden chair and the other on the speaker box and the sound is better. However, I have also borrowed a pair of ATC SCM 11s - they sound terrible on the Custom Design stands but better than the Kudos, especially when placed on the floor or on the chair and box. I haven’t filled the stands with sand yet and will do that tomorrow but they are bulky with no WAF and I doubt I will be keeping them long term

This makes me think that high mass stands may not be best in my room so can anybody suggest an alternative please - clearly a chair and cardboard box is a bit of a joke but is there a good alternative stand out there? Russ Andrews, Atacama Moseco?

Bob

Posted on: 02 April 2018 by Shropshire Hills

Thanks Graeme - sounds a good deal - I’ve found them online

 

Posted on: 02 April 2018 by rightcoastants
Shropshire Hills posted:

RIghtconstants thanks for the stand tuning tips - I am currently using some Audiovector floor protectors - small, nicely machined, aluminium discs but did wonder about something heavier made of stainless steel. Which Quadraspire model do you use - there are 2 types listed on their website.

Bob

Using the Quadraspire QX7 models. 

Posted on: 02 April 2018 by Foot tapper
feeling_zen posted:
Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

... Speakers used are or have been  on the Torlyte stands ATC SCM 19, Russell K 50s and 100s, and PMC 25.23... 

You put a floorstanding speaker on a stand?

Simon's very tall, you know...

Posted on: 02 April 2018 by David N
Foot tapper posted:

There appear to be 2 schools of thought about coupling speakers to the floor.  One school says that strong coupling to the floor via heavy stands & spikes allows the speaker and stand to act as a rigid body for the bass driver, enabling it to produce more dynamic, better timed, pistonic bass.  Another says that decoupling is better, as decoupling stops the floor from singing along with delayed phase, ill-defined bass.

 

I think [@mention:1566878603891419] is spot on. If your speakers sound better on the floor or on wooden chairs, it sounds like you like some of the sound transferring through the floor. Nothing wrong with that. When I used to do productions, we sometimes would sit speakers together and on the floor to get greater bass.  On non-filled stands on the other hand will make the sound reverberate in the stand and produce a higher pitch. Of course height and positioning is important as well especially given smaller stand mount speakers are closer to point source. Off axis frequency degradation is also an important thing to note. Do some experiments and all the best.