[x838nwy]

Hi,

I find myself needing some support for my bookshelf speakers (Kef LS50) as i feel they're too close together and my tv shelf (simple wood thing, non-hifi-specific) isn't wide enough.

So i'm looking into speaker stands. Now there are spikes and all sand filling and all kinds of stuff. But i also have access to fabrication and machining facilities. Anything from argon welding, laser cutting, cnc bending, lathes al the way to 5 axis machining. But i don't really known the criteria for its design (other than perhaps that it shouldn't ring).

So my question to the collective is whether or not there's a lot of science in the design of these things or should i just design my own? What's with the spikes? Are the just to establish point contacts, would cups and ball bearings not be a better solution? I have no experience in this area, any advice will be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance,

C

 

[SilverEars]

Hi,

I find myself needing some support for my bookshelf speakers (Kef LS50) as i feel they're too close together and my tv shelf (simple wood thing, non-hifi-specific) isn't wide enough.

So i'm looking into speaker stands. Now there are spikes and all sand filling and all kinds of stuff. But i also have access to fabrication and machining facilities. Anything from argon welding, laser cutting, cnc bending, lathes al the way to 5 axis machining. But i don't really known the criteria for its design (other than perhaps that it shouldn't ring).

So my question to the collective is whether or not there's a lot of science in the design of these things or should i just design my own? What's with the spikes? Are the just to establish point contacts, would cups and ball bearings not be a better solution? I have no experience in this area, any advice will be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance,

C

I don't know much about stands, but two things comes to mind.  Damping the vibrations from the cone movement, and the vibration leaking to the whatever material flooring that the stand is on top of, if its not dampable material such as carpet.  As far as significance of these affects, I don't know.
 
I have loudspeakers with spikes on the bottom, which makes sense since my floor is wood.

 

[x838nwy]

Thank you

Btw for those interested, the floor is tiled.

 

[Roly1650]

KEF recommend a stand height of between 18"-24" to the base of the speaker, according to the owners manual. The 6" spread allows for differences in seated height at the listening position. The vertical dispersion of the UniQ driver can allow for this difference in height. See the owners manual for room positioning recommendations and the use of the foam plug for the rear reflex port.

The owners manual shows a single pole stand with top and bottom platforms, but I can't find any mention of a KEF recommended stand anywhere on the website, not sure why KEF wouldn't make a stand specific to this speaker, which could be copied!!!!

As the speaker isn't a heavyweight, you could make a nice single pole stand from schedule 80 PVC pipe with PVC sheet base and top. This could be painted fairly easily and the center pole sand filled. The advantage to PVC is that it would be pretty non resonant, unlike steel or aluminum and fabrication is straight forward.

The purpose of cones is to couple the stand to the floor acoustically, they also provide extra stability on carpet.
Coupling the stand to the floor is effectively adding the mass of the floor to the mass of the stand. Any vibrations coming down the stand would transmit through the floor, not good for floor mounted vinyl replay systems. If you didn't want this you would need to decouple the stand from the floor with flexible pads or etc. However, why wouldn't you have some floor covering over the tile in your listening room? Tile presents a highly reflective surface acoustically and I would think makes your system pretty "toppy".

Don't whatever you do, unintentionally damp the speaker cabinets, any cabinet "voice" is part of the design. You could possibly do this by too tightly restraining the speaker on the stand. Blu-Tack or similar should be enough to hold the speaker on the stand.

Anyway, hope this helps, my two cents.

 

[x838nwy]

I'm surprised there's no Kef stand too. I'm looking at 24" and oddly, the speakers come with stick-on feet in an O shape. No screws or anything, just relying on its own weight. I'll look into the various types of stands, but a single column looks unstable to me...

 

[Roly1650]

I'll look into the various types of stands, but a single column looks unstable to me...

The stability depends entirely upon the dimension of the base in relation to the dimension of the speaker plan size.

The rubber feet are what you should use, screwing the speakers to anything will likely screw up the sound, (pun intended).

 

[RonaldDumsfeld]

Considering how popular desktop monitors are it is surprisingly difficult to find nice stands to pair with them.
 
After a search I came up with these from Gale.
 
http://www.gale.co.uk/120.html
 
There has much debate about the importance of mass loading with sand or lead shot, isolation from the floor or conversely binding to the surface etc etc but from my experience by far the most important factor is getting the height and listing angles right. Other issues are relatively minor at best. This might be because I'm using active monitors which are already quite heavy and anyway most of the transfer of energy goes via the air not via the stand. It is important to prevent reflections from flat surfaces like desktop or monitor.
 
You can get away from the vibration issue entirely by buying regular high stands and placing them directly behind, but not touching, you desk or workstation.

 

[ab initio]

by far the most important factor is getting the height and listing angles right.

+1

Cheers

 

[Neuromance]

I agree with the height and angles, but mass loading the stand is also fairly important IME.  I have had a couple pairs of stands for bookshelves, and the bass response pre and post mass-loading is fairly significant.  You get more frequency extension and control with mass loading.  

 

[blades]

What matters is that you get the tweeters to the right height.  The rest of the stuff is audiophoolery.

 

[dizzyorange]

Putting speakers on a tall vertical foam block vs a solid stand sounds different to me.  Not necessary better or worse, but clearly different.

 

[kraken2109]

I have also been looking at speaker stands, and I've decided to build my own on the cheap rather than the spend the silly amount of money they often charge for something so simple.

 

[BlindInOneEar]

  What matters is that you get the tweeters to the right height.  The rest of the stuff is audiophoolery.

+ 1
 
And the "right height" is roughly level with your ears when you are in your listening position. 
 
If that is not practicable, then work out some method to tilt the speakers so the tweeters point at your ears. 

 

[matbhuvi]

I am also hunting for speaker stands. The isoacoustics really seems to be very interesting. I am planning to get a basic $40 stand and use isoacoustics on top of that for Neuman KH120 speakers.
 
 

 

[RonaldDumsfeld]

Have you taken a look at the accessories Neumann K&H offer for pairing with the KH120?
 
http://www.neumann-kh-line.com/neumann-kh/home_en.nsf/root/prof-monitoring_studio-monitors_nearfield-monitors_KH120A#
 
Click on the accessories tab on the right under Information.
 
The LH65 table stands are very highly regarded. Almost a vital purchase. I like the ceiling drop option too. Less clutter.
 
ed: rd added info