I don't have any advice, but do have a story about lead and learning something about physics :-) Not long after I bought KEF 103/3's back in the late 80's, I had the special speaker stands that come with them filled with melted lead by a local factory I knew. What I did not anticipate was that as the lead cooled it expanded - like water in a bottle in a freezer. Uh oh. Without quickly putting heavy duty metal straps around the outsides of the stands, they would have split wide open. In the end it worked out, and the vertical part of each stand is like a solid lead column surrounded by the wood of the stand. Heavy for sure, and a roommate a few years later somehow ran into one a broke his big toe.
Filling speaker stands: sand, lead, steel, rice. Full, half, etc?
With my proac tablettes, I am using 28 inch speaker stands which have two round steel tubes about two inches in diameter. The stands have spikes into my wooden floor (through carpet) and rubber pads on top. I have a rather small room 12x12, and I have played around with the speaker positions in the room, finding a pretty sweet spot optimizing the bass and soundstage. I have done all this with the stands unfilled.
so I am looking for advice on filling the stands. What do I use: sand, steel shot, lead shot, rice? Do I fill them half full, three quarters, or full? Do I fill all the tubes the same? Can overfill makes things worse?
like most things (i.e. speaker placement) I suspect there will be some trial and error, but as it will be a real pain in the rear to fill/empty/refill the various materials to really compare, I am hoping that there are some lessons learned that the rest of you can share with me to get me pretty close with my first trial.
Alos, what effect will the filling have- should I expect deeper bass, bigger soundstage, greater depth, more detail, or..... better yet what should I not expect to change? This will help me know what I should be listening for as I tweak things.
and finally, should I expect my current optimum speaker position to change with filled stands? Will I have to go through the whole positioning exercise again?
thanks, ( and happy new year)
Bill
so I am looking for advice on filling the stands. What do I use: sand, steel shot, lead shot, rice? Do I fill them half full, three quarters, or full? Do I fill all the tubes the same? Can overfill makes things worse?
like most things (i.e. speaker placement) I suspect there will be some trial and error, but as it will be a real pain in the rear to fill/empty/refill the various materials to really compare, I am hoping that there are some lessons learned that the rest of you can share with me to get me pretty close with my first trial.
Alos, what effect will the filling have- should I expect deeper bass, bigger soundstage, greater depth, more detail, or..... better yet what should I not expect to change? This will help me know what I should be listening for as I tweak things.
and finally, should I expect my current optimum speaker position to change with filled stands? Will I have to go through the whole positioning exercise again?
thanks, ( and happy new year)
Bill
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- 59 posts total
- 59 posts total