Speaker Stands Question

Sometimes a speaker will sound better with on a plate 1/2 its size sitting on those square dots Herbie makes for that and which hold like a vise.

If the tweeters are lined up with your ears you have to not slouch while listening unless you were slouching during set up, in which case you have to always slouch.

Czarivey, I was thinking of trying your suggestion. My thought was to use 6” PVC pipe and tied to wood base and top plate. Fill bottom 1/3 with concrete to lower center of gravity, the rest with sand. Toilet flanges might be used to transition from PVC to wood. As I have 3 sets of good stands bought used from dealers, haven’t gotten to this yet.

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Mesch, Czarivey

Since you both seem interested in the PVC pipe stands here are a few notes to elaborate on my post above about the construction of mine.

- The most important step is making the cut of the PVC pipe absolutely flat, smooth and square, difficult to do with a hand saw. One of the advantages of the 4" pipe is that it can be cut on a table saw with a 10" blade. If those cuts aren't square and smooth the stands won't be perfectly vertical and sand can leak out.
- I used two layers of 3/4" MDF glued together for the tops and bases. MDF is heavier than wood and not resonant, which is why it's used for speaker cabinets.
- Having the tops and bases be 1 1/2" thick let me countersink a hole in the center of and halfway through each piece. For each stand I cut a piece of 5/16" all-thread rod and used a nut and washer in the countersunk holes to hold the base, top and pipe together.
- I drilled another hole all the way through each top and offset from the center, filled the stands with sand and taped over the holes with black gaffer's tape. That's hidden by the speakers and easily removed if you want to remove the sand for shipping or an upgrade to audiophile-approved sand.
- If you use all-thread rod to hold the parts together you'll need a way to cut the rod to the proper length. I used an angle grinder with a cut-off blade but it could be done with a hacksaw. I used standard steel rod from Lowes but have no doubt that audiophile-grade rhodium plated oxygen-free copper rods might improve the sound.
- Completely filled with sand, the 4" pipe stands are considerably heavier than the Boxers and are just as substantial as any of the all-metal stands I've owned, with the possible exception of the Osiris stands.
- The construction may sound complicated but it was remarkably easy and the cost for the pair of stands was less than $30.
- If you'd like a picture of the finished product send me a message and I'll forward.

Sorry Sfar, I did not see your entire post of 12/31. Yes, I always thought the cutting to be the most critical aspect of using PVC. Thanks for the follow-up.