Speaker Stands Filled With Kitty Litter? TRUE???

3zub - If you are looking for an inexpensive way to fill your stands with a dense filler you can purchase "Play Sand" from your favorite home improvement warehouse store, or nursery at about $4 per 50 lb bag. It is not quite as fine and dense as silica, but it is safe and cheap. It may be a bit more difficult to remove if the holes in your stands are smaller though. Silica sand is pretty expensive in comparison, but is definitely finer and more dense (your stands will weigh more filled with Silica than with Play Sand). Kitty Litter, IMO, would be the least desirable as it would leave a whole lot of airspace unfilled. Other, more expensive, alternatives are lead shot which can be purchased from some sporting supply stores, or any gun shop that handles reloading supplies. I believe Star Sound markets a lead powder, which would likely be the heaviest and most expensive of all your alternatives. If you handle lead just make sure to wash your hands thoroughly afterwards. Same goes for Silica or if you decide to stuff your stands with cats. If you use Silica try to fill the stands outdoors and use a mask to filter out the dust from the air you are breathing. Even a foam painters mask would be an improvement over none. If you are using cats I'd suggest long gauntlet gloves and some of those foam earplugs.

Good luck!

Marco

Seriously... Sand would be the most economical route, however make sure the sand is 100% dry. Many play type sands are bagged and shipped moist after being exposed to rain. I would prop each bag in an upright position, and cut a slit in each bags top. Opening and allowing it to dry out in a non-humidity area for a few days prior to filling your rustable steel stands.

Lead shot, is not something you really want to play with. Lead dust is even worse! I heard horror stories of fellows that used lead to fill their stands in their listening rooms. Missing the stand, & spilling it all over the carpet. Lead is also non-magnetic, & using a vacuum would agitate the lead dust. I can send you a 16 page EPA brochure on what lead dust can do to a childs still developing mind. So if you have children I would strongly rule out the lead.

So let's talk about the Numero Uno Rule of filling a stand.

1.) No matter what filler is used, if possible due to stand weight, fill stands Outside or in your Garage in case of SPILLS!

A company called Atacama makes a product called "Atabites" which is a high density filler manufactured from steel chippings and designed for the mass loading of speaker stands. This a coarse mix of triangular shaped steel chippings which is a worthy investment to get the best out of the stand and producing better imagery and extra bass control at louder levels of volume. Atabites are available in 19.8lb pour bottles. It is also magnetic so if your funnel slips the Atabites are magnetic for a no loss clean-up. If you cant find Atacama Atabites dealer locally contact me.

Whoops, the StarSound product I was thinking of is steel and not lead. That would be quite nasty if it were lead. Anyway, retail price is $39.99 per quart. No idea of the weight of a quart.

Marco

Steel coated lead shot doesn't have dust to worry about and it flows very easily.

yes, I have my Lovan Jazz speaker stands filled w/ kitty litter (which, as Albert correctly pointed out, is ground clay). the speaker stands are (acoustically) dead to the knuckle rap test. I have my Tannoy DMT-10 monitors sitting on these stands & I find their sound is very good. This is in a bedroom system which is not very discriminating, I have to admit (hence the diff in silica & clay might not show up). clay is a real option for mass-loading speaker stands. I found it to be a better option as the play sand was leaking (over a period of time) from the several places in the stands & creating a mess on the carpet! I found that the ground clay's bigger particles stayed in their intended location better while (still) providing mass-loading. Anyway, FWIW: