Interfacing Speakers & Stands


Greetings fellow Agoners.What is the general feeling on how to place speakers on stands.Most stands come with brass spikes as well as rubber pads & there's also Blu Tac.Stands are sand filled metal with metal top plate.Your thoughts?Thanks for your input.
freediver
Generally the tweeter should be at ear level and stands should provide a solid, sturdy platform for best sound.

Other than that, system/speaker and speaker/room interactions are way more important.
I've used Herbies fat dots between the speaker and stand. They are very reasonably priced and come with a trial period.
The variation in speaker construction probably precludes any universal best method. I have used Blutak but have not been happy with it. I have gone back to being a dealer after a long lapse and I have been investigating the things that have come along since I left. I have been using Star Sound Audio Points under my speakers and find it does pretty much what their website say they do. There are many other similar products that I haven't tried but these work. An alternative approach is to use ball bearings and saucers to decouple the speakers from the stands, the opposite approach from the points which couple them. This approach has been recommended by Barry Diament and others. I am going to try this myself as I have some on order that do this. The main thing is to keep your system consistent throughout. That is, don't couple some parts of it and decouple others. In one method you are trying to drain vibration out of the system as quickly as possible, in the other you are trying to suppress it at each level. As to fill material, I have tried lead shot, sand and kitty litter and have not been completely happy with any of them. I am currently awaiting delivery of two products designed specifically for the purpose, Micro Bearing from Star Sound and Atabits from Atacama. I will post what I found out. I know the Micro Bearings work because my rack system is filled with them but have never added them to an existing stand.
I use good quality but not exotic fillable stands loaded with sand, and interface the top plate of the stand and bottom of the speaker with Black Dots from Herbie'e Audio and find the combination out performs the brass spikes I had been using previously. Herbies 's gives a money back guarantee so it's easily worth a try. But I'd guess you'll like the effect of the Black Dots.
(I'm not affiliated with Herbies, just a satisfied customer)