Importance of Good Speaker Stands?

One further addendum to the PlaySand suggestion - You'll want to make sure that the sand itself is moisture-free (and I don't just mean cat piss). Sometimes the sand comes with moisture included at no cost to you, until you fill your steel stands with it and the moisture causes the insides to rust. I've heard of folks pouring it into a few big pots and sticking it in their oven at low-temp for several hours to bake off any moisture in it. Sometimes you'll just luck out and find a source that sells bone-dry play sand and as long as you keep it from your cat you're good to go and won't need to Bake any sand pies. The alternatives are all more expensive, short of kitty litter which is not quite as dense or heavy as sand. Lead shot is available from gun dealers who sell reloading supplies, but you'll have those tiny balls rolling around your floor for the rest of eternity. They can be a bit annoying when you step on one. Also lead is not the best thing to be handling, or for pets or children to have access to. I don't know if they make shot out of lead anymore though. Anyway, that method definitely will add more weight than sand. More expensive still is metallic powders marketed by the likes of StarSound (who make excellent isolation products, btw), which will add more weight still, but will take weight from your wallet. Pick your poison.

Use sand, and bake. I live by the beach, and when I constructed a DIY platform for my TT, I used fine sand from the beach for the interior. Put it in a large bowl, and mix occasionaly to facilitate drying. Easy as pie.

I use Star Sound and Atabits , both of which I am a dealer for. Both work well but as pointed out aren't cheap. But you don't need that much of them, too much will deaden the sound. I use to use lead and these are better. Someone recommended steel blasting shot as a cheaper alternative, I haven't used it; the Atabits are small steel balls and work well so I would think these should also.

Very important they be 'massive' and lead shot filled, but only if you do not have children. I've had three sets, two Chicago the other Studio Tech. They make all the difference. The tops of all of them are spiked, no pads viber stuff. The bottoms are also spiked. The speakers, all ProAc's sing, sing. sing.