Filling speaker stands: sand, lead, steel, rice. Full, half, etc?

I bought a Solid Steel stand from the U.S. distributor at the Vegas CES in the late 90's. He had applied lead tape to all the metal tubes, in locations that weren't visible---the back of each leg, and the backs and bottoms of the cross-beams.

Harbeth's designer Alan Shaw argues that the material does not make any sonic difference: Ikea stools will be fine if you like them or if the budget is tight. What matters are two things. First, height: the tweeters should be as close as possible to your ears' level in your normal listening position. Sonically, this is the only relevant variable. Second, stability. This is where loading stands with sand etc comes in if it stabilizes them. You do not want your expensive speakers to be knocked over.

willem, surely Mr. Shaw considers room placement, not just height, an important determiner of speaker sound quality. And how about degree of toe-in? I recently finally heard a pair of Magicos in a home (having heard them in showrooms a fair amount), and before listening commenced, I commented on the less-than-"normal" amount of toe-in with which the owner had positioned the speakers---about 15 degrees off straight ahead, I’d guess. He responded that you do NOT want Magicos pointed directly at you, and when we started listening, I heard why! I am much more familiar with planar speaker sound than of speakers with dome tweeters, and many planars need to be heard directly in the line-of-fire of the ESL, m-p, or ribbon tweeter.

There is no doubt that most box type speakers need a little damping as the cabinet resonance is not really good for the sound. So, in addition to a good sounding stand I some effective method of damping cabinet resonance should be explored. Too bad Tekna Sonic Dampers for speakers and subwoofers are no longer available as they were very effective in allowing cabinet vibrational energy to exit the speakers without storing energy, which is an unfortunate side effect of many damping techniques. Also, as I mentioned somewhere last week, large cones act as node Dampers on speaker cabinets a la the “Beaks.” Those Gabon ebony things sometimes work when placed on top of the cabinet, too. Marigo VTS Dots (very small constrained layer Dampers) are effective for damping the internal crossover elements, speaker driver structure, speaker diaphragm, and the cabinet itself.

In addition, I kind of doubt that the ear should always be at tweeter height as it really depends on the actual radiation pattern of the tweeter, the room acoustics, and the location of the listener’s chair. In fact, Pierre Sprey over at Mapleshade is find of saying that the best sound is usually when the listener is sitting on the floor. So, opinions vary. Obviously the speakers should be carefully placed for best results.

The Frog Jump in Water Tweak is based on the concept that ice cold water in bowls on the floor causes the sound waves to bend downward slightly towards the listener so he hears more of the sound. 

Of course Alan Shaw is also interested in toe in etc. See hee for his explanation of why the tweeter should be at ear height: http://www.harbeth.co.uk/usergroup/forum/the-harbeth-line-up-m20-m30-m40-1-p3esr-c7es3-shl5/74975-op...