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

With my proac tablettes, I am using 28 inch speaker stands which have two round steel tubes about two inches in diameter.  The stands have spikes into my wooden floor (through carpet) and rubber pads on top.  I have a rather small room 12x12, and I have played around with the speaker positions in the room, finding a pretty sweet spot optimizing the bass and soundstage.  I have done all this with the stands unfilled.

so I am looking for advice on filling the stands. What do I use: sand, steel shot, lead shot, rice?  Do I fill them half full, three quarters, or full? Do I fill all the tubes the same? Can overfill makes things worse?

like most things (i.e. speaker placement) I suspect there will be some trial and error, but as it will be a real pain in the rear to fill/empty/refill the various materials to really compare, I am hoping that there are some lessons learned that the rest of you can share with me to get me pretty close with my first trial.

Alos, what effect will the filling have- should I expect deeper bass, bigger soundstage, greater depth, more detail, or..... better yet what should I not expect to change? This will help me know what I should be listening for as I tweak things.

and finally, should I expect my current optimum speaker position to change with filled stands? Will I have to go through the whole positioning exercise again?

thanks, ( and happy new year)

Bill
meiatflask
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Holiday Tip

Cone material, Order of effectiveness/sound quality,
best to worst 

NASA grade ceramic
Cryo’d high carbon steel
aluminum
brass
carbon fiber
lead

Remember, cones are directional so always use them points down.






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tecknik
483 posts
 
I used to have my stands ( Dynaudio stand 6 ) filled with Small lead shot, sand and rice, I have since been experimenting with different quantities of lead and have discovered that the more lead, weight /dampening you can fill your stands up ( 3/4) is the limit with the remaining filled with egg crates to further dampen the stands the better imaging, bass including texture and pitch of bass, micro dynamics. I now have the stands filled with different size lead fishing weights, 20 pounds with lead shot, 50 micron aluminium oxide to fill in the gaps and have experienced a huge improvement in the above areas. Highly recommended to experiment with different , heavier, dampening materials to a achieve speaker monitor performance.
rkilowatt
9 posts
 
To answer your original question.....Freshwater aquarium gravel (the epoxy coated type) Buy new not someones used stuff..... If that doesn't  work ...set up a aquarium!!!
soniqmike
140 posts
 
For me, stone dust (Home Depot) is the most dense, heavy-as-hell filler.

Imagine a 3' by 2' bag of sand. I would estimate the equivalent size in stone dust to be roughly twice as heavy, at least that's what it feels like. This stuff is so dense, it feels like you are lifting a frigging stone of the same size. 

For me, stability is my main concern. I then put a Husky neoprene-like tool-drawer-bottom liner between the top plate and the speaker bottom for protection and grip. The whole thing is pretty tight and solid...
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