speaker stands--general considerations

Guys, I have to disagree with some of what you are saying IRT floor standing speakers.  I own Vandersteen's and the Treo on up have been designed to be placed close to the back wall and still give you a great stage etc...  I have Quatro's with the 11 band bass EQ, so I just dial in the bass to be smooth in my room.  It works exceptionally well and my wife loves how the speaker look in the room.  

I don't miss anything as I've had then into the room, but put them back as I'm not losing anything putting up close to the wall.  I'd must rather have what I have than miss the lower octaves.  

If you need to install a sub into the system, that means two in order to do bass properly and it's very difficult to integrate a sub into most system, plus that takes up way more space than a floor stander that was designed to be coherent from the lower octaves up. 

Many folks just think a stand mounted speaker does things that the floor stander can't, but that was in the past, not the present.  

Im using the best Symposium Super Plus custom speaker stands on my MAGICOs with great sound improvement over the stock Stainless Steal spikes.

One lasting impression of speaker stands happened at a dealer several years ago listening to Dali, KEF and other stand mount monitors on some Sound Anchor stands, spikes on the base, thin layer of blu tack between the speakers.
The bass was simply solid, deeper and more well defined than I have heard with other stands including filled plastic, wood, etc. The rigid, high mass stand gave me the benchmark for what could be possible for a stand mounted speaker.   The sound of the bass response is what was most impressive-  leading edges with impact, quick non bloated decay.  
Since that impression I was reluctant to buy them because they were pricey. With a variety of stand mounts and larger monitors that have passed through my listening room I have used cat litter filed plastic, DIY open wooden frames, basic metal and MDF stands and nothing gave me that sound that was my benchmark. Finally bit the bullet and purchased them- 4 post sound anchors for my Harbeth SHL5+. Finished.

i have 4 bose 901 series 2 speakers hanging from the ceiling. i know all out there will say that the 901's are outdated but i like them. they are hanging around 2 feet from the ceiling. my ceilings are 7 feet high. is that about the right distance from the ceiling???

I’ve been using Dynaudio stand 2’s filled with sand and spikes on the bottom.  Blu tak on top.  These are really nice, solid and heavy stands!  I like them quite a bit.