Building stands for Harbeth 40.2's

The selection of a speaker stand must fulfil only two core criteria: raising the tweeter so that, ideally, the tweeter is level with your ear (very few users do this and hence very few users achieve the full sonic potential) and protecting the speaker from toppling over. With those criteria met, there is a very wide latitude on materials, shape size and colour.

This is ludicrous assertion by Shaw. How a speaker stand interacts with the floor can, depending on other variables, produce clearly audible differences.

The quote is reminiscent of when, years ago, Shaw was famously agnostic about amplifiers:

Whatever amp you've got will work just great with Harbeth. Anything British, made after about 1980, fully serviced will be great. End of story.
 

Shaw designs excellent speakers, but at least some of his related views should be taken with a large grain of salt.

Think this way -- if the stands have dramatic impact to the speaker performance and he ignored it unduly, would he be successfully designed so many good speakers and have good reputation for that?

Lots ideas about good stand discussed here, including the expensive TT design lack of theoretical back and experimental evidence at all.  So please show the theories and measurement data to prove it that they are not snake oil.

@whipsaw

agree with you - alan shaw can be a tricky dude... in spite of the harbeths being excellent speakers... he is the business mind and owner behind the brand, and as an expert capitalist, you can count on him to say what serves his commercial interests... ’oh why yes, any old amplifier will do - just make sure you have bought the best harbeth you can afford’ 🤣