Somewhat of an oxymoron - speaker stands for the floor for bookshelf speakers.


Where to purchase? Type of stand?  And how does the speaker stay on the stand without fear of knocking the speaker off  - if accidently bumped? 

smerk

If you have cats, dogs, or small children it is imperative that the stands be strong, stable, and not liable to tipping. You didn’t mention the price range of your speakers which would figure into how much you would want to devote to stands. There are cheap ones from Monoprice that will do the job, especially if you fill them with steel shot or sand. More expensive and very excellent stands are those by Solid Steel. But yes, it would be dumb to spend $800 for stands for a $600 pair of say Klipsch RP-500M. As noted by others, measure your speakers from their bottom up to the centerline of the tweeter, then let that be your guide to the necessary height of the stands, as most of the time it is best if they can be at ear level when you are in your sitting position. An alternative, if you are handy, is to make your own out of wood or metal. Coworker of mine had a welder build his stands, then had them powder coated black. Think they weigh about 60 lbs. each!

Mapleshade has a unique view on this...worth reading about on their website...I found it worked quite well...

How much the sound varies with exact placement varies highly with the speakers. Ribbon and electrostatic are very sensitive to placement… as in 1/8th inch can make a significant difference. While this is a topic a different thread.. I think it is often possible to get great sound from ribbon speakers with a much lower percentage investment in the speakers… typical rule of thumb is 30%… for many years I had 10% in speakers (Apogee). But the amount of work with positioning and treatments (different than for dynamic speakers) was huge. To me that was the trade off. 

The Dynaudio Contour 20s come with a factory stand that bolts into the bottom of the speaker cabinet.  The stands are built very heavy, but I filled the open tube portion with sand to add more weight and stability.  They are hard to move now.

Same for B&Ws I use in AV set up.  I invested in the factory B&W stand; better build and weight.  Set at best height for optimal tweeter to seating position.  Again, filled open tube with sand.

Several aftermarket options are available, but worth investing in better ones with more stability and weight.

Different speakers are designed for different stand heights; while there is indeed a 'rule of thumb', there is no 'one size fits all' best speaker height for all standmounts. For instance, I've got a pair of Martens that are very high on their stands and ear level is slightly below the bottom of the woofer/mid, which is below the tweeter - that's how they're designed to be and they sound amazing.