Most equipment works best on a solid and stable platform/foundation. That's the job of a good audio stand, keep components safe and an insurance policy against harmful vibrations, when needed. Matters most for a turntable, almost all the time, less for other devices that are not as sensitive to physical vibrations case by case. Each case is different.
Best practice is put your stuff on a solid foundation any way possible that works for you and be done with it. Tune all the other stuff for best sound rather than worrying about tweaking the stand for a particular sound, which is a little crazy. Turntables are a different story. These are very vibration sensitive and sound quality affected by external vibrations in most cases. Same thing with speakers but speakers are the source of vibrations including unwanted ones sometimes due to room acoustics, not the victim. Other things, vibration is less of an issue. Maybe with some CD players but not all if vibration is affecting ability to read CDs accurately. Still one off the last thing sI would worry about there. Many other more predictable ways to get teh digital sound you want than swapping one good stand for another.
My gear including turntable and excluding power amps sit on a very solid oak wood coffee table, $30 at used furniture store. Table sits on bottom level of house with solid concrete foundation covered by thin dense pad and carpet, as do speakers. Vibrations/resonances are a total non issue for the first time ever for me and I have been at this for well over 40 years. Even with gear on my upper level, turntable and speakers are the ones worth worrying about regarding stands and vibrations.
Go digital music server and headphones only and stands become a total non issue for sound quality. Probably also the case with most modern CD players as well.
If not for turntable, the stand alone would be mostly a non-issue for me. Amps sit on a solid but fairly light and mundane antique wood stool. Amp stand choice was determined much by aesthetics. Many things would work fine. Everything sounds quite good I would say as long as turntable is well isolated and speaker/room acoustic interactions are under control. Room acoustics have nothing to do with stands.
DEfinitely worry first about speakers and room acoustics and the right amp to drive the speakers!! That'll make or break any deal. Not much to worry about stand-wise otherwise most likely though if no turntable, other than appearance, though splitting hairs via a/b sound tests is always a possibility I suppose. Exact sound with solid stand A versus solid stand B might still make a difference, but at this point its way down on the list of priorities for good sound, in the really splitting hairs realm most likely. Not worth worrying about unless you are just inclined towards experimentation rather than listening.
