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Speaker Stand Height - Effect on Presentation

Hello,

This may sound like a silly question, but...

Currently coming from floorstanding speakers (Vandersteen 2ce Signatures), and due to changes at home, I am forced to move to monitors for awhile. This is my first time with monitor/stand based speakers.

The monitors I will be using are approximately 15 inches tall, and when listening critically sit 6-8 feet away, and for background listening am typically much farther away, probably around 15-17 feet away. My room is 24x14 or so, firing down the length of the room. I may experiment with placing them on the long wall, but there are other factors that may not make this a good idea.

The manufacturer recommended sitting with ear at about or just under the height of the tweeter. To my question...

Because of this, I am currently looking at 24 inch stands, which seem to be about average height of speaker stands sold from looking around..

What would the effect of the presentation be if I went with a taller stand, say a 28 inch instead of a 24 inch? If there will be little difference in the figures I've provided, what would the situation be with a larger difference in height?

Just curious if this would present the illusion of a taller soundstage, or if sonics would suffer because I'm now several inches below the recommended listening height in respect to the tweeter.

Any thoughts on presentation?

And anyone have any thoughts for connection between speaker and the top of the stands, _other_ thank blue tack?
cjr888
ohlala
1,235 posts
 
I am sure the quality of the tweeter and other speaker factors come in, but raising a speaker up and down changes the tonal balance. If the tweeters are on too high or low of a plain relative to your ears, the highs will be attenuated. Four inches will affect the balance, but i couldn't guess how much. I'd follow the manufacturer's suggestion, or see if you can get both sizes and return one of them which shouldn't be a big deal.

Also, shorter stands have more stability over taller stands.
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dekay's avatar
dekay
5,552 posts
 
Our room size is similar and I use 28" stands because the tweeters on my speakers (Reynaud Twins) are bottom mounted (below the woofer). I also move around the room a great deal when listening casually. Aside from the general advice of having the tweeter @ ear level, I discovered years ago that a pair of Rogers Ls3/5a (tiny) moniters sounded their best on stands almost 40" in height (in various rooms). Because of this I suggest that you experiment with the height yourself, using whatever is available around the household. You will loose a bit in regards to isolation/vibration control (when using "whatever"), but you should be able to easily hear the changes in tonal balance in order to decide what is the best height for your application. Sorry, no easy answer.
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