Stands for small floorstanders?


Hello.

I've seen a couple of outrigger speaker stabilizers that claim to improve sound and improve stability of small floorstanders.

I have B&W 804s, which are small, and I'm a little concerned with their stability, plus improving their sound would be great too. The speakers currently rest on the factory supplied rubber feet, and on tile floor (no carpeting).

Are these outriggers, or other devices such as thick bases cut out of granite and on spikes any good sound-wise?

Thank you!
lewinskih01
"With this in mind, I need some sort of rigidly attaching the speaker to the base. Do you believe a screw-on heavy wood plate sitting on heavy brass cones would sound better than a similar arrangement using steel plate? From what I read at Mapleshade I might want to try leaving a 1" space between the speaker and the platform."

I'm not crazy about advising you to screw something into the bottom of your speaker, if that is what you mean. I also like wood better than steel for it's acoustic dampening properties.

Honestly - try using Bluetack to attach speaker to the wood platform for this application. I know this is not one inch or more above the wood, but it can be extremely secure (requiring many pounds of force to remove), and acoustically it works well to couple your speaker to the stand. It's what I use right now and it works very well - maybe not quite as well as brass cones for sound, but much better than rubber feet. And it will reduce outings to the hospital which is a very good thing!

Or, you could try the outriggers others suggest.

Or, you could really simplify things and just try using Bluetack to attach your speakers directly to your tile floor and see how stable it is and how it sounds. I guarantee it will be an improvement over the rubber feet. Start simple and go from there...
Thanks guys.

Knownothing: Not thinking of making holes in the speaker! Just going to use the existing holes for the threaded rubber feet to attach the speaker to whatever I make.
Anyway, I hear you about trying with Blutak. The issue is I live overseas and we don't have Blutak here. Same thing for oregondv.com outriggers (it makes no sense to ship heavy weights intl').

Luckily I find my way around with DIY. I'm thinking of making my own stands. Either 1/2"-thick steel base (cut with a panthograph) or a 2 or 3" thick hard wood base with outriggers (and heavy brass cones like Mapleshade's).
I wonder if using 1" spacers between amp and stand and having the 1/4" bolts to attach the speaker to the stand would help "drain" the vibrations out of the speaker and into the stand. Any thoughts?
If the connection between the speaker and the stand is very secure, my feeling is that it should work (i.e. no loose parts to rattle). I am also sure that we could get into a detailed discussion about what kind of materials would work best for the bolts and spacers in this application!!! Whatever you do, I would get the basic rubber/plastic out of the coupling system.

Try it a report back to us on what you decide and how it works.