...you may all rightly ask...
Well, around... and horrifically busy. BAD moderator!
Anyway, I wrote this up a long time ago, and Noel asked me to post it somewhere, so here goes. Might as well get read here rather than languish forever on my hard drive.
::
After finally deciding that my old Lovans weren't high enough (and after becoming tired of stacking books and other knickknacks to adjust the height) I got the opportunity to try Noel Nolan's Skylan stands that he markets specifically for (or at least inclusive of) the De Capos. Given their sensitivity to height, a more-or-less tailor-made stands makes sense.
The assembly was a straight-forward process; the tensioned center threads are a very logical way to ground the top and bottom. Adding sand filler (not optional!) is also said to create a 'vibration sink' whereby vibration from the top plate is absorbed before it reaches the bottom of the stands.
Visually, the stands are unassuming, and the rounded corners (on every surface) create a pleasing look and feel. The matte black finish is attractive, if not stunning, and ultimately just gets out of the way of aesthetics of the rest of the system. The visual synergy with my gloss black De Capos was excellent.
Of note on the top plate is the absence of spikes, threads, or the typically useless smooth surface. Nolan has adapted an unusual trio of extremely hard magnets. The result? No scratches, no leveling, and no sticky junk; just a very rigid connection between stand and speaker. I found that I preferred the sound of this coupling to bluetak, vibrapods; even to my expensively polished granite plinths that were mating my last stands to the de capos. I didn't experiment with any high-end cones, points, etc; I suppose there's always room for improvement or at least change in the area of coupling, but I believe these stands have a very effective (and simple) coupling system. One caveat is that if you knock the speakers about, there is no sticky stuff which might (or might not) hold them in place.
With the included spikes attached (which aren't shiny but, I'm told, extremely hard), the top plate is around 25". The jury's still out on the best height for the De Capos (it probably varies with room acoustic), but this is definitely in the zone. In my room, I haven't really found a (definitively) better height.
So how do they sound? In a word, great. It's hard to sort out what's what when you're changing materials, height and coupling mechanism all at the same time, but I found the Skylans to offer excellent, tight bass, imaging as good as anything else, and a lack of impact on tonal balance that allows the speaker's own voicing to come through.
Another note: Noel mentioned the possibility of making these to measure (since the posts are extruded polymer, it's just a matter of a different cut). If I were a little adventurous and a lot exacting, Noel is the guy I'd call for a pair of bespoke stands.
ancillaries: GamuT CD-1S; Plinius 8200 Mk II; cabling by Van den Hul; Reference 3A MM De Capos