[pennylane]

Hi,
I'm new to the speaker world.  I'm actually looking for 2 stand recommendations.

I need stands for some Polk LSi9's (14-7/8" H x 8-5/8" W x 15-1/4" D) and   Onix Rocket ELT LSR's (11.5" H x 6.75" D x 7.5” W).  (They're not part of the same system, BTW).

I'm to spend less than $100 for sure, about $60 would be ideal (per pair).  I'm not expecting much.  This is my first set of speakers, (well, first 2 sets I guess) and I'm sure I'll be spending more later, but I'm still in college and I just want something decent.  I'm thinking of building my own stands for at least one of the 2 pairs of speakers, but I'd still need one pair of speaker stands now.  I've been looking at buy.com and rackandstand.com, but I'm not sure what's a solid brand/model and what the speakers need.

Most of my listening will be on a couch.  I'm guessing about 24-28" would be good for the Polks and maybe 30" for the Onix's.  Is that okay?

How wide should the stands be? I'm guessing the Polk's qualify as "large" bookshelf speakers. Is it okay if the platform is not as big as the width and depth of the speaker?

Should I get some fancy compound to keep the speaker stuck to the stand?  Are there any cheap "DIY"-style solutions to that?

Can you help me?  Thanks.

[Marbles]

Just a hair more than you want to spend, but excellant stands...

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&PartNumber=240-744&DID=7&raid=45&rak=240-744

[suits_me]

Those Part Express things are not bad.

Here are some cheeeeper options below, if the sale is still on.

Regardless of what stands you end up with, one cost effective thing to try with all of them is to "beard" them. Put some kind of sheet or plank the width of the monitor which runs from the floor to the top of the speaker stand. If that's not clear, the idea is to have a somewhat solid face filling in the cavity that is present under the stand platforms (on all but a few, square stand models.) In theory, this should not affect the low bass much, but it can, and it figures it would help reinforce frequencies a bit above the lows into the mid and upper bass.


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[pugs]

There's some decent looking stands here:

http://www.standsonthenet.com

[pennylane]

How wide should the stands be?  I'm guessing the Polk's qualify as "large" bookshelf speakers.  Is it okay if the platform is not as big as the width and depth of the speaker?

[suits_me]

I already posted an opinion about the bearding, and you specified later you're asking about the platform top.

That could be a more subtle question than it first looks, because the size of the platform could affect coupling to the speaker bottom and possibly how any resonance of the cabinet is affected. These variables would be hard to quantify, and are not discussed in the normal course of events, with the exception of people trying various cones, tiptoes, bluetak and so on between the cabinet and stand top.

The simple answer is that most speaker stand platforms are a bit smaller than the speaker they are holding. This is customary because most stands are not made specifically for a particular monitor, although some are.

You obviously don't want the platform too much smaller than the speaker cabinet or else the whole enchilada could be tippy. So you want what common sense would dictate as a good base of support.

I did not pay attention the top plate measurements for my suggestions....