[Daedalus]

Have a look at the Totem Acoustic stands. Might be close to what you're looking for.



I believe you can swap the spikes for rubber feet.

[Russell Dawkins]

That's true if you use tall rubber feet, like the ones that screw in. However, if you use 3 firm rubber or cork washers (or similar) that are only 2 or 3mm (1/8") tall there shouldn't be any rocking motion. They will provide a little isolation (rather than the coupling provided by spikes) between speaker/stand and floor. If your speaker boxes/stands are already well damped, then the usual argument of 'draining resonance to ground via spikes' becomes invalid anyway. Of course, all this assumes that you have a hard floor, no carpet.

I sense this is something on which we will disagree, DSK. I think that the give afforded by even short hard rubber or cork is too much. My thinking is not so much "draining of resonances to ground" as much as making the speaker itself as rigid in space as it is reasonably practical to do and to that end, a little give at the speaker stand base translates to substantially reduced rigidity at the speaker.

This is a thorny, almost political issue and I don't think the twain will meet anytime in the near future. I am just explaining the approach that I personally use.

[lazydays]

I don't have any, but I've heard good things on Skylan stands:

skylanstands.com

When I finally finish my room setup I'll likely try these guys, solid custom stands at a reasonable price.

save your money as they're plastic junk. I own a pair
gary

[lazydays]

sica:

Joel at Skylan recommended kitty litter as a filler for his stands. I tried it; and it works just fine. (less messy than sand). I used them un-filled for a long time..and they still worked fine. No audible resonance- but when filled, the imaging was improved.

FWIW...

WEEZ

whatever you put inside that plastic pipe make sure it's bagged as they will leak all over the place. No way to really seal them. And they are way, way over priced. Look for a used pair of Osiris stands, and be done with it.
gary

[WEEZ]

Yikes. I should be shot for selling my Osiris stands, then, I guess. And, to think that I replaced them with plastic junk. Damn.

You see, ricmon asked about stands that work on hardwood floors. As it turned out, that is exactly the reason that I compared the Skylan with my old Osiris stands. I tried the Osiris with coupling discs and the Skylans with both the spikes/coupling discs; and with the rubber feet. I guess I was totally mistaken and deaf when I prefered the sound with the Skylan stands (and they weren't even filled yet. god-sakes).

On my carpeted floors, the Osiris worked fine. If I hadn't gotten a good deal on them, however- I would have gone with the Sound Anchors 'cause they perform very well for less money and don't require the user to mess around filling the damn things.

But I've only been at this stupid hobby for 35 years so what the hell do I know. Wonder why the Osiris stands are no longer available....might they have been overpriced I wonder?

WEEZ  

[DSK]

...I think that the give afforded by even short hard rubber or cork is too much. My thinking is not so much "draining of resonances to ground" as much as making the speaker itself as rigid in space as it is reasonably practical to do and to that end, a little give at the speaker stand base translates to substantially reduced rigidity at the speaker. ...

Russell, sufficiently hard rubber will give virtually no 'give'. If the speakers have reasonable heft to them then any 'give' would already be taken up, compressed by speaker weight ...especially using 3 instead of 4, and thin washers. The resistance of the very hard and (virtually) maximally compressed washers, together with the weight of a decent speaker, should help minimise any rocking.

I don't have an accelerometer or whatever is required to test movement of the speaker.   while writing this I just had a thought ...if you had (preferably identical) bathroom scales, you could put them under the front and back feet of the speaker... supposedly, any rocking motion would appear as rising & falling readouts. Or, you could put the scales under the front feet and a block of wood (to keep speaker level) under the back feet. Unless there is substantial swings in the readout on the scales, there will be insufficient force to further compress the washers and cause any rocking.

It's fine you disagree ...it challenges us to think things through