[IronLion]

I have been reading Ed's post on filling his Horns with BB's and I'm wondering if maybe I should give this a shot with my new two-post Skylan stands for my Zu Tones.  They are setup and ready to roll, but I haven't filled them yet with any mass-loading substrate as I've been looking for opinions on anybody's experience with using something other than sand in their Skylan stands?  I think they are designed to be filled with sand, so this is most likely the route I will go, but I am tempted to try BB's out of curiosity...

[Tweaker]

I'm personally in the "sand will deaden the sound" camp. Certain substances tend to absorb or deaden sound. Lead and sand do both very well. I think that steel shot is the way to go to mass load a stand without deadening the sound. Copper BB's I think would also work well but the smaller the diameter of the material the better the mass loading will be. I do know one thing, the sound of your speakers can be dramatically altered by changing the mass of your stands. Until I buy some steel shot I've been playing around with placing some extra Mapleshade brass weights on the base of my stands and they have a profound effect. More than two on each stand tends to take a bit of life out of the sound but also improves imaging. Definitely experiment with how much of whatever you choose to use. Don't assume filling the stands to the brim will result in the best sound. Fill them a little and then listen. You might find the best sound is with them filled only half way. This is what I will be trying soon in my stands:
http://precisionreloading.com/steel_shot.htm