[Troutbum]

Got my De Capos the other day. With less than 10 hours on them, I'm already impressed.

What would you recommend for filling stands? And did you notice a difference in sound after? Thanks

[cyounkman]

Got my De Capos the other day. With less than 10 hours on them, I'm already impressed.

What would you recommend for filling stands? And did you notice a difference in sound after? Thanks

Hi Trout. Welcome to the circle (belated)...

There was a whole thread on this a while ago called What's in your stands?

I'm sure lots of people would tell you that lead is theoretically better-- more mass, more inert.

I think I did some math about a year ago that indicated that my stands (6-post Lovans) would weigh some 77 kilos more than their nominal weight of say 13 kg (that's about 30 lb, for the Americans) if filled with #9 lead shot.

Suffice it to say that I am not confident that my floor would hold up under 90 kg on four sharp spikes... Let alone trying to move them...

Anyway, I've ended up (after some bad experiences you can find on the thread above) using plain old sand, and it works very well. It always tightens up the bass and I find it can slightly improve imaging as well. Different stands will benefit in different ways; I'm going to fill the Skylan stands I have here any day now, and I'll report back on the extent to which the improvements differ from when I filled my Lovans.

[davehg]

Lead Shot alone leaves tiny gaps between the lead pellets. I have always been told to mix sand and lead shot together (more lead than sand) to achieve a denser mixture.

Back in the 80's when I did this for a pair of Celestion SL600si's, you could easily buy silica sand (used by sandblasters). Evidently due to the bad effects of inhaling this pure but fine sand, it has been off the markets in the US for some time (though you can find used stuff at auto paint places). An el cheapo solution is to walk down at the banks of any river and find the river sand. You'll need to dry it out before filling your stands (try leaving it in the oven at 200% for about a few hours if you can't wait for several days.

Then mix the lead shot and sand and pour into your stands. You get a denser mixture that leaves no gaps, plus all the mass of lead.

[Tonto Yoder]

There's something at Home Depot called "Blasting Sand" in a 40 lb bag; it may well be different than the silica sand mentioned above.  They also sell Play Sand for sandboxes and a coarser sand for setting brick pavers.

I have filled my stands for another brand of speakers and my gear with lead--locally it's somewhat difficult to find.  One gunshop had ONE 25 lb. bag.  I ended up buying recycled shot from a guy about 45 minutes away.

[seti]

I've used play sand in the past. It's also usually sterile. Shot is more mass than you need sometimes. Atabites are another more expensive option.

You may also want to experiment with the amount of sand or filler you put in. I have found that about 75% full sounded best in one application.