Speaker Stands
I ordered a pair of Sanus Steel Foundation (SF34) stands for my RTi A3?s. I ordered them from StandsandMounts.com. They are based in North Carolina but say they have warehouses they ship from at different places around the country. The stands shipped out of Maplewood, MO, which just happens to be the FedEx hub for the St. Louis region. I received them the next day with free shipping.
After I ordered them I sent an email to Sanus asking if I could order the 8? x 8.5? top plate from the SF22 stands because I was concerned that the 6? x 6? plate would not be large enough. The reply I got back said they checked with their parts guy and they didn?t have any extra top plates for sale. I don?t think the smaller top plate with be much of an issue, but the larger one would have been nice.
I?ve been debating if I wanted to fill the stands for extra weight, so as soon as they came in I put one of them together to see what it was like unfilled. One assembly issue I encountered is that the base of the stand is curved so there are two slightly different feet in the package. They aren?t marked any differently and the parts list just says there are 8 feet. If you have them on wrong, the screw hole won?t quite line up correctly, and the bottom of the foot won?t be parallel to the floor. You should be able to see that something doesn?t look right if you it?s wrong.
I decided that I would feel more comfortable if it weighed more so I will be filling them. I?ve read arguments against lead for its toxicity, and against sand because it can leak out. There is a rubber isolation plate at the bottom of the stands between the base and the pillars and a cork washer between the top plate and the pillars so nothing should escape. Even if those should fail, I believe that the uprights of the stands can be sealed so that neither lead nor sand could escape. I can be a little OCD so the lengths I?m going to go to are probably unnecessary, but going to unnecessary lengths is really a time honored tradition in home audio/theater.
Each stand has two pillars, the pillars are about 2? in diameter and have a round plate held in place by three spot welds on the top and bottom. The plate looks like it is about 1/8? and has a threaded hole in the center for assembly, and three small holes equally spaced around for filling the tubes. The fill holes are about 3/16? in diameter. The fill holes seem rather small so I will drill one of them out to speed the filling process. The space at the edges of the plate that is not welded is very small and it?s unlikely that anything could come out of there. Unlikely isn?t good enough for me, so I?ll put some superglue around the edges. The capillary effect should draw the superglue into the narrow space and completely seal it. Next I?m going plug the fill holes on the bottom with slightly oversized dowel rods. After they are filled the top will receive the same treatment.
I wanted to get a rough idea of how much of a weight increase I would see if I filled the pillars and to know how much filler I would need because it is sold by weight. I like easy math so I just used a radius of 1? for each pillar and came up with a volume of around 100 cubic inches for each pillar. I realize this isn?t accurate, I also realize that by going oversized on the diameter it can have a significant impact on volume, but as I said, I only wanted a rough idea and would prefer a worst case.
Lead weighs 6.5555 oz per cubic inch. Lead shot would contain air space so we need to account for that. Sphere packing models tell us that tightly packed spheres will have a density of about 74%, so lead shot will weigh about 4.85 oz per cubic inch; 100 cubic inches of lead shot should weigh a little over 30 lbs. The most often quoted weight of sand is 100 lbs per cubic foot. This is about .925 oz per cubic inch. One hundred cubic inches of sand would then weigh about 5.78 lbs.
The stands themselves are nice and feel pretty solid. The feet have options for spikes or rubber inserts. I have wood floors so I'll be using the rubber inserts. They have three options for interface between the speaker and top place. You can install small spikes at the corners of the plate or there is also rubber inserts that install in the same holes (these are the same inserts the feet use). They also have a hole in the center of the plate for those speakers that have a threaded mount on the bottom of them. I won?t be using any of these options. I?ll use BluTack between the top plate and speaker. Actually it will be Loctite?s version of it because that?s what the local store had.
I picked the 34? height of stand because I am thinking about moving the A3 to the back and getting RTI A5?s for the fronts. This puts the tweeters of the A3 at a similar height to the A5 and also provides the height needed to project over the couch if I would move them to the rear. After I put one of the stands together I moved one of my speakers from its temporary location to the stand. The speaker was on a built in shelf about 18? off the ground and the back of them was near a wall. Placing it on a stand moved the speaker up and closer to the listening position. I went to the speaker adjustments on my receiver and leveled out the volume for both speakers (the left channel is on the stand, the right is still on the shelf). The left channel just sounds better. I?m still new to home audio so I don?t know how to describe it any other way. I don?t know if it?s the added height or if it?s the fact there is more empty space around the rear port. Either way I look forward to getting this project finished having both speakers on stands.
After I ordered them I sent an email to Sanus asking if I could order the 8? x 8.5? top plate from the SF22 stands because I was concerned that the 6? x 6? plate would not be large enough. The reply I got back said they checked with their parts guy and they didn?t have any extra top plates for sale. I don?t think the smaller top plate with be much of an issue, but the larger one would have been nice.
I?ve been debating if I wanted to fill the stands for extra weight, so as soon as they came in I put one of them together to see what it was like unfilled. One assembly issue I encountered is that the base of the stand is curved so there are two slightly different feet in the package. They aren?t marked any differently and the parts list just says there are 8 feet. If you have them on wrong, the screw hole won?t quite line up correctly, and the bottom of the foot won?t be parallel to the floor. You should be able to see that something doesn?t look right if you it?s wrong.
I decided that I would feel more comfortable if it weighed more so I will be filling them. I?ve read arguments against lead for its toxicity, and against sand because it can leak out. There is a rubber isolation plate at the bottom of the stands between the base and the pillars and a cork washer between the top plate and the pillars so nothing should escape. Even if those should fail, I believe that the uprights of the stands can be sealed so that neither lead nor sand could escape. I can be a little OCD so the lengths I?m going to go to are probably unnecessary, but going to unnecessary lengths is really a time honored tradition in home audio/theater.
Each stand has two pillars, the pillars are about 2? in diameter and have a round plate held in place by three spot welds on the top and bottom. The plate looks like it is about 1/8? and has a threaded hole in the center for assembly, and three small holes equally spaced around for filling the tubes. The fill holes are about 3/16? in diameter. The fill holes seem rather small so I will drill one of them out to speed the filling process. The space at the edges of the plate that is not welded is very small and it?s unlikely that anything could come out of there. Unlikely isn?t good enough for me, so I?ll put some superglue around the edges. The capillary effect should draw the superglue into the narrow space and completely seal it. Next I?m going plug the fill holes on the bottom with slightly oversized dowel rods. After they are filled the top will receive the same treatment.
I wanted to get a rough idea of how much of a weight increase I would see if I filled the pillars and to know how much filler I would need because it is sold by weight. I like easy math so I just used a radius of 1? for each pillar and came up with a volume of around 100 cubic inches for each pillar. I realize this isn?t accurate, I also realize that by going oversized on the diameter it can have a significant impact on volume, but as I said, I only wanted a rough idea and would prefer a worst case.
Lead weighs 6.5555 oz per cubic inch. Lead shot would contain air space so we need to account for that. Sphere packing models tell us that tightly packed spheres will have a density of about 74%, so lead shot will weigh about 4.85 oz per cubic inch; 100 cubic inches of lead shot should weigh a little over 30 lbs. The most often quoted weight of sand is 100 lbs per cubic foot. This is about .925 oz per cubic inch. One hundred cubic inches of sand would then weigh about 5.78 lbs.
The stands themselves are nice and feel pretty solid. The feet have options for spikes or rubber inserts. I have wood floors so I'll be using the rubber inserts. They have three options for interface between the speaker and top place. You can install small spikes at the corners of the plate or there is also rubber inserts that install in the same holes (these are the same inserts the feet use). They also have a hole in the center of the plate for those speakers that have a threaded mount on the bottom of them. I won?t be using any of these options. I?ll use BluTack between the top plate and speaker. Actually it will be Loctite?s version of it because that?s what the local store had.
I picked the 34? height of stand because I am thinking about moving the A3 to the back and getting RTI A5?s for the fronts. This puts the tweeters of the A3 at a similar height to the A5 and also provides the height needed to project over the couch if I would move them to the rear. After I put one of the stands together I moved one of my speakers from its temporary location to the stand. The speaker was on a built in shelf about 18? off the ground and the back of them was near a wall. Placing it on a stand moved the speaker up and closer to the listening position. I went to the speaker adjustments on my receiver and leveled out the volume for both speakers (the left channel is on the stand, the right is still on the shelf). The left channel just sounds better. I?m still new to home audio so I don?t know how to describe it any other way. I don?t know if it?s the added height or if it?s the fact there is more empty space around the rear port. Either way I look forward to getting this project finished having both speakers on stands.
Post edited by Slaine777 on
Comments
-
hrmmmm, was this a review or just sharing with the site?
You mentioned the weight of lead vs sand etc but no mention of where you did/will purchase it from?Living Room Rig:D
Rotel RSP-1069/Rotel RMB-1095/Rotel-1072/Polk lsI15's W/modded xoverW/DBsubs/Polk LsiC/lsI7's/Klipsch sub-12"the weak link"/DLP Mitsubishi 65"
Xbox360/PS3/WII
M.Br. setup:)
Emotiva MMC-1/Rotel RMB-1075/Polk BlackStone TL350's/Velodyne SPL1000/Samsung 51" Plasma
Computer Rig:
Rotel RB1050/Tannoy DC4's/Klipsch RW-10d/ImodIpod/HK AVR230 for now....
Headphones-Ultrasone-HFI780's w/LittleDot MK Vamp Portables Panasonic HJE-900's -
It a little bit of both. I'm still really new to home theater and I did a lot of searching to answer questions I had about filling speaker stands. I thought I try and put some of that information in one thread for the next new person to search for it.TouchOfEvil wrote: »hrmmmm, was this a review or just sharing with the site?
I'm probably going to use some of both. My primary interest is added weight, I doubt my ears are good enough to descern a sonic difference. Lead offers a significant weight advantage but it costs a lot more than sand. I should be able to get a 25 lb bag of #9 lead shot for about $42 from a local gun shop. I can get a bag of play sand from Lowes for a few bucks. I'll probably use both. My current plan is to buy one bag of shot and put half of it in one of the stands with some sand to fill the voids and see if I'm satisfied with the weight. If I'm not I'll put the rest of the bag in and buy a second bag.TouchOfEvil wrote: »You mentioned the weight of lead vs sand etc but no mention of where you did/will purchase it from? -
I've got the 26b's and I think I'm just going to use sand (eventually). They are fairly hefty to begin with and the 34's should be more so. I'm not sure you could get lead shot thru the tiny holes that easily anyway. I've actually been using them for a couple years without any filler with great results, but I've got carpet and am using the spikes. I'm also using the spikes to set the speakers on, which I wouldn't recommend if you're anal about having gauges in the bottom of your speakers. I personally don't care.2 channel - Willsenton R8 tube integrated, Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE DAC, audio optimized NUC7i5, Windows 10 Pro/JRiver MC29/Fidelizer Plus 8.7 w/LPS and external SSD drive, PS Audio PerfectWave P3 regenerator, KEF R3 speakers, Rythmik F12SE subwoofer, Audioquest Diamond USB cable, Gabriel Gold IC's, Morrow Audio SP5 speaker cables. Computer - Windows 10/JRiver, Schiit Magni 3+/Modi 3+, Fostex PMO.4n monitors, Sennheiser HD600 headphones
-
I have 3 stands that I filled with lead shot about 13yrs back and Ihaven't had any symptoms of lead poisoning yet
I used the smallest shot available and I got over 45lbs in each stand. Sand would probably work and it's cheaper than lead shot. Spikes would compensate for the unevenness in one bottom plate.
If you can afford it lead is the way to go!TO ERR IS HUMAN. TO FORGIVE IS CANINE. -
I have 3 stands that I filled with lead shot about 13yrs back and Ihaven't had any symptoms of lead poisoning yet
I used the smallest shot available and I got over 45lbs in each stand. Sand would probably work and it's cheaper than lead shot. Spikes would compensate for the unevenness in one bottom plate.
If you can afford it lead is the way to go!
how much did the lead shot cost you? i was looking to do that and I did a quick search and found it was like $50 for an 8lb bag -
cokewithvanilla wrote: »how much did the lead shot cost you? i was looking to do that and I did a quick search and found it was like $50 for an 8lb bag
That seems high, I've seen mid to high 40's for a 25lb bag before shipping. You will take a bit of a beating on shipping. I've also saw two 25lb bags for $105 shipped. -
$41.99 for 25 lbs.
http://www.precisionreloading.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=PRE&Category_Code=LEAD_SHOT_BB9
They use to have a shipping deal, two bags shipped USPS flat rate for $10.95.
Put 25 lbs. in each stand and be happy.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
I paid about $25 at a local gun store..........remember this was 13 yrs ago when I was very young:cool::cool:TO ERR IS HUMAN. TO FORGIVE IS CANINE.
-
It was still $25 a bag until the Messiah took over.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
It was still $25 a bag until the Messiah took over.
And General Motors was a private first class.TO ERR IS HUMAN. TO FORGIVE IS CANINE. -
It was still $25 a bag until the Messiah took over.
If politics is one of your hobbies, that's fine. I personally don't use home theater or home audio as forms of political expression. I am here for HT/HA. I would appreciate it if we could keep the politics out of the discussions and keep the focus where it belongs. -
My comment on the reason for the price increase of lead shot was relevant to the discussion. If you choose to take it another way, that's on you.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
You're right, your tone was politically neutral and in no way meant to ruffle anyone's feathers, just to provide information. It's obvious now your comment was religious in nature rather than political.
-
It's obvious now your comment was religious in nature rather than political.
lol......Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
I used Tidy cat litter( NEW ) in my 16" steel stands with 3 round hollow pillars each and 2 hollow base plates each for the floor spikes and have never looked back. Cat litter is quite dense/ heavy.Amps- Nakamichi PA 7 & PA 5.
P Amp- Classie Audio. Nakamichi CA 5
Tape- Tandberg 3014A.
Tape- Nakamichi 600.
CD Calif Audio Tercet 3.
CD-Rotel 1078.
Spkrs- Polk Audio RTI 150 Towers.
Spkrs- ADS L1290 Towers.
Spkrs- Yamaha- NS 670,NS 500m,NS 200m, NS 200ma
NS 200ma hybrids. -
victor. askew wrote: »I used Tidy cat litter( NEW ) in my 16" steel stands
I am so glad you clarified that. :biggrin: -
victor. askew wrote: »I used Tidy cat litter( NEW ) in my 16" steel stands with 3 round hollow pillars each and 2 hollow base plates each for the floor spikes and have never looked back. Cat litter is quite dense/ heavy.
I think the density would go up a scosche if you went used. Just a thought.Jay
SDA 2BTL * Musical Fidelity A5cr amp * Oppo BDP-93 * Modded Adcom GDA-600 DAC * Rythmik F8 (x2)
Micro Seiki DQ-50 * Hagerman Cornet 2 Phono * A hodgepodge of cabling * Belkin PF60
Preamp rotation: Krell KSL (SCompRacer recapped) * Manley Shrimp * PS Audio 5.0
![[Deleted User]](https://w2.vanillicon.com/2f1750dcdda3cf49f1655cb299e53ec8_100.png)
