R200 Speaker Stands

heiney9

I bought a pair of black R200's when Polk offered the sale earlier in the year. I am very happy with them so far. They are barely broken in as I use them in my home office rig.

I have an older pair of 24" metal stands with 3 round tubes attached to a triangular base and smaller rectangle top plate. I think they are Dayton stands from Parts Express. They use spikes and worked well with the Pinnacle's and RT25i's I also have. Those are smaller speakers (in depth and weight). The R200's fit on these stands but I feel I need a sturdier stand for these as well as a slight height increase.

I definitely think 24" is a tad to short and think 28" stands would be better since I sit in a desk chair not a couch or living room type chair when listening. These are NOT filled with shot or sand but the new ones would be. I don't want to spend a lot since this is a secondary system. $150 is what I'm thinking my max would be.

The question is which is the better construction choice, wood (mdf) or powder coated metal? Assuming both would be filled with sand this time around.

Discuss and maybe even give some models to consider.

H9

jbreezy5

Powder-coated metal gets my vote when sand-filled.

Check out the Pangea offerings on audioadvisor.com



I cut neoprene to the size of the base, but they come with spikes.

There are also lower cost Pangea models available, but these were a steel (pun intended) at the price.

Pangea DS400

kevhed72

I went super cheap and currently use Monoprice stands which look very similar to the Pangea stands above. The El Cheapo Monoprice stands may be a good fit for the R200s. My biggest beef with them is the top plates are a bit small for the L200s and the rubber pads on the bottom of the L200s hang over the sides. Centering the L200s on balls of Blu Tack is an exercise in patience. Any recommendations for better stands which have a top plate that matches the L200s?

jbreezy5

kevhed72 wrote: »

I went super cheap and currently use Monoprice stands which look very similar to the Pangea stands above. The El Cheapo Monoprice stands may be a good fit for the R200s. My biggest beef with them is the top plates are a bit small for the L200s and the rubber pads on the bottom of the L200s hang over the sides. Centering the L200s on balls of Blu Tack is an exercise in patience. Any recommendations for better stands which have a top plate that matches the L200s?

If the Monoprice speaker stands are anywhere near as good as their amp stands (which I have a pair), then I would agree with that.

As far as needing a larger speaker stand top plate…I recommend Pangea again. 😉

aprazer402

https://www.rockvilleaudio.com/rht28/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIi82yx-fS9gIVE25vBB3dCQ1CEAQYASABEgIgefD_BwE

These look like thick MDF. Fillable too.
Video shows easy assembly.
Good price under $100.00.

heiney9

All 3 of the ones mentioned so far are on my list. The Monolith by Mono Price aren't super cheap compared to the Rockville and Pangea's. $60/ea. I like the Rockville Audio too.

Ideally around $100 is what I'd like to spend, but for the right stand I'd go $150. I'm also more interested in which material is better/worse or if it really doesn't matter for this application, ie; secondary rig in a bedroom doesn't need to have the best or the best.

H9

F1nut

I have an older pair of 24" metal stands with 3 round tubes attached to a triangular base and smaller rectangle top plate.

Those sound like the Sanus Ultimate Foundation stands. Excellent stands that are no longer made.

msg

Those mentioning the small top plates. They don't have to match the size of the speaker base. Just position the speaker on the plate where it's best balanced. Buy some 3M sticky feet, but put them on the stand plate, not the speaker. This keeps the speaker in place nicely. I tried Blutack before too. What a pain.

I've also had nice results with using Sound Addicted foam monitor pads on the top plates. Jeff Bezos sells them. Ultimate decoupling if you want to go that route.

I love those SA pads. They work especially well with desktop speaker systems, like the Audioengine HD3. I use 2 sets stacked for angle, and height.

I might give those Monoprice Pangea clones a try. I have the DS300. Not sure how the DS400 differs, but they're easy to mass load. The lower baseplates at cheap and have sucky spike thread points. Thin metal. I was planning to cut some MDF to match, bolting to the baseplate, and then installing spikes properly in the MDF.

JayMX

4” sewer pipe and toilet flanges, sand filled, worked well for the surround cabinets I built recently. $75 for four stands with left over pipe for the next set I build for my R200’s. 😁
Will be adding a steel plate to each with spikes for stability soon.

heiney9

F1nut wrote: »

I have an older pair of 24" metal stands with 3 round tubes attached to a triangular base and smaller rectangle top plate.

Those sound like the Sanus Ultimate Foundation stands. Excellent stands that are no longer made.

Jesse, they could be. I may have had these when I had my LSi 9's which would have been at least 13+ years ago. I don't think I spent a lot on them, but it was so long ago I don't remember. The top plate is 7" x 7" and with the R200's depth being 13", they seem just tad unstable. Some of the newer stands come with 2 different sized top plates.

I really need a bit more height for my application because my office chair is a couple inches higher than a normal living room sitting position.

I can make due with them. I could make a triangular wooden riser to get more height. Fit the spikes of the base into the wooden riser and have spikes in the riser.

H9

heiney9

Here's a photo. The more I think about it, the more they just need to be 2-3" higher for my purposes. I'm liking the idea of building a simple triangular riser with spikes.

Emlyn

Could also stack some same sized steel and neoprene fender washers on top and bottom of the posts to aid in both height and ringing. May need to replace the connecting bolts though. And add some thicker rubber pads on top for isolation and some longer spikes on the bottom.

But, I've always liked the steel Sanus products and have been using these with LSiM703s for several years with longer floor spikes to get them up 1.5 inches higher:

https://www.amazon.com/Sanus-SF26B1-26-inch-Speaker-Stands/dp/B004T7VCM0/ref=sr_1_8?crid=2P98O3WGWU8B4&keywords=sanus+speaker+stands&qid=1647794841&sprefix=sanus+speaker+stands,aps,57&sr=8-8

I think they are available in a 28 inch model too and I know there's a 30 inch model still. I wish they or another company would bring back their sturdier model but I don't think they've been economical for more than 10 years now.

pearsall001

heiney9 wrote: »

Here's a photo. The more I think about it, the more they just need to be 2-3" higher for my purposes. I'm liking the idea of building a simple triangular riser with spikes.

I have the same exact stands only they are 30". They have to be about 15 or so years old. Excellent stands but the 6x6 top plate can be awkward to work with.
I have the Monoprice stands for the R3's & they definitely get the job done. I haven't gotten around to filling them yet. Maybe when the weather warms up I'll take them outside where clean up is easy.

Hermitism

I thought you were describing Sanus UF stands, too. Those aren't Sanus Ultimate Foundation stands above. Something else. I've never seen those before.

Here's a pic of Sanus UF stands that are no longer made:

heiney9

Hermitism wrote: »

I thought you were describing Sanus UF stands, too. Those aren't Sanus Ultimate Foundation stands above. Something else. I've never seen those before.

Here's a pic of Sanus UF stands that are no longer made:

I still think they are Dayton's from Parts Express. Those Sanus are definitely nicer and more stout. The one's I have aren't entry level, but not top line either. I bought them a long time ago and they have served me well for the various bookies I've used them with. 24" is just too short, IMO.

Thanks for the photo to confirm they aren't the Sanus UF's. I hadn't gotten around to looking them up on-line yet.

Maybe I should just suck it up and buy some top end stands. I just don't do any critical listening on the office rig. I want it to sound excellent, but I'm not as particular when listening to this rig. I want it to sound better than average.

H9

WLDock

Can get custom made wood stands: https://www.audiorax.com/speaker-stands

oldrocker

I use a set of Rockville RS29B stands for mine.
https://www.amazon.com/Rockville-RS29B-Bookshelf-Stands-Black-V2/dp/B08G8XQ88H?th=1
They are NOT fillable, nor do they come with saucers for the spikes.
The pads on the speakers fit right over the top plate just fine.

Easy to assemble with metal screwed to metal, no woods screws in assembly.
Finish is fine, and the top plate 9"X9" was the largest I could find at the time for about 70+bucks.

Top plates come with 2 foam adhesive strips, so the speakers are not setting on the metal plate.
Mine are quite stable and look ok to me. Mine came with stickers, I went ahead and left them on.

I chose these as they are a tad taller which work better for my height along with how the single metal
tube looks. Speakers do hang over the front and back a bit which first weirded me out a bit but I'm good with it now.

The Rockville RHT28's are wood and are fillable, Amazon has them for 100 bucks.
https://www.amazon.com/Rockville-RHT28-Bookshelf-Speaker-Surround/dp/B07KRVDSB2?th=1

These come with 2 sets of top plates for different sized speakers.
These do not have the same type of adhesive strip; they have 4 separate round, look to be plastic pads the speakers set on.

For 70 bucks I'm happy with mine.

marvda1

If you need larger top plates you can try these.
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_892APERTAP/IsoAcoustics-Support-Plates.html?tp=98215

kevhed72

marvda1 wrote: »

If you need larger top plates you can try these.
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_892APERTAP/IsoAcoustics-Support-Plates.html?tp=98215

Well hot damn these may be the ticket!

Gardenstater

I couldn't help notice that they declined to specify the "metal", however. Steel would be best.

heiney9

Update:

These R200's are so good. I continue to be very impressed every time I turn them on. I can't seem to find a flaw. The only tiny issue being my room, I don't have a lot of choice because of the lay out. They could be father from the back wall.

Imaging is excellent, scale is also excellent, detail retrieval is also top notch. Bass is all one could ask for an more , especially for the cabinet size. It's really, really good and little to no hints of coloration or frequency "holes". Presentation is very smooth and even. Vocals are superb as are acoustic instruments.

Low level listening is fantastic as well. These don't need to play loud to get the most out of them. This was a big factor in my purchase as I can't always listen at med-high volume levels. I am using a 50wpc integrated amp/dac that is heavily class A biased. A great match.

https://power-holdings-inc.com/Keces-E40-Integrated-Amplifier-p137036102

These are the stands I went with. Pangea LS 300 - 28" stands w/ 6" x 9' top plates which I bought separately for more stability. You can see the older 24" stands which I will use in yet a 3rd system that I am building using a tube integrated amp and Polk RT25i's.



Overall A+

H9