Mass Loading Speaker Stands

maxward

What are the preferred materials for this? Dry sand is probably the cheapest way to go, but I’m wondering if there are better things to use. I’ve been looking at reclaimed steel shot, but so far the best price is about $75 for 50 pounds, plus shipping. I read somewhere that one manufacturer recommends wood pellets, which seems a little light to me. Thanks for any suggestions.

Emlyn

Clay based unscented cat litter is an option if the stands are already heavy and resonance control is all that's needed.

pitdogg2

I used fine sand in mine. Lead shot was way too expensive.

kevhed72

Combination of pool sand and lead shot. Probably a 50/50 or 60/40 mix because lead shot is really heavy.

Hermitism

Make sure the sand is completely dry. Bake it in an oven, if necessary. If you have small vent holes for entering the material, super dry sand flows much quicker and it won't create rust inside the stands if steel is present. Lead has shot way up in price since I did mine. I bought another set of stands I'm not currently using, but plan on mass loading them, too. I still plan on doing a shot/sand mixture.

Here are a few threads on mass loading, if it seems I'm talking to myself in my thread, it's because a member left and had his posts deleted, so it may look like I'm having some sort of mental break, which may not be far from the truth.

https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/179906/mass-loading-ultimate-foundations-stands

https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/170506/pangea-speaker-stands-build-ds300-28-inch/p1

https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/175614/sanus-foundations-steel-series-sf26b-stands

Nightfall

I used playground sand in my Skylan stands, forget what it's called specifically but it was not expensive.

maxward

Thanks. I should have known there would be older threads on this. I gather that Dskip is the one who’s MIA.

VR3

The key is that it won't retain moisture

maxward

Thanks for the advice and links. I got the Pangea stands and bought 50 pounds of play sand, which was very dry. I had about 7 pounds of a BB/lead shot mix which I divided up between the legs and then filled them with the play sand. They took all 50 pounds with a few inches of space under the top plates. Each 28-inch stand now weighs 52 pounds. I won’t install the spikes until I’m pretty happy with the speaker locations. Speakers are supposed to arrive next Monday. Studio Electric M4 in figured maple.