Are speaker stands safe around small children?

2+2

I finally got around to testing out the LSiFx on Xmas and they sound fantastic!!!....but they are a bit big and my family room is configured awkwardly, it being almost fully open to the kitchen. A small back wall on one side and a narrow column on the other side separates the family room and the kitchen. The WAF is running low in terms of mounting them on the one small back wall and the column which is required for symmetrical mounting.

As an alternative, I am considering mounting the LSiFxs on 30-36 inch stands.

Are those speaker stands fillable with sand safe for children? I am sure I can buy extremely heavy stands but am more concerned with the speaker itself falling off and hitting a kid on the head.... I think they are about 25 lbs!! Any experience or advice?
Thanks.

Man, these things sound great!
Also, anyone use these things as "mains"?

faster100

The reason i got rid of my Rt55i's years back, we had a little one just starting to walk and didnt want a 30lb speaker crushing her.... depends the age of the child i guess...7, 8,9 and up fine... id say small kids and babies may bump it and get hurt if they are in the walking/playing way of the kids..

2+2

Thanks for your input.. kids would be infant to 5 year olds of my friends...although obviously, they will get older.....

Larry Chanin

Hi,

As you probably know the LSiFx are a dipole/bipole surround design where the drivers are facing toward the sides rather than forward. This means these speakers are designed to be mounted on the wall to permit sounds to reflect from the wall thereby creating a diffuse surround sound field.

Aside from the legitamate safety concerns you have about placing them on stands, unless the stands are up against walls you will have compromised their design. (Of course if you had conveniently located walls, you wouldn't be talking about stands in the first place.)

As for using them for mains, mains require the precise imaging provided by direct radiating speakers. A speaker designed to produce a diffuse sound field is the last thing you should think of using even if set to bipole operation.

Sorry I could directly answer your question, but in the interests of both safety and performance perhaps you might wish to revist your layout and look for an alternative configuration.

Larry

tryrrthg

ABSOLUTELY! If you use blu-tak to attach your speakers to stands they WILL NOT come off from a child running into them. If you get a solid stand filled with sand the weight of the stands will be more than most polk floorstanding speakers. Blu-tak has an iron grip on my stand mounted speakers!

tryrrthg

Here ya go. A couple pieces of this between the speaker and stands will work just fine. Just make sure you slowly wiggle the speaker off the stand whenever you remove it. This stuff holds TIGHT!

LINK

2+2

Hi Larry, yeah there are some side walls for reflection. I will be placing the FX behind the sitting position and letting the sound of one side of each speaker to bounce around....not sure I understand what you mean by the stands needing to be by the wall tho... can you clarify? I have this connected family room/kitchen that is limiting how I can configure. Side mounting wont work cuz I got windows on one side!! ug...
And what I meant by "mains" is not really for critical listening but just background music..for example, in the dining room....

Tryrrthg, what exactly is blu-tak? Is it permanent then? Does it damage the speakers/finish? I guess one option would be to screw the speaker to the stand....

2+2

tryrrthg....you obviously posted link faster than I can ask...thanks...

Larry Chanin

Originally posted by 2+2
Hi Larry, yeah there are some side walls for reflection. I will be placing the FX behind the sitting position and letting the sound of one side of each speaker to bounce around....not sure I understand what you mean by the stands needing to be by the wall tho... can you clarify? I have this connected family room/kitchen that is limiting how I can configure. Side mounting wont work cuz I got windows on one side!! ug...
And what I meant by "mains" is not really for critical listening but just background music..for example, in the dining room....

Hi 2+2,

Obviously you have a less than ideal situtation, but ideally the reflections should come from the wall the speaker is mounted on, not an other room wall. Therefore, what I was saying is ideally the stand should be "flush" against a wall.

If its impossible to find a section of side or rear wall to mount the surrounds, then you have no choice but to resort to heavy stands.

However, if you're concerned about knocking over speaker stands, I'd make sure that you and your wife evaluate other similar hazards, such as flower pots on plant stands, etc.

Good luck.

Larry

2+2

Larry...gotcha. Yeah we are now in the process of childproofing our house...although I don't think its 100% possible. I will have to convince the wife that the stands will be OK with this tack stuff.....I hope the stands will make these "big black boxes" look better....

VR3

I personally think any kind of stand... (just the stand) is safe around anyone, mainly because the chances of it falling on them isnt highly...

Now once u put something on top it.... eh... dont think so...

okiepolkie

For safety purposes, have you considered ceiling mounting them?
There are a few ceiling mounts from companies like Omnimount that do a good job of holding the speakers up there.
This may not be an option if you are in an apartment, but it would probably be feasible just about anywhere else.
Enjoy your new surrounds.

Zach

2+2

Sid....:D

Okie, ceiling mounting would be just as conspicuous as mounting them on the wall/post so not a real option... thanks for the suggestion tho....
If the wifey doesnt buy the stands, I may have to let these Fxs go....man they sound great tho....can you guys tell that I am seriously impressed with the lsi line?

McLoki

We went through the same thing (children are 3 and 5) and decided we had to get something (for fronts) that could sit on a shelf or get floorstanding speakers.

I ended up with LSi7's (although I am still trying for LSi 15's) sitting right next to the TV. Not the best placement but they cant fall on anyone.

Having a speaker as heavy as the LSi series on top of a stand was more of a risk than I wanted to take. Not to mention how pissed I would be if the kids were ok but my new speaker broke when it hit the floor.

Have you considered the 15's as rear speakers? Just a thought.

Michael

tryrrthg

Trust me when I say this, the speaker WILL NOT FALL if you use the puddy!!! your stands will be knocked over before your speakers fall off those stands!

A buddy of mine attached his Dynaudio 1.3SE ($3500 speakers, and weigh about 30 pounds each) to speaker stands using the puddy stuff. one day while messing with placement he knocked the stands over and the speaker and stand hit the ground but never came apart from the stand. He's since bought new stands that weigh about 100 pounds and will not be knocked over.

Moral of the story: buy a solid stand (or make one, like I did) and your speaker and stands will weigh more than most floorstanding speakers that you or I can afford.

landry_p2000

I had stands in my first set up at the old townhouse, and my 1 year old (at the time ) had just started to walk. I used velcro on my (at the time) RTi4 surrounds. No problems what so ever. Once I traded the RTi4s in for the FXi3s, the sticky tack from the velcro came off without damaging the finish. I used a wood wash wax to remove the tack, and they looked good as new. The baby would run into the stands and the stand would rock a little, but the speaker did not fall. Just my 2 cents worth.:)

Good luck and hopefully this helped.;)

2+2

McLoki, LSi 15 for surround is not an option as they are $$ and deep. WAF would be lowest of them all.

tryrthg...that is good anecdotal evidence...much appreciate it. Sounds like if I put a thin layer of this stuff on the whole surface of the platform of the stand, it will stay put. You never did answer my question as to whether this puddy thing will damage the finish? How do you get it off the speaker? It may be better to just insert some type of a set screw in the speaker and fasten the stand and speaker together.....customization if you will.

landry, thanks for the info...I am getting more comfortable with the stands....will have to see what the wifey says. I will have to "justify" having such large surrounds by getting a couple DVD-A disks this weekend and trumpet how much better they sound with 5-channel music than my 2-ch. Wifey is of the opinion that only that will justify such a large surround and wants us to use something inconspicuous and small. I hope DVD-A sounds much better so that my wife can hear the difference for herself......

tryrrthg

Originally posted by 2+2
tryrthg...that is good anecdotal evidence...much appreciate it. Sounds like if I put a thin layer of this stuff on the whole surface of the platform of the stand, it will stay put. You never did answer my question as to whether this puddy thing will damage the finish? How do you get it off the speaker? It may be better to just insert some type of a set screw in the speaker and fasten the stand and speaker together.....customization if you will.

Oh, sorry. The puddy has never left a mark on my speakers.

You'll only need a marble sized ball of puddy on each corner of the speaker. When you want to take the speaker off the stand just GENTLY wiggle it back and forth until the puddy breaks free, then the puddy should just pull off. Even if it does leave a small stain it's better than a hole in the speaker. So get that drill away from those speakers!

If you want to make a SOLID stand on the cheap, try designing one based on this design a stand with a 6" PVC pillar should weigh a ton and be very stable with spikes on the bottom. You can see mine HERE (man, my site needs updating I've moved twice since I took those pictures...)

2+2

thanks tryrrthg....interesting stands...I will likely buy since I dont have the time or patience to make my own....just gotta find a set that is somewhat stylish to increase WAF but also be functional as in fillable and very heavy.....34 inches should put the tweeters at slightly above ear level....

tryrrthg

Originally posted by 2+2
thanks tryrrthg....interesting stands...I will likely buy since I dont have the time or patience to make my own....just gotta find a set that is somewhat stylish to increase WAF but also be functional as in fillable and very heavy.....34 inches should put the tweeters at slightly above ear level....

Be prepared to shell out some cash then! Not many company's make stands that tall that are solid. Try this place:

http://www.soundanchors.com/

dragon1952

If you're mainly concerned with child safety then I'm not sure what good it does to glue the speaker to the stand. Instead of just the speaker falling on them now you've got the speaker and stand falling on them. Unless that's the whole point....you want to make sure they're good and crushed so it won't happen again.

tryrrthg

Originally posted by dragon1952
If you're mainly concerned with child safety then I'm not sure what good it does to glue the speaker to the stand. Instead of just the speaker falling on them now you've got the speaker and stand falling on them. Unless that's the whole point....you want to make sure they're good and crushed so it won't happen again.

The point is to use a solid stand that is mass filled with sand or shot so that it becomes too heavy for a small child to knock over. With spikes and a wide bass a small child should have a very hard time knocking over a 100+ pound stand.