Will a proper pair of speaker stands help?

[Cristofori]

Hello All,

Since I have a smaller room, and for the sake of practicality, I've always placed my bookshelf speakers on top of my CD storage cubes. These are large, heavy, solid real wood square cubes measuring 23 inches in height. They also hold 300 CD's each, and are almost filled to compacity, further weighing them down even more. I don't know for sure if this would be as good as a set of proper, weighted down metal stands, but I'm saying this so you will know that these CD cubes aren't exactly cheap and light.

The only drawbacks I can see would be in the height difference, as the cubes do not raise the speakers up quite as high as some stands would. Plus, my floors are not level, so one of the cubes sits about 2 inches lower than the other. An adjustable pair of good quality stands can solve both of these problems, but I'm not sure as to what sonic benefit. I've noticed I seem to prefer higher placed speakers when I've had floorstanders on top of the cubes, but I'm not sure if this is correct, or if I'm losing bass by doing so.

The speakers in question are Behringer 2031P's, which are larger than the average pair of bookshelves/mini-monitors but can still fit on stands (I think).

Would I be wasting my money buying stands, or should I leave them on the cubes and get a subwoofer(s) instead? I don't think I have room for both speaker stands and a subwoofer with the way I'd like to set up my system/listening area. If I went with the stands, the sub would have to go in a less than ideal place, and there would only be room for one of them, and not two!

 

[njedpx3]

First congrats on the Behringers --nice speakers.

You probably won't gain much with stands ..the ideal height is ear height at you normal listening position and assuming you are sitting down 23" height is pretty close.

Peace, Good Luck and Good Sound,

Forest Man

 

[yepimonfire]

as long as the tweeters are within a foot of ear level it wont make much of a difference, if the speakers are "centered" with the tv and the same space apart etc, no a stand will not make any difference in sound, KEF claims to have stands that increase the low end output, but i have yet to hear that. oh and about the heaight affecting bass, i personally notice that speakers higher then sitting ear level seem to have weaker bass, i cant exactly tell you why this is but it happens, like i said, ear level should be fine.

 

[j_garcia]

A "proper" pair of stands won't really make much difference, so yes you would be wasting your money. I would put something on the lower one to get the two speakers even horizontally.

oh and about the heaight affecting bass, i personally notice that speakers higher then sitting ear level seem to have weaker bass,.

It will be different for every room.

 

[Cristofori]

A "proper" pair of stands won't really make much difference, so yes you would be wasting your money. I would put something on the lower one to get the two speakers even horizontally.



It will be different for every room.

Thanks for the advice! The possible better performance with the stands isn't the whole story. One of the benefits to getting stands would be the ability to level them exactly without it looking ghetto (shoving something under the uneven cube).

Plus, I would free up space on my CD storage cubes to put my crates filled with LPs on them, so I'm still thinking of getting them. The only possible negative is that I'd be forced to put a subwoofer off to the corner of the room instead of right next to the speakers, but I'm not sure if that would drastically affect the subwoofer SQ since bass is omni-directional.

What do you think?

 

[njedpx3]

Thanks for the advice! The possible better performance with the stands isn't the whole story. One of the benefits to getting stands would be the ability to level them exactly without it looking ghetto (shoving something under the uneven cube).

Plus, I would free up space on my CD storage cubes to put my crates filled with LPs on them, so I'm still thinking of getting them. The only possible negative is that I'd be forced to put a subwoofer off to the corner of the room instead of right next to the speakers, but I'm not sure if that would drastically affect the subwoofer SQ since bass is omni-directional.

What do you think?

Asthetically stands are better. The Sanus 24 stand is inexpensive yet good quality. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/245620-REG/Sanus_BF24B_24_MDF_Construction_Speaker.html

Good Luck!

Forest Man

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Asthetically stands are better. The Sanus 24 stand is inexpensive yet good quality. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/245620-REG/Sanus_BF24B_24_MDF_Construction_Speaker.html

Good Luck!

Forest Man

+1 for Sanus stands - I have these and they awesome - for their price.
a bit cheaper here:
http://www.amazon.com/SANUS-SYSTEMS-BF-24B-Speaker-Stands/dp/B00006JQ5N/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1270262661&sr=8-2

 

[Cristofori]

+1 for Sanus stands - I have these and they awesome - for their price.
a bit cheaper here:
http://www.amazon.com/SANUS-SYSTEMS-BF-24B-Speaker-Stands/dp/B00006JQ5N/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1270262661&sr=8-2

Thanks, but if I were to get stands, I'd get the adjustable, metal ones I can fill with something to weigh them down.

Target make dome good ones for around $120 a pair. The Sanus steel foundations are a bit more at $140.

 

[yepimonfire]

t I'd be forced to put a subwoofer off to the corner of the room instead of right next to the speakers, but I'm not sure if that would drastically affect the subwoofer SQ since bass is omni-directional.

What do you think?

from experience with a space challening envorinment when i used to have a sub, depending on the room, corners can create "bass pockets", or areas of loud bas and areas of little bass, and can also cause boomy sounding bass, but like i said, it depends on the room

 

[j_garcia]

from experience with a space challening envorinment when i used to have a sub, depending on the room, corners can create "bass pockets", or areas of loud bas and areas of little bass, and can also cause boomy sounding bass, but like i said, it depends on the room

Corner loading is the best way to maximize output as well though. There is a very simple method for determining the preferred locations for the sub: the crawl method. I stuck my sub in the corner immediately, and I got a ton of output. When I ran numbers on it though, I had one big peak and one big dip. Moving it 1 ft to the left helped immensely but then lost a bit of output, so I put it on a Auralex Gramma and readjusted the level and now it sounds great.

I have all of my speakers on stands (center is on the rack), and stands are the preferred method because they allow you the most flexibility. IMO, filling isn't really necessary, but isolating the speakers from the stands with something like MoPads will be beneficial. They were for me. Adjustable stands are not a great idea though; stands should be very sturdy. I like my High Mass stands from Parts Express, but they don't make them anymore.

 

[Cristofori]

so I put it on a Auralex Gramma and readjusted the level and now it sounds great.

What is an Auralex Gramma?

Adjustable stands are not a great idea though; stands should be very sturdy. I like my High Mass stands from Parts Express, but they don't make them anymore.

When I say adjustable, I mean being able to raise the little spiked feet on the bottom.

This is good for floor leveling issues with old houses like mine.

 

[lsiberian]

You know you could make a pair of stands.