Speaker Stand Alternatives

[Reggie Died]

I can't really afford speaker stands right now (i'm a broke college student), so I currently have my front speakers sitting directly ontop a flat wood surface (not real wood, as it's ikea furniture).

I'm thinking that these can't be the best conditions for sound reproduction, so was wondering if anyone on these great forums had any suggetsions on what to place between the speaker cabinet and the surface to absorbe vibrations. This is only temporary, becuase I soon hope to be upgrading my front speakers (from Paradigm Titans to Minimonitors) and will buy stands at this point.

Thanks for any help,

 

[corysmith01]

You could look into something like these isolation cones:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=240-720

Not sure if they'll work, but it seems like if they'd work for components, they could be used for speakers as well.

Or you could just look into some rubber feet to isolate them as well:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=260-770

Just some quick ideas. Poke around for isolation stuff in various places. You may be able to find more/better solutions.

Good luck.

 

[sjdgpt]

HomeDepot, SearsMart, Wally World etc sell rubberized feet.

A package of 6 or 8 3/4" rubber feet at HomeDepot is about $2.

 

[Audioholics]

Or u could get even more creative (cough *desperate) and use bubble wrap...

Hey, it's all good!

 

[warpdrive]

You really don't want anything too soft because if your speaker isn't mounted in a firm surface (LOL the bubble wrap suggestion), the speaker cabinet will be permitted to vibrate even more. You DON'T want an absorbant material. That is why speaker stands, and even speakers have spikes on them, they keep the cabinet still while directing the energy through the spikes, so that the whole speaker doesn't vibrate in response to the speaker cones moving. Any mechanical energy lost into the absorbant material is not going to help your sound and tightness of the bass.

My suggestion is do NOTHING, and buy speaker stands later on. Or mount some firm rubber feet under them as a maximum