Speaker stand suggestions?

[Nick B]

Damn it Nick, withal of this talk about hammers and vibrators I had to pull the top plate off of my B&W stands and check the sand level. And wouldn't you know it, the level has dropped to about 1/2 inch below the top. I guess after playing them over the years the speakers vibrating (especially the bass) facilitated some additional seismic settling. Now that little 1/2 inch gap in the sand should not really make a significant difference on a 28 inch columns, but I know that this is going to bother me until I get the time to top them off. 

This does make a good point thought that any of us who have filled sands should look at them every few years to see if normal usage has cause any more settling. I think I am going to add this to my list of regular maintenance items and look at the stands whenever I do periodic things like contact cleaning and system demagnetizing.

Geez, Tom. I'm in Vegas visiting a friend and I'm suddenly feeling a bit guilty about your sand issue  If it makes you feel a little better, I left 2" at the top of my B&Ws.  But I so appreciate your great idea!
I'm not going to fiddle with it anymore... I used packing tape because I didn't want to hunt for the duct tape, so it was a little bit messier than it needed to be. A very significant difference in sq
Do let me know if filling in that 1/2" makes an appreciable difference  🎶🎶

[P.I.]

Damn it Nick, withal of this talk about hammers and vibrators I had to pull the top plate off of my B&W stands and check the sand level. And wouldn't you know it, the level has dropped to about 1/2 inch below the top. I guess after playing them over the years the speakers vibrating (especially the bass) facilitated some additional seismic settling. Now that little 1/2 inch gap in the sand should not really make a significant difference on a 28 inch columns, but I know that this is going to bother me until I get the time to top them off. 

This does make a good point thought that any of us who have filled sands should look at them every few years to see if normal usage has cause any more settling. I think I am going to add this to my list of regular maintenance items and look at the stands whenever I do periodic things like contact cleaning and system demagnetizing.

Fill them up and comeback in a few years to see how much more they settle.  Those grains of sand just keep looking for spaces to fill.  It took 3 times over about 5 years to get my home brew stands to fully compact.

My home brew stands were 6" PVC pipe with 1.5" top and bottom plates made from Medex and Baltic birch ply laminated with a rubbery flooring adhesive.  Dead, dead, dead!

[Nick B]

Now that I have them filled to within 2" of the top, using a funnel to fill in the rest would be very simple. The knuckle test is so revealing

[Nick B]

Damn it Nick, withal of this talk about hammers and vibrators I had to pull the top plate off of my B&W stands and check the sand level. And wouldn't you know it, the level has dropped to about 1/2 inch below the top. I guess after playing them over the years the speakers vibrating (especially the bass) facilitated some additional seismic settling. Now that little 1/2 inch gap in the sand should not really make a significant difference on a 28 inch columns, but I know that this is going to bother me until I get the time to top them off. 

This does make a good point thought that any of us who have filled sands should look at them every few years to see if normal usage has cause any more settling. I think I am going to add this to my list of regular maintenance items and look at the stands whenever I do periodic things like contact cleaning and system demagnetizing.

Fill them up and comeback in a few years to see how much more they settle.  Those grains of sand just keep looking for spaces to fill.  It took 3 times over about 5 years to get my home brew stands to fully compact.

My home brew stands were 6" PVC pipe with 1.5" top and bottom plates made from Medex and Baltic birch ply laminated with a rubbery flooring adhesive.  Dead, dead, dead!

Just curious.... your pvc pipe is open at the top for easy filling? The top plate simply sits on the pvc and is held in place by the weight of the speaker? Doing diy like that doesn't occur to me 🤷‍♂️

[P.I.]

Just curious.... your pvc pipe is open at the top for easy filling? The top plate simply sits on the pvc and is held in place by the weight of the speaker? Doing diy like that doesn't occur to me 🤷‍♂️

Nope.  The PVC is glued into the top and bottom plates.  The top plate has a hole in it to make it easy to fill and empty.  I covered the PVC pipe with black contact vinyl like shelf paper.

[toobluvr]

Picture is worth 1000 words!

[P.I.]

Picture is worth 1000 words!

I know, but those stands went the way of all things audio nervosa.  Gone about 10 yerars ago to a worthy friend.  The speakers had Jordan JX92S drivers in them along with vifa XT25 tweets.  He still has them and loves them.  That Jordan driver was and is an amazing driver...

Perhaps a better explanation.

The top and bottom plates were laminated (epoxy) from 2 layers of 3/4" MDF.  One layer of each was routed to accept the PVC pipe.  I drilled and tapped the bottom plate to accept spikes.  The top plate had a 2" diameter hole in it to allow filling the PVC.  I glued the PVC pipe into the MDF with good old PVC pipe glue... the blue icky stuff... after masking off the pipe so the blue goo didn't get all over the pipe.  I tried different fillers and ended up with a mixture of #8 lead shot (2 bags each) and sandblasting coarse media - silica sand.

[Nick B]

Filled up each stand to within 1/2" and made a note to check the level in 2 years. Will be curious if there'll be any settling.

[Nick B]

Even with the sand filled to within a 1/2" of the top, there is still a teeny bit of vibration that I can feel. Now these are inexpensive B&W stands and I'm already using spikes with Herbie's brass cone/spike puckies. The rack is a cheapie Pangea also with Herbie's. So my point is there is still so much potential for improvement. What an amazing hobby = passion