HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

What are the current thoughts of the HFS massive on speaker stands?

Material - wood, stone, metal ?
Weight - heavier the better, not too heavy or light
How many legs - four, three, two, one ?

The reason I ask is I am trying to design the stands for my speaker design. They are in the style of NVA cubes with a cabinet just slightly larger than a Cube 1. The difference being there are up and down firing 6.5" mid bass drivers in an in phase bipole design with a little dice shaped tweeter housing slightly above the upper baffle.

Here is a little mock up that I made using one of my old cabs (30 cm3) and scrap bits that were laying about. The singular leg is 50 mm solid brass bar.



Ignore the aluminum sheet with holes in, I just used that as it was the right size to have a look at the proportions. I quite like the look of a single substantial leg and the brass bar is heavy. I have enough 50 mm solid round brass bar to do two legs (one for each speaker stand). I also have enough 35 mm solid round brass bar to do four legs (two legs per speaker stand). I also have enough 32 mm solid round stainless steel bar to do two legs for each stand.

I haven't enough of one thickness to do four identical legs for each stand but I could do fat round bar for the back legs and thinner stuff for the front legs. Not sure what that would look like.

I have the added complication that there is a down firing 6.5" mid bass to accommodate. So if I have a single leg, it can't go in the centre of the stand and will have to be towards the back. I can move the driver towards the front of the cab which will make the leg able to be more central. Two legs would probably be better and could go either side of the down firing mid bass and still be half way along the front to back dimension. Four legs is arguably even better but then I am in to using smaller diameter round bar with thinner stuff at the front (18mm) compared to the back (32 mm).

What do you think ? I like the look of the single wider diameter leg it's just i can't get it in the centre of the top plate and bottom plate of the stand.

Help

My old Foundation stands (vintage 80's) are a single steel rectangular column filled with lead shot and sand. Adjustable floor spikes on bottom plate. The column is set towards the rear of the top and bottom plates.

Have always served me well and I have never felt the need to replace them.
Look great with Cubes as well (IMO).

(old photos for the stands)

Thanks for that. Are you still using them Fret ?

I think single leg stands look good with a cube on top. So yours have the leg towards the back of the base and top plate like mine will have to be. Does it make them any less stable or aesthetically pleasing ?

I've followed that monopod idea. This is a railway sleeper cut in half with another bit of oak for a base and some rubber studs screwed to the bottom. (Cube 2s on top).
PS I haven't tried the workmate as a speaker stand.

Thank Terry. Your monopod looks good.

I couldn't sleep at night though with a base plate that small You don't seem to have a top plate on it either

Sonically, my least favourite are heavy metal, hollow pillars (single or multiple). To me they sound murky and a bit blurred. Filling them only makes it worse , to my ears. Many think differently, though, and these stands do tend to be very stable (once levelled).

My favourite type is light, rigid and open framed, with non hollow pillars. I most like either the Something Solid XF stands or the Russ Andrews Torltye stands. The latter sound very natural and clean but are very expensive (though do come up now and then 2nd hand for about half their original price) and they have a relatively small top plate. Now that I have a dog, I don't use them for my Cube 1s, but they would be good for Cube 3s. The Something Solid stands are made to your bespoke dimensions, which is very helpful for the non standard requirements of the Cubes and are very stable. I have heard these with Harbeth speakers (they make the bigger Harbeths sound more agile, imo) but not with my Cube 1s.

A half way house is solid wood pillar(s). I prefer open-frame, multiple pillar, if available. These sound much more natural, to me, than heavy metal stands, but not quite as agile as the SS or RA stands.

Also, I vastly prefer oak or RDC cones on the top plate compared to blu tack, or anything made from some sort of rubber.

My stands are similar to Fret's. Had them twenty years and see no reason to change.

savvypaul wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:17 pm Sonically, my least favourite are heavy metal, hollow pillars (single or multiple). To me they sound murky and a bit blurred. Filling them only makes it worse , to my ears. Many think differently, though, and these stands do tend to be very stable (once levelled).

My favourite type is light, rigid and open framed, with non hollow pillars. I most like either the Something Solid XF stands or the Russ Andrews Torltye stands. The latter sound very natural and clean but are very expensive (though do come up now and then 2nd hand for about half their original price) and they have a relatively small top plate. Now that I have a dog, I don't use them for my Cube 1s, but they would be good for Cube 3s. The Something Solid stands are made to your bespoke dimensions, which is very helpful for the non standard requirements of the Cubes and are very stable. I have heard these with Harbeth speakers (they make the bigger Harbeths sound more agile, imo) but not with my Cube 1s.

A half way house is solid wood pillar(s). I prefer open-frame, multiple pillar, if available. These sound much more natural, to me, than heavy metal stands, but not quite as agile as the SS or RA stands.

Also, I vastly prefer oak or RDC cones on the top plate compared to blu tack, or anything made from some sort of rubber.

Quite a reply, thanks Paul.

Opinion seems to be divided then about what material, weight and construction style is best. I didn't want to get in to a speaker stand building bake off to compare different stands as I will probably take another four years messing about with stands and end up pulling my hair out.

What did the Doc recommend ? From what I remember it was high mass ? I will have to search the archives. I never took much notice of stand discussions as I didn't think I would be needing any

What is certain is that my stands will be DIY. With all these materials I have to hand it would be daft not to. Plus I'm a Yorkshire farmer type tight arse

The down firing driver certainly complicates matters but I am sure it can be done and done well. The thing with a bipolar with up and down firing mid bass is there is much less vibrational energy as the two drivers largely cancel each other out. Whether that has a bearing on what will be best I have no idea.

some pics from my speaker thread. Ordinary man likes 'em but comments on lack of wife appeal. What is the opinion of this kind of thing ? Where is Tomasz when you need him Bare in mind that the cabs will eventually be something much nicer, the roller ring painted black and the brass post polished to within an inch of it's life.

It's hard to get proportions over on a pic and I am a crap photographer (point & click). The dimensions and proportions are about right on this though. Ignore the two up firing 5.25 " mid bass, it will be a single 6.5" and the tweeter pod will have four tweeters in it and will be finished black. In fact that whole thing will probably be black except the brass post which is far too good to paint over.

Richard used high mass but I'm not sure if he ever heard the Cubes on light, rigid, open frame stands. When we were both at a bake off at MCRU, he said 'stick the Cube 1s on top of Lindsay's EVs - they look about the right height'.

I like the 1970s aesthetics of the roller stands. Remind me of...