Unconventional speaker stands

[Maury_Finkle]

Hi all, and happy Sunday. I may be about to come into possession of a pair of vintage Acoustic Research AR-2ax speakers. They’re large bookshelf / small floor standers in a similar way the JBL L100s are. A speaker that seems like it should be slightly elevated or tilted up given its size.

Some quick research doesn’t turn up a natural pair of stands, so wondering if there’s something I’m missing, like they’re meant to stay on the floor?

When I see those JBLs / Wharfedale / KLFs, it seems like they’re meant to be on a stand. Anyone experienced with something like this? I’ll play around with them once I get them, but would be good to know if there’s any prevailing logic on whether these should be floor or stand mounted.

And if stand mounts, would you retrofit a set of stands from another brand or try and build something custom?

[Innocent_Bystander]

@Maury_Finkle

wondering if there’s something I’m missing, like they’re meant to stay on the floor?

My guess is that back in their day they were probably placed on a shelf or table etc…

I suppose choice of stand should be much as any similarly constructed speaker with similar bass response - whatever that may be!

[70sPete]

I would look at something like Atacama Audtion 400 stands or possibly something from Custom Design.

[SamClaus]

I had a pair of those in the 70s before I bought some BC1s. they were ok, very smooth. They were too large for shelves, I used low stands, if I remember correctly.

[Maury_Finkle]

Thanks for the responses so far; looks interesting. Definitely need to do some research here. Some early browsing has turned up some options like these:

Or custom jobs like this:

Think it will come down to pure fit, but those open black metal stands look to be a halfway decent option, although not the best looking to my eyes.

[feeling_zen]

Keep searching. There most definitely are official JBL stands for both their L100 sized speakers and L82 sized speakers and equivalent. Low. Open frame. Low mass. Tilted. Obviously they work with any large speaker of a similar footprint.

[Maury_Finkle]

That’s so funny; before I read your response I was on my local DE online retailer researching the same thing. Overnight it hit me that one of the L100s and L82s should have the same base dimensions - and I remembered that they had a number of stand options.

Think this might be the answer. The 2ax base dimensions are 34x30cm. L100s are 39x39 and the L82s are 32x28. JBL says the JS-120 stands have a top plate of 14x12.

No clue why this didn’t occur to me before, but here we are.

This could be the trick.

[feeling_zen]

Well the stands for the 100 and the 82 are different. The ones for the 82 are much higher.

[Maury_Finkle]

yes - I think the L100s and 2ax are similar height (60cm IIRC?) so whatever goes on those may work best. The base dimensions between the two are very different though. Will need to check the base plates again.

[Innocent_Bystander]

@Maury_Finkle

JBL says the JS-120 stands have a top plate of 14x12.

Just in case you hadn’t recognised, that is probably inches given that JBL is American (approx 30.5x35.6 cm), though worth confirming.

[Maury_Finkle]

Was on a German website where everything is in cm, but good point. Will double check

[Maury_Finkle]

You win the gold star of the day - indeed they didn’t convert from inches. Thanks for pointing that out.

The JS-120s look like they’re about 37x28 - close to your conversion. So those are too big. Back to the drawing board.

[feeling_zen]

What about the JS-80? Too high?

[Maury_Finkle]

Yeah, think so. The ARs are 60cm in height. This is the issue - the L100s are the same height, but much wider at the bottom. L82s same width / depth but much shorter.