Rather than salt you can use well washed mafic* sand (Dry sand : 1,8-1.9 kg/dm3). It’s appreciably heavier than felsic* sand and is readily available as the black sand for use in aquariums.
However you do need to compare the weight of the bag as some people are selling ‘black sand’ that is actually just normal yellow felsic sand that’s been coated with something black - this is actually less dense than normal felsic sand.
If you mix a 50/50 ratio of mafic sand and basalt chips, the resulting density gets up to about 2.3 - 2.4 kg/dm3 while still retaining the damping properties of sand.
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.* Mafic sand is black volcanic sand from basalt type rock - felsic sand derives from the lighter felspar / quartz type rock.and is white to yellow in colour.
That’s the advantage of wooden open frame stands (at leat the ones I have) … they pass committee evaluation with flying colours… and look far more subtle than blocks of black metal.
I use lead shot in my Target and Dynaudio stands. I think all that mass help to prevent the speakers from moving back and forth with the woofer action.
If you’re already using small (3mm or less) lead shot, then the mafic sand won’t add significantly more weight. Lead shot has approximately 60% void space but most of the voids are <1mm across, so the occupancy of that void space is going to be about 30% at best. Given that lead has >2.5 times the density of mafic rock, the additional density is <10%.
It all depends on how the speaker,.and the speaker stand is designed.
Is it designed by the same manufacturer to act as a unit,.well then you should probably let it be.
•The classic combination Linn Kan-Linn Kan stands,.sounds best as it is.
Ps: A friend painted his Linn Kan stands white,.only that little made that the soundquality got worse.
We are several who have heard this,.so there are no fantasies.
As a trivial point of accuracy, the bulk density of lead beads is no more than 8.4 kg/dm3 and in practice slightly less, due to void space. But still the densest of those you listed.
(Gold, as FR suggested, is denser, small spheres giving up to 14.3 kg/dm3. Dust may or may not pack more densly, depending on particle shape, but would be much harder to handle. Using that as a filler would make the stands worth their weight in gold! And if the stand volume is sufficient it would have the advantage of making them so heavy the they would be difficult to steal…)
I can see the advantage of only part filling to keep the centre of gravity low to maximise stability, but that does nothing to deaden the upper part of the stand. This, however, is easily remedied by filling the lower part (say half) with small lead shot, and the upper part with dry sand. (If, say, 3mm lead beads and fine sand then the two can easily be separated for re-use if you decide the stands would be best emptied if they ever need transporting elsewhere). I would go for salt-free fine sand, kiln dried (N.B. you can do the washing to remove salt yourself, and dry in an oven). With it salt free and dry I would not use plastic bags myself. (If I lived in a very humid place and the inner surface of the stand was bare untreated mild steel I’d consider treating it internally, regardless of whether filling with lead or sand etc.)
A vibrator of some sort to aid compaction may be useful, especially for stands of any complexity of inner void space.
That was a technique for loudspeaker construction, and one that has a certain appeal: you build with relatively thin inner and outer plywood surfaces, presumably joined with a sufficient spacers to keep the ply from bowing outwards, and after construction when put in place you pour in fine dry sand. I came across the idea while researching speaker construction before building my first hifi system, and IIRC it may have been from the work of Gilbert Briggs, founder of Wharfedale, amongst others.
I use Dry kiln sand because of its anti-vibration properties and damping, stabalizing properties, but my stands; the Kudos s60s have a cylindrical central pillar which is hollow and which quite a bit of sand can be poured into. And my stands weigh up to about 10kg more because of this. I often thought if using lead pellets ot attabited or steel chips would make a difference or any combination of this filler. I’m thinking currently of combining lead pellets to the sand to add a bit of extra weight or stability but aren’t sure about the benefits to SQ whether it will tighten up the bass.
I wouldn’t bother filling them with anything. Those KEF standmounts will sound fine on any decent quality speaker stands. I would bet they would sound the same whatever. Maybe not so with them completely filled to the top.
There is a trend these days for having a light compliant stand, rather than a heavy rigid one.
Honestly I don’t know and it’s a good question. 2/3 full was the recommendation for every fillable stand I’ve seen - which us a fair few.
I suspect a completely full stand is prone to resonating at it’s symoathetic frequency more than one that is of inconsistent density. That’s not a fact. That’s my guess.
As I suggested earlier, lead at the bottom would maximise stability as well as deadening, while sand in the upper part would provide deadening of the remainder. I would expect that if there is any discernible difference in sound compared to simply filled with sand as you have now it would be pretty minor, but only you could tell for certain in your system, your room, and with your ears.
Stuffing the stands with any material to prevent resonances is one thing but I think that good quality stands are made with thicker and heavier materials to diminish very small movements of the boxes sitting on top.
This may seem odd but look at how Naim tried to decouple the tweeters from the baffle in some of their speakers. High frequencies have very short wavelenghts so the less you allow the box to move, the better are the results.
Michael,…Read my post above,.only extra weight is absolutely no guarantee for better soundquality.
It is about optimizing resonance-frequencies against each other.
And the only way is then to do as I suggested in my post earlier.
It takes time,.and it is not certain that it will be better…But as with everything within this “hobby”, you have to try to get forward.
I used steel shot purchased from gun shot with sand in Target R4M stands as I needed something heavy at time (little kids & dog). Came out to around 125 lbs for each stand. Worked at time but am at the age that I can no longer move them without assistance.
Have more recently used shredded rubber tires and sand in some Skylans and is relatively light but seems to deaden any resonance.
Speaker dependant of course as Targets work well with AE-1, Totems, Neats and other speakers which benefit from a rigid high mass stand. The Skylans are used for Spendor 2/3E’s and the fill really assisted in tuning bass.
Well given we were working with a suspended wooden floor at the Sound Organisation in Southwark, and I lived in a late Victorian terraced house at the time. Spikes sounded both subjectively and objectively better when balanced on coach bolts sunk into the floor boards, and where possible into the joists below. It was not possible to test the stands on solid floors.
It all depends on how the speaker,.and the speaker stand is designed.
Ps: A friend painted his Linn Kan stands white,.only that little made that the soundquality got worse.
