Do you make your own speaker stands?

If you're good with your hands and can accept what you can make at your skill level (be it basic or professional), there's no reason not to make your own. Especially if you can't find any premade stands with your exact needs.

I made my own that were functional but looked pretty chinzy. I later ditched them for floorstanding speakers.

I bought one pair of stands and decided to never, I repeat never pay for stands again. They are very easy to make. Go to home depot's plumbing dept and buy the 2' pre cut pvc. Go to the wood dept and buy a piece of MDF board. Go to the hardware dept and buy a 2' rod with an extender and a 1 or 1.5 inch machine screw to make up the difference that the board will need. Cut the board to the base size of the speaker and drill a small hole in the center. A straight line from corner to corner will help. X marks the spot. Black spray paint the pvc and the MDF. Some people put sand into the pvc for weight but I don't and haven't had any problems. You can save more money if you buy a large piece of PVC and cut it yourself but the cut must be straight. Try it and save yourself some money.
Biggz

I went in a totally different direction. I teamed up with an artist friend of mine who lives in Indiana and between the two of us, designed a speaker stand that will be made out of wrought iron. It'll be 24" tall and utilize scroll work to match the antique furniture I have in the living room. I'm hoping for the final product to be done somewhere in two weeks.

Bottom line is, if you have a workshop and handy with your fingers, go for it. I've always been a firm believer that anything you can conceive in your head and build with your hands is better than anything you can buy off the shelf.

Here's a nice easy design:
http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/stubby_e.html

I built a pair of stands for my bedroom, using the following idea to modify the TNT stubby design to work with the Ikea table legs instead of using spray painted PVC.
http://www.ikeahackers.net/2010/06/v...ker-stand.html

Acoustically, the PVC would be better, but the Ikea legs looks much better, IMO.

Just to note.... I didn't use the circle bracket, but instead used wood for the top plate. Also, I didn't drill a hole in the leg to run speaker wire... Instead, I sand filled the legs. I used blu tak to get a good seal around the bottom (since I had some), but as recommended in the TNT stubby design, rope caulk works well, and it'd be cheaper than using blutak.

If you're comfortable building stands and finishing them then by all means go for it! I actually built only one speaker stand (my other speaker sits on top of a stained entertainment cabinet I built). The stand I built is just 3/4" MDF finished with matte black spraypaint. I used sandable primer first and was able to get a super-smooth finish. I'll probably build a taller one to replace it soon (it's a little bit short for my taste and when I get new speakers soon I'll need to resize the top to match :-). Have fun!

I did when I was younger, they came out half-a$$ and I didn't really save any money. Unless you have all the tools already and the carpentry skills, don't waste your time.

Post pictures of it once you get it done. Would love to see it.

That's the plan. I mentioned what I was planning on doing on an earlier thread two months ago. I also designed a wrought iron media stand to place my AVR, blu-ray, and turntable. What'll make this unique is that I left enough space down below to slide my subwoofer under because of space restraints. The hardest part was coming up with a design that matched the room's feel. I don't know how many designs found their way to the round file.

Indeed. I myself built shelves for my "bookshelf" speakers (at 21" tall, they huge bookshelf speakers) and getting the tools and materials cost me a bit more than stands would have. The reason I built shelves over stands is because I have toddlers and I'm deathly afraid of them knocking the speakers over and either hurting themselves or damaging the speakers. The shelves and some industrial strength velcro has prevented such an incident.

I know this is weird but I used plant stands and painted them gloss black. They were pretty cheap and I thought they looked pretty good. I ended up buying some stands recently.

I made my own stands two years ago and absolutely love them. I came up with a pretty simple design. I couldn't find anything that was 31" tall that were inexpensive, decent looking, and sturdy. I believe total cost to make them was around $70 for both. That includes wood, hardware, stain, and clear coat.

Here is what I came up with.



Stained and Cleared.

That's an awsome idea. Never thought of that. I see a lot of those column type pedestals. Only thing I'd be worried about is them tipping easily.

Like I said, there's a sense of pride when you are able to do it yourself. My only reservation would be the straight lines. At two feet in height, I've made sure the base has a wider circumference than the area upon where the speaker will sit to give it greater stability.

It's extremely cost effective. The cut pvc cost approximately $3 -5 each. If you buy a full length. It's actually cheaper. A relatively thick length 9-10 feet long may cost $6 bucks. The rod $1.29, the MDF $8. Home Depot will cut it for you also.
Biggz

The sand is messy that's why I don't use it but if you need weight use pea gravel
Biggz

I have some friends who can barely screw in a light bulb, and their finished product would probably make me cringe. I've designed and made most of the furniture in my entire home, so for me, this would be easier than putting wood in a fireplace. Having said that, anyone with a half-creative brain should be able to come up with something they can admire and be proud of. And hey, we all learn by making mistakes.....so go for it!

I made some T stands, but they suck... And I regretted it and should have built regular box stands... By T stands, can't find them right now, but each stand is basically two boards glued together, which if looked on top form a 'T'. It looks a bit funky, looks unstable... But it works. It's actually quite stable, short of an earthquake or good bump, quite solid and work quite well. I just think they look a bit off compared to full stands...

Looks somewhat like that but without the top and bottom: http://www.whathifi.com/forum/access...stand-projects Though the top/bottom will add stability, it will make the built a bit longer, and in my case, no children, earthquakes, pets, etc., so the simple T do the job quite well.

Ditto. Pea gravel is our friend when it comes to weighing something. Sand belongs on the beach and in playboxes.

That's one of the main reason I got some other speaker stands. The stability was not very good at all. Especially on carpet.

I imagine if one was to search more exclusively for them there may be some decent ones for this use.

My MDF DIY stands. yes the stands sold online or in any store or either worthless or too expensive and are mostly for small speakers with a small top plate. Partsexpress use to sell high mass steel stands but they are discontinued. They were good. Other than that the only stand worth considering are the Premier J50/J60 stands($150/200 a pair). Again discontinued. They pop up once in a while at Audiogon but they are sold right away before I could even ask any questions to the seller.

I went economical and simple and just bought a pair of brown TV dinner tables and put them on top. Just the right height and they may not be ideal but they serve the purpose.

Outstanding stands Mupi. My hat's off to you. As much as my forte is wood, I decided to go with wrought iron this time because one of the stands will be occupying a space in the living room right where foot traffic comes out of the dining room and you know what Murphey's #1 law is.

Cassnlogan, God love ya but TV trays? Hope that works for you. I'm a big believer that the stands should should match the decor but I'm not one to talk since I can still remember college and my milk crates.

Since you mention carpet, you'll probably want to add spikes to the bass to penetrate the carpet. This will allow you to level the stands in addition to adding a great deal of stability since they'll really be sitting on the subfloor and not floating on the carpet/pad.

-Brent

BTW you can also get 1/2th or 1/4th inch steel plates with corner holes from ebay. So for stability, you can attach the MDF base to the steel plates. I didnt do it as these are for inexpensive bedroom speakers. Check out ebay. You can put small screws and the screw head will not be a problem over carpet. You can also buy spikes and attached the MDF and steel bases through the spike so no need for extra screws.

There are a lot of ways to make stands that would look and function way better than all the worthless stands that are sold for a lot more money. Just need some creativity and the passion for DIY :-)

With the proper tools, building a sturdy steel stand is not difficult at all. They just dont make them and sell them as there is not much demand. No wonder why PartExpress discontinued their high mass steel stands. They were sturdy and cheap but didnt have great looks. But for people like me it didnt mater. I still have the 12" high mass stands. I use one for my small sunfire true sub junior. I no longer have bookshelf speakers.

People who buy expensive bookshelf speakers dont mind spending more for expensive "Sound Anchor" stands. So they are not going to shop for cheap stands or bother to do DIY stands.

Attached is a pic of the Partexpress 12" high mass stand. Best bang for the buck at less than $100/pair shipped. Those (fake) brass caps would go well with the Klipsch woofers if decor is important :-). But I didt care as I could always remove those caps.

and now I use the partexpress stand for the sub. I also built the center channel stand. Dont mind all the mess. It is still work in progress.

My HT was simple and clean once but I have been making changes so it will take a few weeks before it looks anything close to normal :-) See that is the advantage of not having to worry about WAF :-) Yep those are the same parts express 12" high mass stands.

Here is a pic of the DIY stand after a couple of coats of glossy paint. Good enough for the bedroom of a single guy. It also gives the satisfaction of making your own and it is also like a hobby especially when it is freaking cold outside :-)

Sorry for boasting but hey where do I get a chance to show my HT stuff :-)