Guide Cheap and Easy DIY Speaker Stands

If you're like 95% of the citizens of the First World, you have some sort of electromagnetic transducer used to produce vibrations in the air, known simply as "speakers". You probably want these speakers to be in a position where they have a direct path towards your ears. Putting them on the floor just won't do, and if you're like me, you don't want to waste desk space with speakers (I prefer to waste it with my 21" flat CRT). So the only path of action is to get stands. So if you're like me, you climb into "the rolling deathtrap" (1989 Mazda MX-6 with a broken windshield, gas tank, and exhaust manifold, and a slowly dying transmission) and head off to work, which happens to be Circuit City. You greet your coworkers and head to the speaker section. You locate some nice stands. They're thin aluminum tube, no way they can hold speakers! Computer speakers maybe, but manly bear-wrestling lion-hunting lumberjack pirate speakers like the BIC Venturi Formula 2? No way. The BICs would crush those stands like they crush anything made by BOSE. And even if the stands did work, they're $100 for a pair! What the hell! Even with the employee discount they're still very expensive. What is there to do?
Go online, duh! There's tons of cheap deals online. Unfourtunately, all the stands online are expensive too. Half of them are something like "gold plated diamond encrusted stands built from rare african paudak by virgin preistesses on a full moon, then blessed by Buddhist monks. $3,000. Improves detail and soundstage."
So like any PRO HAXOR, I hop in the rolling deathtrap and put the pedal to the floor! The mazda flew down the road like... a person who can run kinda fast. You can't expect much from 110hp (rated 16 years ago, in optimal conditions, in perfect condition, at the most efficent RPM).
I head to HOME DEPOT, which, for the record, rules. It's a manly store. Not like Lowes. Lowes is a girly hardware store. Real men go to Home Depot. I bought my supplies and headed home. On the way, I had a revelation. How "friggin schweet" would it be if I posted this in the stand of a Mod guide? Pretty friggin schweet. So here goes.

First of all, what I used:
2 x 24" long threaded steel 3/4" pipes. These things have balls. The walls are like 3/16" thick! $4 each, from the depot. Naturally, you can get thinner and cheaper 1/2" pipes for smaller speakers.
4 x 3/4" flanges. These screw into the pipes and have four holes to screw into the stands. $2.50 each, from the depot.
16 pack of felt furniture feet. These provide some sort of isolation. Probably not as good as the rubbery stuff dom likes in the A/V forum, but the BICs are heavy and I would probably need like 40 of them to support each speaker. They're about 1" in diameter and 1/4" thick. $4 from the depot.
3/4" MDF. I had some laying around. The thickness and size depends on the weight and size of the speakers. Since my speakers are big, I used 3/4" thick 10"x10" squares. For small speakers you could go thinner and smaller. Rear surrounds for computer speakers, probably 3/8" MDF and 4" for the top, but I wouldn't go narrower than 6" on the bottom.
16 drywall screws. About 1/4" longer than your MDF is thick. I had 3/4" MDF and 1-1/4" screws, so I needed to take some extra material off.
Jigsaw
Drill with screwdriver bit
{optional}
dremel with cutting disc
hacksaw
tin snips
paint
3/4" spade bit

First unpack your supplies



A few years back I bought a sheet of MDF roughly 8'2" x 4'2".
I took my circular saw and ripped it in half. Used one half to make a quad subwoofer cabinet which I don't use anymore.
I ripped the other part in half again to make a shelf for my stereo, which kicks ass and takes names.
This left me with 2'x4' +/- 2"
I cut it down to 10"x4' with a jigsaw.



The jigsaw has a much finer blade, the cuts were nice and smooth. The circular saw has a pretty bad blade. It makes very rough cuts and burns the MDF. Since it was about 50" long, I cut it into five parts. The first four were all 10", the last was like 9".

I sanded the sides and looked at the pieces. Apparantly I was too tired when I measured, because somehow they're not all the same size. Luckily I had 5, so I used the four biggest ones, which were pretty close.



Then drill a hole in the center of the wood. This is optional, but it is useful if you ever want to run speaker cable through the stands. My cable was too thick to fit in the gap created by the felt feet, but I did it anyway.



The 3/4" spade bit rips through this baby like crazy. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it's pretty much a flat bit. It relies on soft material and tons of torque to rip through things like crazy. You need a drill with balls to get a spade through metal, but a strong corded hand drill can do it through MDF. It creates so much sawdust though, because it's not like a holesaw (which cuts out a hole) it just turns everything into sawdust. I have a 1" spade too, it's insane. You can see the widespread destruction in the picture. Towards the end of the wood, it actually takes it out in strips.

Once that hole is drilled, use the drywall screws to attach the flange to the MDF, centered over the hole. You will probably have the ends of the screws sticking out, so either use the hacksaw to cut about a third of the way through then the tin snips to snap them off, or dremel it. The dremel has some crazy sparks. I couldn't get a good picture, but in reality, it is like 2' long shower of sparks and it's very thick. Just be careful, the dremel tends to swing to the right and send the sparks up, which momentarily blinds you. Wear sunglasses.



Once the screws are cut (don't have to be flush, just as long as it doesn't stick out farther than the feet) put on the felt feet.



Screw the pipe onto the flange. Repeat on the other end. Put floor on one side, speaker on the other.



Once that's done, sit back and bang some tunes. I just bought an Elton John SACD, and it's awesome. I think the left channel on my amp is acting up, the VU meter on it doesn't go as high as it does on the right (although "high" isn't exactly the right world, it's 0.5W on the scale. That, kiddies, is what happens when you have >110db efficent speakers hooked up to a 35w amp with the volume at 15%) and adjusting the balance, the left speaker sounds off.

Disclaimer - I am not responsible for any dumb things you do involving power tools. Be careful, especially when it involves touching a saw blade or drill bit after using it to go at something like Rambo, because it gets damn hot. If you die, it's your own damn fault, and Darwin has proved himself right again. You should wear eye, ear, face, hand, and foot protection when doing this, which I didn't.

 

I'd totally sig that if I had room.

Anyways, nice guide. Simple and cheap... just what I need. Looks like home depot before work tomorrow. Luckily my speakers are a good bit lighter than yours by the look of it... but regardless the middle of my desk isn't quite cutting it for my rear sats.

 

Ah cool, I will have to try this some time - my weekends are usually free

 

lmao, thats pretty good tbh dude

 

mmm i cant help but think how you could improve this greatly (sorry)

while there isnt much visible difference follow
http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/stubby_e.html
and you will hear a difference.

now i know you might hate me for saying this but....
look at partington stands. you make think they are expensive, but when you hear them they are so worth it (especially when sand filled)


edit: sorry thought this was in av not mod guides (was linked to it)

 

tbh, if the SPEAKERS are designed properly, you shouldnt get that much vibration to transfer to a surface anyway. given, you would have to have a double walled 1.5" MDF with sand filling and internal struts... but anyway, im rambling...

i do some web work for a company that maked stupidly priced audio cables, i mean £500 a METER stuff... now THAT's a waste of money.

Good job - cheap and chearfull

 

dont want to argue but. you do and they do

any speaker will be better on a sturdy isolated stand.

 

And surely it would be best floating in the air (but stationary), but that's not an option unless you're on a space station. Or if you've got the cash, just hire the live performers and be done with it (unless you want to get on the subject of how their instruments aren't as live as vinyl) This is definately a functonality mod, yeh darned audiophile.

 

Mine are half the price though. I'm not saying that they're super high quality stands. That was the whole $3000 a pair built by virgins on a full moon thing. I'm not saying these are the best stands around, but they're easy to build and inexpensive and are definetly better than putting the speakers on cardboard boxes.

 

Good guide Altron and good fun, thanks