Floor-standing speakers on stands

[Eddy Deegan]

To pare down the clutter in our living room we've substituted a pair of floor-standing B&W CM7 speakers with a pair of Mordaunt-Short bookshelf speakers on stands.

The (light-oak) CM7s didn't work aesthetically in an otherwise gothic living room, rather dominated the space they occupied and were somewhat wasted in there anyway because we only ever used them for TV-related audio.

So I took them upstairs. Due to limited options I've have located them to the left and right of my main desk in the studio, up and to the rear on both sides. Despite being floor-standing speakers they were somewhat masked behind 'stuff', so I've raised them nearly 2' on a pair of spare cast-iron stands with inch-thick acoustic matting below the stands, and between the speakers and the top of the stand.

I'm not after 'the audiophile experience'. They are nice speakers and I'm (very!) happily using them for casual listening, will use them to test mixes and they sound fine to me but I was curious as to whether there are any issues raising floor-standing speakers off the ground given that the cones are already effectively raised even when the cabinets are sitting on the floor.

The tweeters are now a few inches higher than my head when I'm sitting down, which may have some bearing on things but it doesn't bother me from an audio perspective and I'll be standing when testing mixes on them anyway.

I could put them back down on the floor but there would be quite a lot of obstruction between cones and ears if I did.

In short, am I doing something unwise for reasons I've not fathomed? To preclude a consideration that might be raised otherwise, there is no danger of them vibrating off the stands.

Pic of one for reference; you can see that if I drop it down then the furniture will rather get in the way of the cones (and it'd be more the case still on the other side):

[resistorman]

I can't think of any downside, but I'd say let your ears do the calculations. Does it sound better to you on or off the stands?

[Arpangel]

I’ve got similar sized speakers in a corner just like that, on small stands, and they are on little stands too, if anything, the stands reduce the bass a bit due to less proximity to the floor, but it’s still too much, the corner excites the bass a lot, as you’d expect, especially in such a large speaker.

[Zukan]

I'd rathe hear about the back story for the Gandalf/Zeus statue.

[Wonks]

I'd rathe hear about the back story for the Gandalf/Zeus statue.

Now you’re Tolkien!

[Arpangel]

I’m immediately drawn to the wooden Lion, but the hairbrush competes for attention, and seems richly loaded, with metaphor.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Most floor-standing speakers are just bookshelf speakers with some extra cabinet volume in place of a stand*. The bass driver is usually too far off the floor for significant coupling, so raising them further on a low stand shouldn't affect tonal balance significantly.

It could affect mechanical balance though, so you'll need to make sure the speaker can't topple if someone leans on it or brushes past it.

The tweeter being above ear level becomes less critical with greater distance from the listening position, so I wouldn't be too bothered about that.

The only other issue is with the speaker being close to the back corner, which will lift the low end a bit... but that maybe beneficial and can be managed with shelf EQ.

*I'm taking serious liberties in my description here! The increased cabinet volume will help with extending the LF roll-off downwards. The rear port may also benefit from some boundary coupling if near the bass of the cabinet.

[James Perrett]

I use floor standing speakers on fairly tall stands in the studio and they seem to work well. As others have said, putting them in a corner will accentuate the bass so you may need to find a way to roll off the bass a little if you want to use them to their full potential.

[Wonks]

If they can be filled with dry sand or lead shot (or equivalent) and they aren't, then that can both provide extra mechanical stability (a lot more mass for the speaker vibrations to move), a lower centre of gravity and a tighter bass end as there's less air in the enclosure to resonate and there's more damping for the sides.

But looking at pictures it doesn't look like they can be, and they use all the enclosure volume to extend the bass end as the reflex port is near the base.

[Folderol]

Would it be practical to fix the speakers to the stands with screws from underneath?
You'd then be relying on the stuff under the stands for isolation.

P.S.
With the total mass, would isolation be necessary?

[tea for two]

Or even books different from odd books lol as they are book shelf speakers with elongated cabinet.
They would have to be wizarding books to work their magic.

[Eddy Deegan]

That's all encouraging, thanks folks. They are very stable mechanically, on non-slip pieces of mass-loaded vinyl with a foam backing and as an extra precaution I fixed some plywood to the top of each stand such that the full base of each speaker is supported.

My main concern was that I might have been doing something extremely unwise for some reason I didn't know about but that appears not to be the case thankfully!

It's a statue of Merlin by the way, acquired in Cornwall while Mrs. D. and I were wandering around various shops with Martin

[ConcertinaChap]

Given the household aesthetic I think there's a strong case for painting the speakers black.

CC