Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners DIY speaker stands

I am slowly accumulating the tools and materials for building myself a stand and canopy for my 40gallon aquarium. When I was a kid I spent a good chunk of time in the woods with a pocket knife and a piece of dead wood making little figures and 'bo staffs' and such, so finally being able to afford some grownup tools is pretty spiffy. Anyways, in my accumulations I'm realizing that I also need some speaker stands. And then I see these 2" x 2" x 24" or 36 blocks of exotic turning wood, like cocobolo or rosewood or padauk or what have you, and realize they'd make fine speaker stands - and often for <$30 a pop. Carve a channel on the back for wire, slap on a top and bottom plate, do whatever finish I'd like and there we go.

Long story short. Any recommendations on a type of wood? My knowledge is limited so I thought I'd turn to some woodworkers/audiophiles for advice. My guess would be softer woods to reduce the...uh...standing wave thingies. But I'm not sure what those softer woods would be while still being really nice woods. Since I have the M3 in boston cherry vinyl, I'd prefer something darker - although I can always stain darker. Anyways, just throwing it out there for opinions sake.

As a woodworker, I have a few thoughts. When you mention 2" x 2" squares, I assume you are thinking about using 4 for each stand (1 at each corner). A single 2" post would by much too flimsy for even an M3.

As far as using a soft wood to eliminate vibration transfer, I think it's more important to use a lot of mass and decouple it from the floor with spikes or pads, depending on the floor material. Most commercially available speaker stands are pretty heavy. This would also serve to make them more stable. I'd suggest using hardwood because it's more durable, stable and generally easier to work with.

My DIY stands are solid cherry with a natural oil finish. Over time, they darkened to be a pretty close match to Boston Cherry (which I think is beautiful even though I have Mansfield Beech speakers). Inside the post is a 4" cast iron pipe filled with sand. They weigh about 40 lbs each. I have the M22s secured to the top with double sided tape. I was a bit apprehensive to do this at first, but when I removed them after about a year, there was no damage to either the speaker or stand.

Nice job, Joe!

Nice stand. Not likely to have that speaker come down with that stand.

Very nice looking stands Joe.

Thanks for the compliments guys.

Very nice job!

Nice work on the stands!