Hi Everyone,

I just received my Sanus steel foundation stands today and tried to put my newly M22 on it, but was frustrated to find out that there is no pre-drill hole to screw into. Is there any M22 owner currently using stands that are different from Axiom FMS stands? If so, how are you doing it without having to drill or puncture it with your screws from the bottom?

I can't understand why Axiom do not pre-drill the M22 at the bottom to accomodate different stands in the market. They obviously can drill the back of the M22 for wall mount, which I have no use for at the moment. It seems to me that the M22 design is restricted to Axiom accessories only!! Man if I have to puncture my speakers on the bottom; I'm just gonna return it.

My Polk bookshelves didn't have a mounting hole on the bottom, either. The stands I had just let the speakers rest on them. Sorry to hear of your frustration.

BongChoka, I haven't run across any speakers that have pre-drilled holes in the bottom. I think that there are so many different types and sizes of stands that keep manufacturers from doing so.

Many here use Blu Tak to couple speakers to stands. It seems to be a good solution to offer some solidity without damaging the speaker.

I personally use velcro strips with a tape backing (or get some velcro and 2 sided tape, available at hardware or even dollar stores). Strong enough that even knocking the stands into a wobble the speakers stay put, but still able to be peeled off for whatever reason. On my stands the thin velcro is about the same height as the foam isolation pads in the corners of the platform, leaving the speakers level. I personally don't worry about the effect on the finish on the bottom of the speaker as I figure it is unlikely that I'll be wall mounting them at any point.

For what it's worth, I detected no sonic difference with and without the tape, if you're worried about isolation or whatever.

I also have not seen any speakers with bottom holes, only back mount points (Paradigm, Polk, Energy).

BC, I've also not seen any stand mount speakers with holes drilled in the bottom. It may be that some manufacturer which sells a specific stand to go along with its speaker has done this, but it wouldn't be a generally acceptable practice, since stands vary. Relax and enjoy the excellent sound from your M22s.

PatGuy--Thanks for the advice on Blu-Tak, but have you tried to remove your speakers from the stands and determined that there are no damages after bonding with Blu-Tak. The reason I asked is that recently I encountered someone on Audiogon who had Blu-Tak his Paradigm S2 to a stand and when it’s time to take it off the nice wood veneer chipped from the bottom of the speakers because of the Blu-Tak. His speakers had to be sold at a lesser price. I do not want to go with that route after hearing about what the Blu-Tak could do. I would rather drill the hole myself and put screw thread hole in so that I can lock it to the plate.
Normally, I would do this instead of wasting my time on a forum asking this question, but I am immobile right now because I’ve lost my toe nail due to home improvement accident. Yeah, I just got my nail done by my podiatry last Friday. Let me tell ya, the podiatry office is not a place anyone looks forward in getting their nail done. This is probably why I’m actually frustrated with the mounting ordeal.

JohnK-- I understand that there are many sizes, types, and brands of stands, but what I don’t understand is that why most of these stand mount plates have many pre-drilled holes on them to accommodate many mounting scenarios? Are these stands manufacturer delusional that they are making holes on the speaker mount plates when so many speakers’ manufacturers do not pre-drill hole(s) on the bottom of their bookshelf speakers to accommodate it?
BTW- I don’t run into many speakers, but 8 years ago I have owned a set of Sony’s satellite speakers HT in a box and those pieces of junk speakers had nice gold threaded hole on the bottom to mount into stands. Go figure!

I'm thinking satellite speakers are where you're going to run into the threaded holes on the bottom for the most part.

Doormat, thanks for the velcro suggestion, but I have to secure my M22 solidly to the stands because of my 2yr and 1yr old kids. I wish I could accomodate these speakers into the shelf, but my furniture arrangement can't have an entertainment center cabinet.

Ok.....
Don't any of you guys think that it is odd for bookshelf speakers to have more pre-drilled holes on the back, then the bottom? I think there are more people with bookshelf speakers who have their speakers on stands more than on wall or the bookshelves cabinet, but still speaker manufacturers are drilling more holes in the back of the speakers then the bottom. It seems like I'm the only guy complaining about this subject and everyone else is happy to do whatever they can to kludge the speakers and stands together. It's mind boggling to me that speaker manufacturer knows the size of holes to drill on the back when there are also many different sizes, types, and brands of wall mount options.

There's some really strong velcro out there, some which a lot bigger kids would have trouble separating.

I am trying to respect your frustration but take some comfort that there are solutions that will allow you to keep your great sounding speakers. I would hate to think that you would restrict your speaker choice to a bookshelf sized speaker that has pre-drilled holes on the bottom. I am a bit worried about where that would lead you in your choices.

I have owned a few sets of bookshelf speakers in my life, some good, mostly bad. None of them had screw holes in the bottom. My favorites before Axiom came into my life were some fairly nice sounding, for their price, Harmon Kardons. They didn't have holes pre-drilled anywhere, bottom or back.

Only my tiny and tinny sounding Sony satellite speakers had holes in the bottom. This was my first HTIB system and the holes are the only good thing I can say about them. It got me into surround sound, but I'll take a nice sounding speaker and the minuscule 5 minutes it takes to drill my own holes... any day.

In the many years I've been around audio I've never seen bookshelf speakers with pre-drilled holes on the bottom, makes no sense to me. Holes on the back make for sense for people that wish to wall mount their speakers. Otherwise, the speaker would just rest on a small stand or platform.

Frankly, I think your being a little rediculous if you think speaker companies should predrill holes in their speakers to accomodate the 100's of stand companies out there. Not to mention sacrificing the sound they have engineered in the design. There is a reason the enclosure is enclosed to not allow air to escape.

ps: did you not check the photo's on the product page.

I think the blutak would leave less damage than drilled holes ....

BongChoka, I've never personally used Blu Tak and don't have any experience with it marring the surface. Just offering it up as an alternative solution because I knew other people had used it.

I'll just put in that I've also seen stands that screw into the back of the speakers (where there is obviously more likely to be a hole).

If you're really concerned about stability, call Axiom, and they should be able to tell you where it's safe to drill and how deep. Or return the stands. Or return the speakers and get towers.

I think that once filled with a screw and additionally sealed as needed, no air loss would result and there would be no audible sound degradation.

That being said, when I drilled holes in the back of my HKs to mount them on the wall as surrounds until i could afford to order QS8s, I was terrified that the drill would knock a fair size chunk of MDF off in the inside and it would be inside there making a vibrating, buzzing sound forever.

Murph,
you could always take off the driver and remove the piece of MDF yah know

Back then, removing a driver would have resulted in even greater anxiety of resulting in more buzzings or vibrations. I'd be more comfortable now.

Not trying to shove the velcro down your throat or anything, but I can pick up and carry the stands by grabbing just the M3. I'd imagine the whole stand would fall over before the speaker peeled off from a kid bumping it (I bump my 190lbs into mine all the time with nary a mishap - although admittedly not the determined shaking that a curious 2yr old might employ). You can also fit multiple strips on the bottom for greater hold (just like knots - more is better! ). The velcro is definitely stronger than the blue tak (although the tape may damage the finish if not removed carefully if resale is an issue for you. Not as much as a hole drilled into it, though).

BongChoka,

I wouldn't take one person's experience with Blu-Tak to be representative of the common experience. It's a silly putty-like substance that shouldn't cause any damage to your M22s. I had my M22s attached with it (one pea-sized blob near each corner) for about 3 years. When I decided to wall-mount my M22s, the Blue-Tak was a bit of a pain to get off completely, but it didn't cause any damage.

I too have never seen a bookshelf speaker with pre-drilled hole in the bottom. I'm not familiar with Blu-Tak but I know there is industrial velcro available which will secure your speakers to the stands.

Yeah, the blu tak solution is pretty popular, but I never have used anything.

I just put my 22's on the Quest stands that I purchased and told my 2 and 5 year olds to "stay away" or "be careful" around them. Never been a problem.

Also, throw in some music they like (my son has a Crazy Frog disc, but they love Eye of the Tiger as its used in the Robot's movie) and crank it up to "ELEVEN" for them just to show what those things can do. It's just like showing them the BBQ is hot and a lesson to stay away.

I had mine on stands with double-sided tape. The stands alone weighed about 50 lbs, and I could pick it up by the speaker with no problem. They came apart without any damage or marks or tape residue.