Ping RGA- Skylan Stands

[N. Abstentia]

Hey RGA, I see you talking about the Skylan stands a lot, so I checked them out. But I'm curious about what they are made out of....you said they are some sort of fiberboard? How heavy are they?

I currently use these stands:
http://www.studiotech.com/jsp/productDetail.jsp?prodID=12
Which are $175. They are thick steel, and they take at least 3 people to move around when I have them filled. I assume since you chose not to use a heavy steel stand like these and spent more for the Skylans you think they are better, so why are they better?

What makes the 4 pillar Skylans $150 better? I'm serious here, sell 'em to me! I'm finally upgrading my rear speakers to match the front and I'm planning on using those same Studio Tech stands right now.

Are they heavier/more stable than the steel stands? Although it would take a small tractor to knock mine over now....I can't imagine anything being any more sturdy.

[topspeed]

Hey RGA, I see you talking about the Skylan stands a lot, so I checked them out. But I'm curious about what they are made out of....you said they are some sort of fiberboard? How heavy are they?

I currently use these stands:
http://www.studiotech.com/jsp/productDetail.jsp?prodID=12
Which are $175. They are thick steel, and they take at least 3 people to move around when I have them filled. I assume since you chose not to use a heavy steel stand like these and spent more for the Skylans you think they are better, so why are they better?

What makes the 4 pillar Skylans $150 better? I'm serious here, sell 'em to me! I'm finally upgrading my rear speakers to match the front and I'm planning on using those same Studio Tech stands right now.

Are they heavier/more stable than the steel stands? Although it would take a small tractor to knock mine over now....I can't imagine anything being any more sturdy.
I'm not RGA, but I bought the Skylans on RGA's suggestion so I'll take a shot at this. The base and top plate are MDF, custom cut to your speaker's dimensions and needs. I had Noel oversize the bottom plate to make sure my kids couldn't knock them over. There are 4 ceramic discs impregnated into the top plate at the contact points to help dispel vibration. The posts are composite (aka plastic), are large diameter, and filleable with sand or shot. Filled with sand, they are about 40lbs at a 32" height.

Why are they better? They're not. You could argue that wood has superior vibrations absorbing properties blahblahblah but does anybody think a stand really has that dramatic an affect on a speaker outside of putting the tweeter at ear level? I hope not. I can say that the custom sizing was very cool and amazingly accurate as the top plate is perfectly flush with the bottom of my speakers. It is very stable too. I had my 2 and 5 year old knock into them and my kids came away the worse for wear.

Don't forget the price is in Canadian.

Hope this helps.

[N. Abstentia]

Glad to hear from someone that has these stands, I wasn't sure who to ask for so it's good for anyone to chime in :)

I do like the idea of the custom top plate. Are your stands actually 32", or does it put the tweeter at 32"? If your stands ARE 32" I would be very interested in hearing more about them, as I am torn between a tall stand with a short speaker or a shorter stand with a taller speaker. I'd like to put my surround tweets around 50" or so. What kind of speakers are you using on them, Topspeed?

[topspeed]

Sorry N., they are actually 28". My bad.

I've got my Von Schweikert VR-1's sitting on them and it puts the tweeter at about 38". I wouldn't be as concerned with the height of the speaker as the sound. Noel can cut the stands to whatever height you need, just tell him your speaker dimensions.

BTW, I have no idea why the 4 post stands are so much more except for the fact that he's using a lot more material. The base plate on the 4 post jobs must be huge!

[N. Abstentia]

Kinda dissapointed at the lack of RGA here...maybe I need to talk some smack about Audio Note :)

Paradigm kills Audio Note.

[kexodusc]

Awww....c'mon N. Abstentia, don't be so lazy...spend $25 bucks on a 4' X 8' sheet of 0.75" MDF and build some 42" and 24" tall stands like I did....
Fork out $5 bucks for some PVC or ABS plumbing tubes and caps and you can make them sand loading pretty quick.
All this combined with $5.00 worth of black gloss spray paint, $5 worth of some wood glue and a bit o' elbow grease can make a pair of stands in about 8-12 hours (less if you know what you're doing)...and they'll be custom shaped and sized to whatever you want.
I'm even thinking of veneering or buying some vinyl laminate from parts express for $12 to match the pillars of mine to my Studio's finish. That would save tons of time on the painting and look great. Buy some little rubber stoppers/protectors for $1 to act as dampeners/isolators for vibrations any you're set.

It's fun and for $60 tops for 4 stands that are heavy, neutral to the sound, and won't move if your fiancee's niece runs into them!!! ;)

[N. Abstentia]

Okay, I'm taking donations to buy a table saw...and a workbench....and a large metal out building (wife wouldn't let me build them in the kitchen)...plus I need an electrician to hook up the power.....oh and I'll need a nice air conditioning unit to be donated....and I'll need a fridge for the building...and I'll need beer for the fridge.....and I'll need a recliner to sit and drink the beer.....

Building speaker stands is fun :)

[kexodusc]

Okay, I'm taking donations to buy a table saw...and a workbench....and a large metal out building (wife wouldn't let me build them in the kitchen)...plus I need an electrician to hook up the power.....oh and I'll need a nice air conditioning unit to be donated....and I'll need a fridge for the building...and I'll need beer for the fridge.....and I'll need a recliner to sit and drink the beer.....

Building speaker stands is fun :)

Aww...man, once you convince your wife to give you your spaldings back, go out and get some power tools... :D
You'll have all kinds of fun breaking stuff, half finishing projects before you realize it's way over your head, cutting yourself, etc...

Just trying to help you save some money....do you have dad, friend or brother with any equipment?
You generally want mass and denstity in speaker cabinets to reduce resonance, vibrations, etc...I'm not sure if the same principles directly apply to stands. Whenever I've done tests or demo's to try to prove any benefits they've come up nill.
I had Skylan's for awhile but sold them on ebay after I built my first pair...didn't notice any difference really. I had Premiere stands too way back with the ol' Monitors.. Same results.
If you like your current design I can't see $150 worth of sonic improvements in the Skylans, or you surely would have been complaining about the ones you have by now.

But, then again, some people can wondrous tonal improvements with cables, so what do I know?

[N. Abstentia]

Yeah I can actually build them with little difficulty. It's been a while, but I did all my woodworking at my Dad's house. I just don't want to. I can never get them to look as good as my sleek black steel Studio Tech's. I did consider making them though, what I would do is take them to a place here locally that does that spray in truck bed liner stuff...they'll coat anything. It's like a hard rubber that would actually be good for speaker stands, but after I spend all that money and time I'll be $50 away from just buying the Studio Tech's or Targets I wanted in the first place.

I'm not replacing my exisiting stands, I'm adding on. I've got Atoms for rear surrounds now, and the plan all along was to upgrade them. The time is getting close, and my plan the whole time was to get Studio 40's in the rear with matching stands just like I have up front. However, the more I think about it, the more I'm having a hard time justifiying $1200 for rear speakers.

So other than finding some dummy that will sell me Studio 40's for $500, I have two options:

1) Find some used V2 Studio 20's ($500-ish) and get some really tall stands...like 32" stands.
2) Get Monitor 5's on 24" or 28" stands, which is the way I'm leaning right now even though they do not timbre match with my Active 40's..but neither does my LCR Studio center nor would standard Studio 40's anyway.

I like the idea of Monitor 5's because of the larger cabinets (visually matching my Active 40's) and the multiple driver setup. Plus they would go a little deeper than the 20's which I need for DVDA/SACD. I think they will be a close enough timbre match, to me the signals going to the rear speakers sound different anyway so I don't think timbre matching the rears is THAT critical.

[RGA]

Sorry I was at the Sarah McLachlan Concert in Vancouver Friday Night(her last stop on the tour).

Skylans were the best that I found in my area of what was currently sold. There is no inherent reason steel is superior - technically it can be worse because Steel Rings - get a fork and tap the unfilled steel stand and the unfilled skylan stand and you will hear it immediately. (of course when willed you don't or should not have that problem). This is one reason you don't see turntables using steel platters - they do use MDF like mine.(Though yes Rega uses glass - though interestingly Rega's new P7 copies Audio Note's Turntables replacing their popular glass platter - but Rega and Audio Note work together on turntables.

Noel is great to deal with he takes a lot of time to get the customer what he/she wants. Given the Cdn price tag and the utter overpriced stands from B&W at $600.00+ you'd have to be out of your gord to pay that. Skylan even rounds the bottom plate so you are less likely to kill your toes should run into one.

I no longer use the Skylan stands as I have went with the matching Audio Note stand(which is funnily enough steel).

[N. Abstentia]

Cool, I'll probably stick with the Studio Tech's for $150 less then. They are steel, but once you fill them and hit them with something metal it sounds like hitting a bag of concrete.

[kexodusc]

N. Abstentia, if looks is your worry, I like the idea of the Monitor 5's, but in all honesty, since you have a subwoofer, I believe you'd be further ahead to go with the Mini Monitors or even Monitor 3's and save some money. I owned the Mini's and Monitor 5's, the Monitor 5's are deeper, but not much in real world performance, and you'll have to have them well out from the back wall. I liked the imaging and midrange ability of the Mini Monitor better. Just my 2 cents.
Or the Studio 20's, for $500 (doable).
But in terms of overall performance,we're splitting hairs here, not a night and day.
You might be surprised at how close the Monitor 5 and your Active Studio 40's sound.

[N. Abstentia]

I think the Monitor 5 is as low as I'll go. I don't want a speaker with that 'midbass hump' for the rears, and I'm afraid the Mini Monitor might suffer a bit from that. I know that's one of the things I don't like about using Atoms for rears right now. I would like to get away from the small cabinet/small driver unless it's a Studio 20 which I know has no shortcomings. The money is not a major issue up to about $550-$600...I find it hard to justify more for rear speakers. Although Studio 40's would be ideal, it's just not economically realistic for me.

As front speakers the Active 40's will of course bury the Monitor 5's, but I think they will be okay as rears. Plus I can position the Monitor 5's higher than the Mini Monitor without having to worry about a super tall stand.

[kexodusc]

Hmmm, I'm pretty sure the highpass crossover's at the same point, the midbass humb would exist in both models if there is one. You'll get 2 crossover ranges that could be annoying with that extra driver. They're rather smooth on the frequency response side at +/- 2 dB off axis, so there's probably not much of a hump anyway.
The bass is a bit better as I said, and I used the M5's as mains, but I've always maintained that the Mini's imaged better and from 60Hz up were the better speaker.

Nothing wrong with the M5's though. And if your bass management is mediocre in multi-channel audio as most units are, you'll appreciate the extra bottom end.
You'll be surprised at how close the M5's sound to the Studio's until you really crank them. There's a few artifacts in the higher frequencies that ultimately prompted me to upgrade to the Reference line, but each parallel model is roughly double the price...they're 10-15% better tops...but that last 10% makes the difference between slightly irritating and distracting, and just being able to focus on the music.
As rears, I suspect you wouldn't even notice much of a difference in sound quality. I didn't when I finally sold the Mini's.