Is it worth it to invest in a pair of good monitor stands? I’m gravitating towards the Gravity SP 3102. Or would a DIY approach work well enough too? Anybody any ideas or tips on this matter? My monitors are now sitting too low on a pair of acoustic pads and I think there’s definitely room for improvement. Thanks in advance!
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy,
At my home/development PC I was a little tight for desk space so I got some security camera mounts and mounted my little iLoud monitor speakers to the wall. Note this isn’t in our Studio where everything matters as much and I’m sure in theory mounting to the wall breaks many sacred Audio mixing tenets. I will say having the speakers up at ear level sounds pretty good in this little setup anyway…
Hey Glen,
Thought about wall mounts too but I’d like a more flexible solution for now. I tend to change setups until I’m comfortable and with my current setup I don’t feel I’m there.
A pair of “Samson MS200 Studio-Monitorständer” is doing its job just fine here since at least 16 years.
Yet the spikes have left impressions in the floors of at least two apartments so far. These days I have an extra wooden panel for the stands to stand on:
Hi Robin, came across those too and I like them but I just don’t have space for them so I would prefer some stands I could place on a desk.
I have my Rokits on 2 cheapo builders buckets turned upside down. They cost about €1.50 each or something, they’re stable (I just had to remove the metal handles) and they put my monitors at ear level.
I could imagine the buckets acting as resonance chambers and amplifying certain frequencies, unless they’re filled with some padding material.
Very classic solution. For several years I had monitors on painted concrete construction blocks.
Coincidentally the time period coincided with the time before I was married. 
That’s a possibility I suppose. Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve not noticed anything like that yet - the plastic is thick and the volumes not very loud and the bottom of the speakers are lined with a rubber pad (which may mitigate resonances perhaps…?).
The room is not treated at all so it might be the least of my concerns but I’ll stuff them with cotton wool and pillow stuffing and see if that improves the sound at all.
And if not, I’ll invest in some bricks instead 
Haha, not hard to find bricks in the Netherlands…
They’re from our back yard. No holes in the street 
Ahh, nice. Are those HS7s or HS5s?
And do you have access to a 3D-printer by chance?
A few months ago I designed custom (and angle-adjustable) ‘isolation feet’ for my HS7s, in which I think I spent about ±25Eur total (±10 for springs, ±15 for TPU and PLA filament use). I have yet to upload the designs to my Thingiverse page, but I’m thinking some people out there might appreciate them…
Let me know and I’ll post it all in a few days! 
These:
Also, yes, it’s okay to use concrete blocks; I have x2 ±50cm ones stacked under each:
-J
Pretty much anything which is solid and doesn’t add to resonances should be fine. Particularly if on a desktop it’s advantageous to add some isolation from something like a concrete block so it doesn’t transfer though to whatever it is sitting on.
Personally I use and recommend IsoAcoustics stands - ISO Stands - IsoAcoustics
Thanks! Those are HS5s but they will probably be replaced in the near future. And awesome project, those stands look sweet, very inspiring. And please post the designs! If only for other people to adept them to other speaker dimensions.
Thanks for the tip! I’ve looked at the IsoAcoustics stands but I’m not convinced myself, especially after having read Testing Loudspeaker Isolation Products.
Interesting article, and I have a lot of respect for Ethan Winer.
I have no illusions they significantly improve sound by isolation (and even less after reading that) but rather by locating the speakers at the correct height for my ears, and they look nice. Also not stupidly expensive.
The greatest improvement I achieved in sound was by replacing my old desk which was an old hollow (resonant) door on a table frame with a really solid desk. Also a little digital room correction applied after measuring response with REW mainly to reduce a nasty 127Hz room mode.
