The shocking SOUND DIFFERENCE Between Speaker Stands 🤯

As a certified machinist, I'd consider looking into a local metal fab shop to build a set of those sound anchors and fill them with sand or spray foam. $1200 just seems high for what is essentially a few of lengths of square tubing. Interesting video though! Congrats on 100,000!

Gotta say though the placement of you guys standing will affect room acoustics and could render a slight difference in testing probably as much as the stands make especially the triangle base stands, you were standing right behind the left monitor and you will act as absorbtion, much thicker than a bit of foam matting

Also, the difference in the resonance at 10-50Hz could just be noise floor because frequency response is rated for somewhere in 30ish range. Second the low frequency resolution is heavily affect by the FFT size (Gabor limit) so that can color how you see the response in the water fall. It would also be interesting to see what the standard deviation in the responses. Also, taking a high resolution fit you could use a student's t-test to see if the responses where statically different. I really loved the video it is nice to see people incorporate measurements into their decision. Finally in building acoustics we use things called tapping machines that drop calibrated weight to tap a floor to see how resistant they are to impact noise (foot steps). The tapping was the right thing to do and maybe gator should be tapping to products. I was expecting the concrete to more damped than it was.

During the first test, you were standing behind the left front speaker. During the second and third tests, you were standing to the back right of the right speaker. Do you think this played a factor in the results?

The dips at about 180Hz and 270Hz are likely room issues. These frequencies would correspond to distances of about 6 feet and 4 feet. I imagine you'll find that raising or lowering either the speakers of the microphone will change those dips considerably. I don't know what kind of flooring you have, but I suspect that coupling to the floor is a problem with all your speaker stands. Have you tried suspending the speakers from the ceiling at the same spots? The screwdriver was a great idea, BTW. Many decades ago, Wharfedale used to build double-walled baffles in their speakers that were filled with sand. They were about as dead as can be when whacked with something.

As people seem to be picking up on, the time domain (viz resonance decay) is going to be influenced by the absorption characteristics of the material/structures of the stands. For the concrete blocks, they (from your tap test) are quite resonant, but have minimal absorption. To increase the absorption, isolate the blocks from each other with a rubber like absorbant material (say the sound deadening material for car panels) and fill with a non resonant lossy material, ie sand etc. That should help by reducing the energy that can go into the concrete to make it ring, and then by absorbing the energy that makes it into the concrete after the stimulus is removed. So less energy should be absorbed and should also decay much faster.

I bet if you first painted or soaked the cinder blocks in a penetrating poly sealer and then filled them with sand, you would have markedly better results. It comes down to mechanical vibration in the end. Slap some cork sheets and/or dense rubber inbetween each block on top of that and your DIY setup will compete against the expensive stands. The "tone" or resonance of the stand is 100% negatively affecting the results. Remove as much of that resonance as possible and you are off to the races in a much better position. Why do we put tapes and towels on drums? Congrats on the milestone. Great content!

Well. I was certainly not prepared to be that surprised at the differences. You definitely get what you pay for. Great video, and your pride at your 100K award was both wholesome and justified. You've got a new subscriber.

Before upgrading to Barefoot 01s, I opted for cinder blocks over sound anchors (to save some money). However, I didnt leave mine naked. I wrapped them with a sheet of thick black vinyl, got isopucks, and also filled the hollow parts with rock wool. Not sure how much of a differenve this made (as I didnt do A/B testing with them wrapped) but all I can say is that Im super happy. Along with all the other acoustic treatment Im using (panels, bass traps, MLV, diffusion) my room measures almost flat down to 32Hz using REW. Cinder blocks are more than sufficient in my room and I have no interest in upgrading to sound anchors...at least not yet. Great video!

I love tests like this. Acoustics is always sooooooo important for mixing and honestly I never thought to think about the sound of different speaker stands, but just if I had stands or not.

Great stuff, Colt. Congratulations on your Silver Play Button!

Congrats on 100k. Been a fan since 49k and its been a pleasure! <3

I'm sure if you put sand in the Gators, like most users tend to do, you'll find that you'll get similar results as the Anchors, if not better. I changed mine for three legged ones and added crushed glass instead of sand and there's absolutely no ringing when I tap the legs with a metal object. I can also vouch for those ISO Acoustic Pucks. I use them too.

Speaking as someone who used to design and install Pro audio and video for home theater systems, these things carry some significance but offer variables that cancel some of the science. It is interesting to see differences but here is the thing, "you" are not a stable object. You move your head. If there were an apparatus, that you locked your head into that made it stable and kept it in the exact same spot every time this would be valid. There is also the fact that Bobby hears music different than Johnny does. None of us have the same exact hearing in both ears. There are also differences caused by hearing damage which happens to everyone over time. There are so many variables that point of position (although somewhat important) doesn't really matter. Acoustic treatment then becomes the most important thing. Canceling frequencies that build in a studio ultimately, are more important than the position relativity to your ears and your speakers. Headphones on the other hand are always relative to your head and don't have any room frequency build-up. The best way to mix would then be to use both. The monitors to hear what the music sounds like in a room environment and how the low and high frequencies build in a room situation (which will be different for everyone and anyone since we don't have the same room) and the headphones to hear it without those frequency builds. The flat response of the monitors is only important as a reference from one song to another and not "shaping" the music to "your" ear. Only the people that have the exact monitors as you do, the same dimensional room, the same acoustic treatment and the same hearing will hear the music as you do. That being said, you have a very nice setup going there!!! I enjoy your content and wish you the best of luck in future endeavors!

Congratulations on the You Tube Award Colt. Love your posts.

Thanks for a test I never saw being done! Very informative and interesting! I learned a lot!

Sound Anchors fills each stand with different types of sand/epoxy mixtures to deaden the sand. You can do something similar with the cement blocks and probably get the same results (meaning the "thud" when you hit them).

Don't be around the speaker when measurement is progressing. You guys seems like so big useful basstraps behind speakers affecting between 40-150Hz🙂

Holy Schneikey, I loved this video. So incredibly informative. Apparently, I'm not as cool as I thought...and also as apparently, way nerdier than I thought. Keep em coming Colt. And congrats on the award!

Thank You for sharing your interesting video on Speaker Stands, Colt 👍 YouTube placed your video in my recommended list, and I am very glad that it did - Thoroughly Enjoyable and Educational. Congratulations on 100,000 Subscribers 👏👏 - A magnificent achievement!