340 SE Pedestal Stands - cheap filler

[Dick Laurent]

I wanted to let everyone know about my new fill material. I just finished a move from TX to VA, and before pack-up, I poured out the shot that I used to fill my stands. This was an uncomfortable nightmare. I thought filling them was lame... this was not fun at all. I also had to ditch the shot because I had to meet a weight limit and that stuff was too heavy to bother moving with.

Anyway, I'm moving again in a year and a half, so I didn't want to bother with shot or kitty litter or sand. Just too much hassle to move with. Sooooo, I had a box with a ton of packing peanuts. I figured, hey, why not? So my son and I spent 30 minutes or so stuffing as many of those little buggers into the stands as we could fit. And you know what? It actually worked. I have hardwood floors and the sound with the pedestals empty wasn't what I wanted. Packed with peanuts? Nearly perfect.

It was a pain to fill, but at least now I can leave the peanuts in place and move, as they add little to no weight. So, there you have it. A cost effective solution, that may just be in your garage already. No telling how I'll get them out of there in the future, but for now I'm satisfied.

Oh, and the double-boxes held up perfect for moving!

[vsp]

I registered just to reply to this post :-)

I acquired a CMT-340 and TP-24 stand setup for my fronts on the second-hand market. They arrived separately, so I had the chance to setup and try the CMT-340 SEs on the hardwood floor (each on a book) before the stands arrived. The speakers were excellent and consistent with all the reviews.

Then, as soon as I put them on the stands, I was flabbergasted at the deterioration in sound quality. They began sounding very dull or muddy, and I had to strain to make out the different sounds in a movie or CD.

Reading this forum and others convinced me that filling the hollow stands was the way to go. Sand/lead or steel shot/cat litter were not very appealing for various reasons. So, I was in a bind until I chanced upon this one post in a sea of information. I filled up the stands with packing peanuts (with some trepidation since I was unsure of how to remove the damn things if the sound was still unsatisfactory), and voila - back to the same crisp sound I had experienced before using the stand.

So, thanks Dick for highlighting a more palatable alternative to the various options that seem to be popular.

[Dick Laurent]

So glad I could help! It's been what, almost five years since I posted? And I'm still rockin' the peanuts myself! Here's to thinking outside the box.

[sludgeogre]

Wow! So crazy! Never heard of this or thought about it. Many people claim that mass is what you need, but just filling that void space with material that will dampen it enough seems to do the trick. Never would have thought it would work!

[vsp]

Ok, more info for posterity :-)

As I posted above, filling the stands with packaging peanuts improved the sound on my CMT 340 SEs quite a bit. However, I was still vaguely dissatisfied with the sound I got.

So, I tried to figure out if I could supplement the packaging peanuts with something. The following materials were out
Kitty litter - Sounded gross, not sure about long-term interaction with air
Sand - Too fine, not sure it wouldn't leak out in some way
Lead/steel shot - Not sure how to even begin acquiring it.

So for the next iteration, I acquired a 25 lb bag of aquarium gravel from Walmart and poured half into each stand, shaking the stand regularly to make the gravel settle through the gaps between the peanuts.

I still have to re-calibrate the speakers with the AVR, but the sound does immediately seem a bit crisper especially in the mid-bass range where I thought it was still a little bit muddy.

I think the stands will hold one more bag of gravel between them, which I will add next weekend. So, in short, for a 25 lb addition in weight, each speaker will be "full" in volume and will be very close to the optimal sound it would have achieved filled entirely with sand or shot.

This solution won't match Dick's requirements of keeping the stands light for moving, but is still not too heavy either.

[vsp]

One last update .....

I was still dissatisfied with the sound of the CMT-340 SEs on the TP-24 stands despite the two attempts to fill the stands - first with packaging peanuts and then topping it off with aquarium gravel.

I then remembered that the stands were sitting directly on hardwood floor. So I moved them onto Yellow Pages books and boom - the sound was then exactly as I remembered when the speakers were on the same floor on the same Yellow Pages books.

So, for aesthetic reasons, I have put in an order with Ascend Acoustics for spare spikes and discs that go with the stands and I hope to have the same aural experience with those as I don now

[kingcrowing]

I'm planning on getting the TP-24 stands with a couple Sierra 2s, so this is all great to know! I also am just a bit put off by the kitty litter idea, so I think I'll go the aquarium route. I'll be ordering the stands new so I believe they'll come with spikes so I'll use those! It's so interesting to me how much a difference these seemingly small things can make!

[jtenn]

I haven't filled mine yet. I'll try the packing peanut route first. They are already sitting on carpet so I'm not sure how much of a difference it will make anyway.

[Mag_Neato]

Hmm, if you liked how the phone book stands performed then here's something along those lines....
http://shop.mapleshadestore.com/Mapl...tinfo/BED2-BL/