4 replies to this topic

[groovewell]

Hey I just thought I would do a little write-up of my most recent project…

Between Christmas and New Years I bought myself a pair of Yamaha HS80M powered monitors. Sweet sound, and fairly decent price. It has certainly been an improvement over the dodgy book case hi-fi speakers I was running before and after recently buying a MOTU Ultralite the signal chain has improved ten fold.

So I thought I would make up a pair of speaker stands to match the monitors. I took inspiration from one of the threads here on SoundPunk (http://www.soundpunk...php?topic=518.0), ran out to Bunnings and started piecing these together.

Now you can get all the details on how to make up these stands from the thread above but I thought I would add my 2 cents and a couple of photos of the process.

So down at Bunnings I picked up two 1 metre lengths of 100mm diameter PVC pipe, four PVC end flange joints, a couple of bits of pine and two lengths of M16 booker rod and nuts and washers to suit. Now I chose 100mm PVC over the standard 90mm just to make the stands a little more stable and solid. The flange joints I picked up were fairly cheap ($3-4 each) and helped considerably with the stability and meant that I did not necessarily have to cut the ends of the PVC straight (which is hard for anyone that hasn’t tried it).

<img src="http://www.soundpunk.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=181&g2_serialNumber=2">

So I measured everything up such that with my finished stands the tweeters would be at the right height, the size of the top of the stands would be the same size as the bottom of the monitors, and the base slightly large just to help with stability once again. I wanted to make sure that the speakers I just spent my hard earned cash on didn’t topple to the floor.

On the base, I cut holes to mount the spikes. Now I got a bit slack and just used little bolts and countersunk them into the base, rather than professional speaker spikes, but they seem to have worked out all right.

<img src="http://www.soundpunk.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=183&g2_serialNumber=2">

After a bit of fiddling to get them all at the right height, I puttied up the backs and sanded the whole surface down.

<img src="http://www.soundpunk.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=185&g2_serialNumber=2">

You could essentially sharpen the ends of the bolts to get a good spike. A bit of measuring to get the whole right in the centre for the booker rod and I was able to tie the stands together and check the height.

Once I was happy with the height I centered the PVC on the base and ran sellastic round it and wiped off the excess. I then tied them together again and waited for the sellastic to cure.

<img src="http://www.soundpunk.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=187&g2_serialNumber=2">

In the meantime I went down to the beach and pinched a crate of sand. I totally over estimated how much sand I would need. Now because I got sand from the beach (Salt) I thought I would protect the rod inside the speaker stand and give it a good coat of KillRust. It may be the difference between these stands lasting five or ten years.

<img src="http://www.soundpunk.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=189&g2_serialNumber=2">

So I used a giant funnel and a sieve to put the sand in the stands. I only filled them up about two thirds of the way as they were getting pretty heavy. The stands ended up weighing about 13kilos each (the same as the speakers). The funnel is a great idea because it centers the booker rod in the PVC and helps you align the top board, and the sieve makes sure I don’t get any dirty Gold Coast beach debris in my stands.

I ran some sellastic around the top just roughly because I knew this area was not going to be seen and stuck the top on. Lined up the top with the base and let it cure again. A day later I grabbed a tin of black paint and sprayed the stands. Now make sure you give the PVC a good sand to make sure the paint really sticks to it.

Then went out to Clark Rubber and grabbed some pieces of foam, the main reason being to clear the top of the bolt from the booker rod but to also aid in sound quality. Best way to cut it is using a good sharp kitchen knife, preferable a long one as short Stanley knives or scalpel blades tend to tear rather than cut.

So yeah that was it. Cost about $80 for materials and a few hours labour on top of that. I just set them up in my room and they are looking and sounding nice.

<img src="http://www.soundpunk.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=191&g2_serialNumber=2">


Time to go make some tunes!

[Spectrum]

Wow, eh?! They're looking fantastic. And what perfect positioning. Very cool!

[groovewell]

yeah i am pretty happy with how they turned out. but i must give most credit to this site for providing the know how and tips on Acoustics, monitor positioning, etc.

[rhythmboy]

Quote

yeah i am pretty happy with how they turned out. but i must give most credit to this site for providing the know how and tips on Acoustics, monitor positioning, etc.

The punks are happy to be of service

We will not rest until every 200Hz whoomp is removed from every home studio in the world!

[no-fi]

hmmm... this design is really tempting!

And I noticed there's some pavement rework being done just near my house right now - so getting sand won't be a problem if I act quickly... :-)