Few different ways:
1. Cut the middle and weld the extention
2. Cut the wood slab in Home Depot of desired width and thickness to match the base of the stands
3. You can order granite slabs of the same size(or elegantly waf-compatible larger) of desired thicknes from the local monument shop. It may look silly, but will work. The owner would probably be happy to create something for alive:-) |
I would contact Noel at Sklyan and ask him if you can get longer legs for your stands. They're all a standard size for the most part, just cut to different lengths. That's got to be the least expensive part of the stand since it's just a hollow rectangle. That's the only way it's going to look good. |
@Marakanet - The wood and granite slabs sound do-able. I wonder if it would be stable though. I imagine it would be but I'll have to take off the spikes if I use granite and use blue tack or something. The "alive" comment was funny.
@Donjr- I thought the same thing too but when I spoke to Noel he shot the idea down immediately. Something about it not being worth it for him to make just the legs. That makes no sense so me so maybe I misunderstood him. |
Not sure what your speakers and stands look like, size, etc. so this might not work. But I raised my floorstanders up a few inches by going to Home Depot and getting a trailer block (or something like that). It's a $5 block of concrete approximately 14" x 14" x 3" that I painted black. They looked fine in my dedicated room, not sure how you (or your wife) would like to have them in the Living Room, or how they'd work with your flooring. But after painting they really didn't look bad, didn't look like concrete blocks.
Just a thought |
There is no reason to raise your speakers. All you need to do is tilt them back. You can accurately do this by using a drafting T and a laser. With the long end of the T pointed at your listening position tilt the speaker back until the laser is at ear level. Raising the speaker will only distance the speaker even farther from a critical room boundery. |
Get a couple of hardwood butcher block cutting boards that are just a little bigger than the base of your speaker stand. Add spike kits to them to pierce the carpet if you need it. On bare floor put Vibrapods under the wood slabs. You can get butcher block cutting boards in thicknesses from 1" to nearly 4". I have a 3-1/2" thick behemoth under my turntable. Oh, and if you do it right, it'll make your speakers sound better too. A maple butcher block cutting board has just the right density to drain vibration and keep clarity without adding midrange glare as you might with granite. If you shop at Overstock.com you'll also save a lot of money over most alternatives. I got my butcher block there for about $89, a fraction of what a Mapleshade or other platform would cost. |
Rrog has your answer.Perfect answer if you are sitting at least 6 to 8 feet away from the speaker. |
Lower your chair. Saw the legs off till you get the right height. |
Cut mdf to match the size of your speaker base, glue as many pieces together that are needed... 3/4 mdf may need 4 pieces which would give you 3 inches. paint them to match. Remove the top plate of the stands (speaker base) and screw the mdf to the legs... now re-place the speaker base back on top of the mdf... |
You can cover cinder blocks with an attractrive material which would work well. |
I found some very inexpensive butcher blocks at Home Goods...painted them flat black and put them under my Silverline Prelude's bases. Perfect, and they have different sizes of the blocks so something should fit. I have Vibrapods under the Preludes (they sound better with these...who knew?) and little rubber feet under each block (stacked 2 per side) so they don't slip around on each other or my wood floor. I have to say...these are the most successful speaker tweaks I've ever done as they made a good thing even better, although using the Vibrapods under speakers violates some long held audio "spike 'em to the floor" convention. What can I say? I'm just so damn rebellious! |
What Timlub said. I cut pieces of MDF to fit and glued a couple together to get the correct height. Did the same for my Kestrels just to try it. Very simple fix. |
Skylan makes very good stands. Most of the recommendations will degrade the stands. There are only two options. Tilt your existing stands or buy new stands. |
Skylan makes excellent stands. Most of the recommendations will degrade the quality of your stands. I see only two options for you. Tilt your existing stands to aim the tweeter at the desired height or buy taller stands. |
Don't assume you need to raise them. "Tweeter at ear level" is a starting point, but not necessarily the best point. That aside, I happen to have some Herbies wooden spike feet - a grungebuster disc with a wooden base and brass spike disc, that will add about 1"+ to your speakers. If you live in the US, I will be glad to let you try them out no charge. They do raise the stands up quite a bit. Hard floors only. I wouldn't use them on carpet. Too wobbly. Let me know. |
You could try using hockey pucks at least initally to see if raising the height is actually better (I've used them under one of my floorstanders due to an unlevel floor and haven't heard any detrimental effects). If it turns out you don't need/want to raise the stands you're only out a few bucks with very little time invested. Best of luck. |
I used outriggers on my speakers to raise my tweeter to ear level at my listening position and it made a huge difference. Better mid-bass, imaging and coherence. The speaker just disappeared... |
I tried outriggers on my speakers but my paddle would bang against the i'ako and the whole thing was just ridiculous. |
