Loading speaker stands with?

@elliottbnewcombjr Thanks. I do have an original pair of ca. 1975 New Large Advents that I had re-coned a couple of years ago. They have been serving me well in a secondary system in my current basement residing on top of a foundation shelf. I've had them connected with a small Fat Man iTube amplifier that puts out 13 WPC and they still sound fantastic. They do have a toggle switch to add or subtract 3 db from the tweeter output. I will probably start with them at first (moving my Vincent power amp and Aragon 24K preamp and Emotiva CD Transport/player with DAC & my Clearaudio Solution TT with Origin Live Arm and Hana SL Cartridge from my current main system) until we get settled, then I'll start to add to that room with new hard wired circuits, speakers, power amp (or integrated?), better streamer & DAC, better cables and maybe a 2nd turntable. The room is about 11'x12' with 8' ceilings.

Right now on my stand mount speaker shortlist are Alta Audio Alyssa, Zu Audio DWX Superfly, Buchardt E50 or S400Mk. III, KEF R3 Meta, & Revel PerformaBe M126B or their new Performa4 M146. There are a couple of others on my secondary list as well. I hope to get Manley Mahi mono tube amps, but might have to settle for a Cary Audio, Quicksilver, Black Ice or Rogue tube amp.

This might re-inforce the idea, to wait on the stands, mess about with various heights straight or tilted back, temporary solutions, then after you get a preference find stands that fit.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/seating-speaker-height

We did that with the height of our TV, I’m 6’, Donna is 5’, so we propped it up on piles of books to find the height that was good for our necks, reflections, and low enough that I was looking thru the correct portion of my progressive lenses without needing to raise or lower my head.

Then I built a riser, out of matching wood, and got a center channel that fit below the TV.

You will have them a long time, especially if you get the best out of them in your space, it’s worth the time and effort

I’m Proud of that cabinet, it started Tall, for a big CRT, with receding doors up top, hinged doors below, kind of like this

New Flat TV time, hmmm, I could use the lower portion, take the upper part off (it was two sections delivered, then joined).

But, I was going to need a new top? Marble, Interesting Opaque Glass, Matching Cherry Wood?

My son says, why don’t you use the top of the upper cabinet as the top of the lower cabinet? Never occurred to me.

Great idea, and I ended up with lots of matching cherry from the upper section, (solid wood, not veneer).

So, base unit, I took the hinged doors off, built two drawers, put the upper top on the base unit, and built the riser as mentioned above. Glass shelf on the riser for the TV.

Sand.  It's plenty dense enough, no need for lead.  Just make sure it's dried out first.

Lead shot is my preference.  Sand will absorb moisture over time and clump unless it's well dried first and sealed into the stand.