Things You Should Know About the Speaker Stand

Many times the bookshelf speaker stand or the monitor speaker stand are often overlooked by many audiophiles. People think that stand has little effect on the sound. If the speaker is placed directly on the desktop, then the box will vibrate with the music played when the speaker sounds. This vibration will be directly transmitted from the speaker to the desktop so that the desktop also generates vibration. Therefore, sound harmonics are generated, which ultimately affects the purity of the sound. So can the bookshelf speaker stands improve the sound quality? Or is it just used as a supporting tool? Today we will talk about the role of the bookshelf speaker stand in the entire HIFI speaker system.

Speaker Sound Reflection

First, review a basic knowledge, that is, the speaker box is different for the sound radiated in all directions in the space.

Let’s take a look at the principle of sound reflection. Acoustically, any plane is a reflector, and stand is a way to solve the problem of plane reflection around the speaker. Because the wavelength of sound is very long, from tens of meters to several millimeters; therefore, the walls and desktops are reflectors. It’s like we are looking in the mirror. Because the plane of the mirror is very flat and very smooth, its flatness is smaller than the wavelength size of the light wave so that it will produce a straight light reflection. Diffusion will occur if the convexity and concaveness of the mirror plane are more significant than the wavelength of light.

For sound, its wavelength range is between tens of meters and a few millimeters. Therefore, no matter the wall or tabletop of your home, any plane is a reflector. That includes your computer desk, walls, and the plane that makes up the house space. It is conceivable that the sound we hear in such an environment is equal to the effect you see in the middle of the kaleidoscope. Therefore, if the attention is not proper, the sound image and standing wave spectrum are very messy.

The speaker’s placement, which affects a plane close to it, is equivalent to adding a reflective lampshade to the electric lamp. For each new face, the low frequency will increase by a few decibels. Because there is no corresponding intermediate frequency energy to enrich, the sound will be blurred, and the result is bass chaos.

Speaker’s Direct Sound

Here we take the Dynaudio Emit M20 as an example. Take the negative 5 degrees as an example. The speaker is closer to your listening position, assuming 1.8 meters. Then the height difference is about 16cm. Yes, it is the height of the stand.

When the sofa is relatively low, and the listening height is low, the above situation may occur if the stand is selected relatively high.
In reality, there is a more common situation. That is, the stand is relatively short, and the height of the human ear is higher than the sound center of the bookshelf speaker.

At this time, for the Dynaudio speaker, the change of the 5 degrees is not significant, and the 10 degrees will be more obvious.

This change in sound from different angles is also related to many factors, such as the type of speaker, crossover design, baffle design, and unit layout. For example, the off-axis performance of Neumann KH120 is relatively stable, with small changes. That is mainly because the flexible waveguide is related to the crossover filter. Of course, the latter is twice as expensive as the former.

The relationship between direct sound and reflected sound is not a simple linear superposition for human ear hearing. The performance of different speakers in different directions is not the same. Sometimes the speaker’s off-axis curve (but near the axis) performs better than the axis. Because of the above reasons, precise adjustment of stand height often requires specific analysis of specific problems.

As for the material of the stand and the shock-absorbing feet, the sound’s impact is usually minimal. However, the impact of stand height on the music is more often only when the speaker is close to the listener. If the room is large enough, the effect will be relatively small.

How to choose a desktop speaker stand or a monitor speaker stand?

If you read the above content, you will find that determining the height of the stand is nothing more than the acoustic design of the speaker, the height of the sofa, your height, listening position, speaker placement, floor/carpet/ceiling material, etc. As long as you understand the acoustic characteristics of the speaker, there is a set of acoustic testing equipment. Of course, subjective listening is also possible, but personal tuning is a high-level skill. After all, the final tuning is also a parameter. If you don’t even know the most basic knowledge, let alone choose the subjectively.

It is best to choose a stand with adjustable height. Or choose a height that is slightly lower than the height of your ears when sitting on the sofa in front of you.

What kind of stand is good? The mainstream is mainly the iron frame and the wooden frame. Because the iron frame is heavier, it is recommended to use the iron frame first.