Don Lindich’s Sound Advice Blog

Today’s Product of the Day is more of a blanket recommendation and review than a specific product.  When writing about the Polk LSi9 bookshelf speakers yesterday I mentioned the importance of speaker stands.  No matter what speaker you use, from the Insignia NS-B2111 to the Polk LSi9, good speaker stands will make a noticeable improvement in your speakers’ sound, and they will look nice and neat, too.  Some of the best speaker stand bargains I have seen are from Parts Express.

There are two primary ways that speaker stands improve sound quality with bookshelf speakers.  The first is by allowing optimum placement in the room itself, in relation to the other speakers, the walls, and your television if you have a home theater setup.  The second way is by giving the speakers room to “breathe” and produce sound without it being affected by reflections from nearby furniture, a bookshelf, or anything else it is placed on.

When purchasing speaker stands you usually want to try and get the tweeter at ear level when you are seated.  Keep this in mind when deciding on what height to buy.  You can raise the soundstage with taller speaker stands but stereo imaging may suffer.  Obviously, heavier speakers demand heavier-duty stands but even with lightweight speakers you won’t go wrong by buying the sturdiest stands you can buy.  Obviously buying $200 stands for $100 speakers would not make much sense, though!

See the speaker stands here and see you tomorrow for the Product of the Day!