Cheap Speaker Stand

So I figured I would contribute something potentially helpful. I recently (finally) got a pair of black lsr305s for less than the going rate. My old speaker stands were a) now too tall; b) already fugly with that ridiculous over-sized base; and c) not the finest in quality to begin with. See Exhibit A below.

I looked online for DIY speaker stands, and the ones that caught my eye involved an ikea hack using the ekby tore clamp on shelf bracket. "Great!" I thought. "I can use this to get some desk space back from the stand." Then I googled "ekby tore" only to learn that ikea, as is their wont with many great products they make, has discontinued it entirely. I looked at trying to gut a cheap monoprice monitor stand to get to the clamp and pole before realizing that all I really needed was a clamp, and those are pretty f'ing cheap.

I had some 1/2" MDF already, so all I needed was posts cut to length. I wanted something cheap and straight, and was looking at 1.5" dowels when I came across the perfect solution: balusters. 92 cents got me three feet of square, inch-and-quarter post with rounded corners. Awesome.

Here is what I came up with:



Here is how I made them.

Materials required:
- Approx. 1.5 sqft of MDF (1/2" is plenty thick). A 2 sqft panel is about $5 at most hardware stores.
- However long a baluster you need to cut two posts to correct length. Honestly, for desk mount speakers you have to be insanely tall to need more then 36", which about $1.
- 2 c-clamps that will open to allow your desk thickness + 1/2" MDF base on stand. For me the 2" clamps linked above were perfect, which are ~$2 a piece.
- I had the MDF already, but still the total materials cost is about $10.

Steps:
1) I knew how long I needed the posts to be, so I cut two pieces to length. If you don't know how to use a tape measure and do simple math, I probably cannot help you. Note: I used a crappy plastic miter box to keep the cut ends square-ish.
2) Cut MDF into 4 panels; two to match bottom of speaker enclosure and two to be the bases of the stand. I am an avid destroyer of homes, and already own an oscillating saw, which made quick work of this. You can do it by hand easily, it just takes longer because MDF is f'ing dense.
3) Drill straight through the center of each MDF board. MDF holds up very well under compression, but is dogshit at maintaining a thread. Since I was attaching the MDF panels to something that can hold a thread (i.e. the baluster), I didn't really care about this being a "pilot hole"; just blast through it.
4) I recommend flat head screws so the screw head doesn't stick up above the plane of the stand on either end. MDF doesn't compress the way typical lumber does, so I used a counter-sink bit to clear space on one side of each of the MDF panels.
5) Drill pilot holes into the ends of the cut baluster pieces. These don't really need to be straight, since the squaring the panel to the post is dictated more by how square the ends of the post pieces are (Spoiler: you probably didn't cut it perfectly square in the first place; this is addressed below.). Try not to drill out the side though.
6) Screw the pieces together.
7) Use a level to determine which axes are most fucked up; Mark the side of the post to indicate where you need to use shims; Loosen the panel on that end.
8) Get a piece of paper, tear off a corner, fold it a few times to make a shim and place it on the offending side. Post-its work great for this. Re-tighten the screw.
9) Repeat 7 and 8 as necessary.
10) Use the c-clamp to fix the stand to desk.
10a) Route cables through the extra space in the c-clamp. This is not really "cable management," but it looks a little less like shit.



I am still deciding whether I want to go to the trouble of painting them, but the result suits my needs. I have much of my desk surface back, and my speakers are properly aligned. I have NOT placed feet on my speakers yet to isolate them from the stands more, but I will be doing that soon (I factored that into the stand height because I am an asshole). Most impressively, they are solid, and have essentially no wobble. I have to simulate a serious earthquake to get them to wobble in any non-trivial way, and we don't have those here.

Oh, Exhibit A, the offending prior stand:

 

Finally got the f-ing pictures embedded properly. You can see the clamp best in the first pic. You can also see one of my little post-it shims between the baluster and speaker panel.

 

Nice job. FWIW- I highly recommend Herbies fat dots for speaker /stand decoupling. The big ones work great on my heavy stand mount speakers, but suppose the smaller ones would work well here.

 

The stands look good. I too hate clutter.
For decoupling/isolation (essential!), you could also buy mounting putty from an office supply store for <5. I think putty is otherwise known as Blu-tack.
You cant beat the LSRs for the price, although I think they may may benefit from the isolation as I remember them being slightly "nasal".

 

I have mine sitting on 3 stacked reams of inkjet paper each takes up more space than your stands

 

I actually had a (taller) stand similar to your prior ones which I simply cut down and repainted to suit my needs. (Still sand-filled too) I guess it sort of counts as half-DIY?

I sure do need a wider desk though so these aren't slightly hanging off the sides but they don't rock at all.

 

Ew, you use the white theme? Dark theme master race.

 

I like the realforce!

 

Thanks!! I think I'll try this! ATM my super cheap acrylic stand: