Home Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

RE: Skylan Meets Sound Anchor in Hoboken Showdown

Thank you for conducting this experiment. A lot of opinions are offered on the question of stands, but very little in the way of actual comparison (or, sadly, in the way of actual science).

I can second the recommendation of dspringham to only partially fill the Skylan stands. That's what the owner of Skylan recommends -- half-way to three-quarters until the sound stops changing. I don't know what the effect of filling them all the way would be, but someone once posted that it seemed to deaden the sound a little, and maybe that's what you found.

One of the theories that floats around about metal stands is that their resonance causes a responsive lift (in the speaker's output) of the frequency range that is heard as added clarity or sharpness. In other words, not that metal stands allow that to be better expressed but that they cause a frequency-range boost that artificially enhances it – for better or worse, take your pick.

I don't know if that's so, but your description suggests the possibility that the Sound Anchors may be doing that. (I agree that someone starting from the Skylan side might rate the results differently.)

In the resonance you felt in the stands, perhaps the amplitude was the same but the frequency range different. Perhaps the Sound Anchor was resonating at a higher frequency and the Skylan at a lower one -- that could be consistent with what you heard.

I wish there was some real scientific, measured testing that addressed the effect of resonances as they flow from device to device -- if they do -- and how audible it is.

Again, thanks for doing this test and writing it up.



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