Stone block as speaker stand

[leenorris78]

Hi,

I need to raise my speakers up by 20cm. They have a footprint of 30cm x 40cm. Has anyone else tried stone blocks to raise their speakers? I hear of people using paving slabs but never a stone block.

The dimensions would be 20x30x40cm. How much £££ would I be looking at?

And any reason I should not do this?

And does anyone know where in london I can buy the stone block?

Many thanks, Lee

 

[Cable Monkey]

Try a stone mason who does grave stones. A pair the size you suggest would be pretty much off cuts to them so pricing should be reasonable.

 

[Mark H]

I use paving stones set out in a T shape. £20. Job done.

 

[la toilette]

If you can find a source that regards bits of stone that size as offcuts then you might get lucky and them for £20 each - not sure many monumental masons would use much stone of that thickness though, I'd expect then to have up to 100mm slabs in generally. There are reclamation yards round my way that stock surplus stone of various types and in various sizes, places like that might be worth checking out I have seen some pretty good prices. However if you approach a larger masons yard, then I think you should expect to be paying at least £60-80 for the pair and perhaps a bit more depending on your choice of stone.

They'll be heavy too - for an example Portland stone is a approx 2.1 tonnes per cubic metre, so your blocks could weigh 50kg each.

Concrete blocks would be a lot cheaper .

 

[rockmeister]

20cm happens to be the height of a concrete building block. You should be able to pick up 6 of them from a local builder for nowt or a few squids maybe, but attractive? NO. And you'll need to bind them firmly into one solid block. 3 of those are BLOODY heavy!

As an alternative, you could quite easily cast a block into a home made wooden box. If you cast it with a fair amount of light rubble inside it will still be inert, but not too heavy (like polystyrene off cuts

inside with a concrete shell around 3" thick). That way, you can choose your surface finish and could even set a nice bit of wood into the tops, or paint or etc?

Final alternative suggestion is tree 'rings'. Choose a hardwood tree trunk and cut a section from the trunk. Inert, lighter, better looking and varnish/polish/paintable. Any local timberyard or tree surgeon will source such things for you, even in SE15!

 

[MJ.]

I currently use concrete blocks (£2.99 and 20Kg+ each) to raise my Ditton 44's off the floor.

Absolutely zero WAF but extremely effective.

 

[leenorris78]

Thanks for all the ideas. The reason I thught about this is I spent the weekend in the Purbecks and got to thinking that I could use stone, rather than a stool to raise the speakers. The boy is going through the crawling-to-walking phase and a stool under the speaker has the perfect grip to grab/pull over the speaker.

I found these after a bit of searching (440 x 215 x 300mm 3.6N) for £4.85 each which will do for the mean time.

Here

or here

That will give me an idea if it is worth hunting down a Tree Surgeon (great idea John) or a masons yard (cheers dave) to get something more long term.

I will put a piece of up-side-down carpet underneath the block to protect the wooden floor and allow me to slide the speakers out when I have the opportunity. I can also experiment with sorbothane sheets in between block and speaker. This will result in a speaker that is at the right height and minimum toppleability.

If I were to do this properly, is it easy to cut off the 4cm to make 44cm to 40cm This would leave the concrete block flush with the speaker with no nasty corners to which little heads could collide. If I can cut it, where would I do this?

Many thanks, Lee

 

[rockmeister]

just befriend a local bricky or builder...anyone with an angle grinder and stone cutting disc can do it for you in 2 mins. Dusty tho.

 

[la toilette]

I know some of the quarry owners down in Purbeck - could have pointed you in the right direction while you were down there! Some of the Purbeck beds will take a nice polish and look great, though it's hard graft to achieve yourself without the right power tools.

I wanted to raise my speakers up about 120mm so I made some timber 'stands' out of floor joists fixed in an 'X' shape by way of an MDF top plate. Easy to do and much less dusty than chopping up concrete blocks, not to mention less likely to damage soft skin if the young 'un should crash into it.

 

[leenorris78]

just befriend a local bricky or builder...anyone with an angle grinder and stone cutting disc can do it for you in 2 mins. Dusty tho.

Facebook could be my friend..........

Had a reply all ready. A friend's dad is a builder of houses. It looks promising for a clean cut.

 

[leenorris78]

I know some of the quarry owners down in Purbeck - could have pointed you in the right direction while you were down there! Some of the Purbeck beds will take a nice polish and look great, though it's hard graft to achieve yourself without the right power tools. I wanted to raise my speakers up about 120mm so I made some timber 'stands' out of floor joists fixed in an 'X' shape by way of an MDF top plate. Easy to do and much less dusty than chopping up concrete blocks, not to mention less likely to damage soft skin if the young 'un should crash into it.

If its alright, I may take you up on the offer at a later date. We frequently go down that way as the walking around Worth Matravers is amazing.

(Still looking forward to hearing the amp.)

 

[la toilette]

If its alright, I may take you up on the offer at a later date. We frequently go down that way as the walking around Worth Matravers is amazing.(Still looking forward to hearing the amp.)

Sure thing Lee, no probs. Worth is lovely isn't it, I do hope you spent a little time in the Square & Compass ?

You should try a have-a-go course at the Burngate stone carving centre just outside Langton Matravers next time you're down there - I used to manage it and deliver most of the have-a-go courses. Stunning location, often wonder why I left!

 

[leenorris78]

Sure thing Lee, no probs. Worth is lovely isn't it, I do hope you spent a little time in the Square & Compass ? You should try a have-a-go course at the Burngate stone carving centre just outside Langton Matravers next time you're down there - I used to manage it and deliver most of the have-a-go courses. Stunning location, often wonder why I left!

The square and compass is indeed lovely but it was raining quite heavily on Saturday night and there is little shelter in the small pub so we stayed at he campsite (Western Dairy Farm). There is a stone carving competition on this weekend at Worth.

So, waiting for the missus to get home from work.





Total cost - £9.50

The blocks cut really easy with a wood saw. This took about 10 minutes. The block is quite friable but it seems to be doing the job. The tweeters are now at the right height. I put sorbothane squares in between the block and the speakers. Sounding better now.

Many thanks for all that replied to this thread. If the missus goes mental, I may be searching for the stone mason.

 

[rockmeister]

it's a lovely wood floor. maybe a coat of black paint will help calm her?

on the blocks.

 

[leenorris78]

Missus is home.

The blocks 'don't look too bad'. The music sounds 'amazing' (in a sarcastic tone). Then proceeds to dance around the room to Joris Voorn, something she would rarely do as its progressive house.

A win, I think. :^

 

[simon g]

You could always try Studiospares speaker risers. Not expensive and look a lot better than having bits of a building yard in your home

 

[kernow]

I'm wondering what to put my new tannoys on. They aren't vibrating the floor as much as I expected and they're going to wobble and slide a bit on my platfoam supports I reckon as they have class shiny brass feet on the bottom.

might get a subdude from auralex or something. Or just leave them as is.