markw300d
Super Member
Howdy folks,
I've been thinking about some type of heavy duty stands to raise my Klipsch Quartets up a bit and allow me to take off the risers which I don't really care for. The holidays have given me some time off and a chance to work on that project. I was originally going to make some stands out of a combination of red oak and mdf but it involved a fair number of cuts so I had been saving up for table saw. While I was at Lowes pricing saws I decided to go outside and look at pavers to put in front of my shed and I came across these beefy blocks that I think are used for retaining walls in landscape projects. The first thing I noticed was they are very close in length and width to my Quartet's footprint and it gave me a creative flash. I liked the rough face and thought they'd make very solid stands so I bought four of them (and four more the next day) and a can of satin chocolate brown Rustoleum. These things are very heavy at 46.6 pounds each. They have a channel roughly three inches wide and half inch deep formed in the bottom which I am not sure what it's for but they still stacked well and are very solid.
After taking the risers off I cut some small gel pieces out of insole pads for the four corners to protect the bottom of the speakers. Then I tried a couple of the blocks and they were a nice fit but I realized I'd need about four to really get the speakers high enough to hear the difference. My Quartets are now sitting on about 185 pounds of concrete so these stands are definitely mass loaded. Being dark brown, they looked fine on my tan carpet (which is coming out this summer) but I thought an oak plank under the block would be a nice finishing touch so I glued some boards together and stained the edges to roughly match the speakers. I like how they turned out.
I also finally got around to boring a hole in the back of my credenza so I could put my HRT Music Streamer II+ dac and SMSL SA-36a Pro amp in the cabinet. They had been cluttering up the top. I got lucky finding this very heavy oak veneered credenza for $60. The couple who had it was moving and wanted it gone. The amber/wheat color matches my Quartets very well. I need to repaint and change some pictures but things are coming together finally.
This pics shows how nice the curly oak veneer is on these Quartets. I've seen a lot of oak Klipsch speakers but this is the only pair I have seen like this. With oiling, they have taken on an amber tone that I find a lot nicer to my eye than the usual light oak. I also had bronze glass tops cut for these when I got them.
My back hurts a bit and I smashed a finger putting these heavy blocks in my truck but overall, I'm happy with how this turned out. It can be challenging trying to come up with heavy duty stands for larger speakers. For me, they have to be functional, look like a good match for both the speaker and the setting, and hopefully cost less than $100. Now, I'd like to pick up another set of grill frames and use a nice brown speaker grill cloth :thmbsp:.
one last thing....Happy New Year!
Mark
I've been thinking about some type of heavy duty stands to raise my Klipsch Quartets up a bit and allow me to take off the risers which I don't really care for. The holidays have given me some time off and a chance to work on that project. I was originally going to make some stands out of a combination of red oak and mdf but it involved a fair number of cuts so I had been saving up for table saw. While I was at Lowes pricing saws I decided to go outside and look at pavers to put in front of my shed and I came across these beefy blocks that I think are used for retaining walls in landscape projects. The first thing I noticed was they are very close in length and width to my Quartet's footprint and it gave me a creative flash. I liked the rough face and thought they'd make very solid stands so I bought four of them (and four more the next day) and a can of satin chocolate brown Rustoleum. These things are very heavy at 46.6 pounds each. They have a channel roughly three inches wide and half inch deep formed in the bottom which I am not sure what it's for but they still stacked well and are very solid.
After taking the risers off I cut some small gel pieces out of insole pads for the four corners to protect the bottom of the speakers. Then I tried a couple of the blocks and they were a nice fit but I realized I'd need about four to really get the speakers high enough to hear the difference. My Quartets are now sitting on about 185 pounds of concrete so these stands are definitely mass loaded. Being dark brown, they looked fine on my tan carpet (which is coming out this summer) but I thought an oak plank under the block would be a nice finishing touch so I glued some boards together and stained the edges to roughly match the speakers. I like how they turned out.
I also finally got around to boring a hole in the back of my credenza so I could put my HRT Music Streamer II+ dac and SMSL SA-36a Pro amp in the cabinet. They had been cluttering up the top. I got lucky finding this very heavy oak veneered credenza for $60. The couple who had it was moving and wanted it gone. The amber/wheat color matches my Quartets very well. I need to repaint and change some pictures but things are coming together finally.
This pics shows how nice the curly oak veneer is on these Quartets. I've seen a lot of oak Klipsch speakers but this is the only pair I have seen like this. With oiling, they have taken on an amber tone that I find a lot nicer to my eye than the usual light oak. I also had bronze glass tops cut for these when I got them.
My back hurts a bit and I smashed a finger putting these heavy blocks in my truck but overall, I'm happy with how this turned out. It can be challenging trying to come up with heavy duty stands for larger speakers. For me, they have to be functional, look like a good match for both the speaker and the setting, and hopefully cost less than $100. Now, I'd like to pick up another set of grill frames and use a nice brown speaker grill cloth :thmbsp:.
one last thing....Happy New Year!
Mark
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