I decided to make some new stands for my studio monitors recently. This is a pictorial on how I chose to construct them.

My goals for this project were to get my monitors off my desk bridge to make room for a second video monitor, make stands that wouldn’t compromise the audio response, and that were heavy enough my three year old son wouldn’t knock them over. It also gave me a chance to test out the stain color I’ve selected for the new construction.

I chose to make my stands out of pine since I had plenty of it on hand.  I’ve made these stands somewhat oversize to accommodate an anticipated future upgrade to 8 inch monitors.  This design starts out with a sealed box for the base.  The box is made from plywood, glued and nailed together and then caulked.  I filled each base with 25 pounds of sand and then added the top and sealed it up.  I wanted to make a hollow post design so the cables would be hidden. After looking at square aluminum tubing and a few other options I decided to make my own posts from wood and save some cash.  There are openings at the top and bottom of the posts for the cable run.  After construction I stained the stands, then applied two coats of polyurethane.  You may click each photo for a bigger version.

I’m pleased with the results.  It only took a few hours to build them spaced over a few days and my cost was zero since I already had all the materials on hand.  Now I’m not an acoustical engineer so I don’t know exactly what I did to the audio response but I’ve been testing the sound as I write this post.  The bass response seems to be a bit tighter but other than that I don’t notice much difference from when they were on the desk bridge.  Anyway, it was a fun project and I’m glad I made them myself instead of buying some.

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