After I finished building my 2-way bookshelf speakers, the Monitor DX625 made from a 6″ Hi-Vi Research W6 driver and Vifa DX25GT 1″ tweeter, I began looking for a pair of speaker stands to put the speakers on. They needed to be the right height so that the tweeter was just below ear level when seated, they needed to be the right look, be nice and heavy, and not cost a fortune. I couldn’t find any that were the exact right height or within the cost that I wanted or the exact style I wanted, so I decided to build some speakers stands out of some scrap wood I had lying around in my garage. Of all the speakers I’ve built, I’ve never built a pair of speaker stands, so I thought this would be a great first-time project to work on. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and so much easier than building actual speakers, and the end result I think was well worth the time spent working on them. The design is extremely simple and possibly resembles some other speakers stands out there. The design was driven by what I currently had in the garage sitting around as scrap, waiting to be used for something useful.
Material: About 2’x2′ piece of 3/4″ MDF cut into 4 rectangles – two pieces 9″x11″ for the top platform and two pieces 12″x13-3/4″ for the bottom base. One 10-foot two-by-six (2×6) board. The two-by-six was cut into (4) pieces 26″ long to be used for the uprights in each speaker stand.
I cut all the edges of the (4) MDF pieces at 45 angle to give the speakers stands a more original and finished look, as well to match the speakers better. I sanded all the wood wood with 150 then 220 grit sandpaper and threw on a coat of Painter’s Touch flat black enamel. Once that dried I sanded everything down once again with 220 and put on another coat of paint. After that was dried, I assembled each piece by centering the (2) 26″ two-by-six uprights on the base and screwing them in with (3) 10×2-1/2″ wood nails. Then I attached the top in the same manner. The two uprights are mounted 2″ apart and allow enough room for me to touch up the paint if needed or for dusting. I put some putty in the six holes of each top base and put on two more coats of paint and let everything dry overnight.
That was about it. I took a few pictures and set them up with my 2-way speakers and tested them out. I think they look great, and only cost a fraction of what a commercial pair of speakers stands would have cost. And since all the wood, screws and paint I already had, it felt like it cost me nothing at all. But the benefit of having a real pair of speaker stands in the living room (instead of a pair of chairs from the kitchen table) was definitely worth the time spent designing, building, sanding and painting them. At some point in the future I may add a set of toe spikes to the base piece and speakers, but for now I like having the ability to easily rotate the speaker/stand as desired for more/less toe-in. Now it’s time to pull up a chair, pop in a few CD’s, and spend the afternoon enjoying some music.
Click here to view the CAD design/plans for these speaker stands.
Stop by www.danmarx.org/audioinnovation for more speaker projects.
Nice design! Very helpful instructions, and easy to modify for your own speaker dimensions.
Very cool. I’m going to Home Depot tonight.
Well done! Very impressive, stylish design.
Great instructions and a great end result. I kept encountering PVC DIY stand instructions when I searched, but finally found these. And like you, I have scrap MDF and 2 x 6 lumber laying around. These will work well to support my old PSB Alphas in my new HT room.
These stands blend in very well. The stands do not have that over done home made look. The materials required are inexpensive.
Well done.
I’m in the process of building these right now! :D Although I was too lazy to cut the angles on a 45, and I can honestly say I wish I had… Also AMAZING paint! I used it to paint both my Xbox and router and they came out excellent. It just goes on so level!
Looks great. How did you cut the 45 degree angle?
Amazing. I can’t tell whether it is DIY or real speaker stand!
i have a quad 11L2 speaker looking for a perfect design and measurement can you please send me the design of it.
Thanks
Ravi
I’ve been scouring the web looking for plans to make speaker stands that didn’t use the “two pieces of wood connected to a PVC pipe” plans. These will work great!
made em for under $25 at home depot thanks
Thanks man! just what i was lookin for!
For all the versions of PVC stands out there, these are even cheaper, easier to make, and look classier IMO. Great share, thanks!
thanks, i have some spare mdf board laying around, will go to home depot for the 2×6’s
this saves a TON of money. What do you think of using spikes for carpets?
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=240-730&utm_source=googleps
Thanks so much for this. Its a great idea – and my speakers are exactly the same dimensions as yours. Now i know what I am doing next weekend.
WOW just what I was searching for. Came here by searching for wood bookcases nashville tn
in the process of making these right now had a bit difficulty reading the plans since they had the inches in decimals and not in the fractions,
I’ve been looking for an easy but nice looking speaker stand for my new ELAC B6 Debut speakers. I’ve seen quite a few DIY projects but most are either a bit complicated or they use PVC pipe which I don’t like. This project is very simple and all in wood that I can paint or stain and I can also choose what wood I would like to use. I decided to use pine for legs and cherry for the platforms and base. They look great and I was done in just 2 days sanding, staining base & platforms and painted legs flat black. I added a small piece of wood, 6×6 inches, to the base as an accent and painted it white. My friends ask where did I buy them. They actually look that good. Just sand thoroughly and after the first tinting and paint job sand with a 600 grit sandpaper and give it a second hand. I finished the job with a clear protective coat of spray varnish. Two hands of clear. You’ll be surprised how great they look…. enjoy.
Thanks a lot
I’m helping my son build a humble in-house mixing studio, and we needed a design for speaker stands. These fit the bill perfectly, until he mentioned that he was thinking of changing his choice of monitor. So I took your design and modified it to make it adjustable in height for when decides to make the switch. I’m be happy to send you the plans I made on Google Sketch Up. Having your plans here saved me a lot of time coming up with a basic design.
That’s awesome, glad this design got you started. I’d be happy to host your sketch up plans. Just send them over. Oddly enough I am using these now for a modest music studio as well. Thanks for the comment! Dan
Thanks George for the extra tip! Glad you (and your friends) like your speaker stands.
Thank you for the plans and write-up. I made a pair of 40″ stands for my surround speakers and tried the bevel feature on my circular saw for the first time. So far so good (still need to assemble them).
For anyone who makes it this far into the comments…
This is not a good design. The issue is the lateral stability of the two vertical boards that connect the platform. Because they are not joined together, and are only held by screws at the end, any lateral pressure such as a speaker set off-center could easily cause these to fail.
A better design would be to simply add a third board between them so the overhead would look something like |-|. If the boards are tightly fitted, they don’t even need to be joined to each other, just to the platforms, and would increase the lateral strength of the design to something safe for those precious speakers.
Thanks for the comment Sean. Another board between the two uprights that ties them together would in fact provide additional lateral strength, you are correct about that. But the stands just do not require that much more lateral strength to work in this case. These speakers weigh about 40 pounds and all of that force is going straight down, not laterally. Plus they are so top-heavy, that if you do push on them laterally, they would just tip over before the joints actually failed. Simply butt joining two 2x6s in this fashion is stronger than you think. But I like the idea of adding a third board though, they would look just as good, maybe better? Another option would be to actually glue the top and bottom platforms to the 2x6s in addition to the screws to further reinforce the joint if you were concerned.
Good web site you’ve got here.. It’s difficult to find high quality writing like yours these days.
I truly appreciate people like you! Take care!!
Hi. Can you please let us know if you made your top plates the size of the speakers surface or slightly smaller? It looks a bit smaller but can’t really tell from the pics.
Thanks in advance
The top plate is about 1/2 inch smaller than the speaker. You can make it smaller still but I wouldn’t make it bigger. About 1/2 inch looks good and provides plenty of support.
I know this has been around for awhile, but I liked the looks and the cost. Went ahead and made a pair. They turned out very well and and work better. Thanks for the plans
Hey Harry, thanks for the comment! And I’m happy you built a pair and like them! It’s true, this blog post has been around for 16 years now. It continues to be the top visited post on my site. Thanks for stopping by! -Dan