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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 and two pieces 12″x13-3/4″ for the base. One 10′ 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.

The next day they were done, so 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.