I was looking to buy speaker stands for my KEF LS50 Metas and the DIY KEF LS50 Clone I use as my center channel speaker. KEF’s matching extruded aluminum S2 stands were a natural choice. Unfortunately, they were quite expensive, and I’m not really a fan of single column stands anyway, so I decided to build a few dual column stands myself.
I picked 8 mm MDF for the sides of the columns, 12 mm MDF for the top plate, and 18 mm MDF for the bottom plate. The columns will be hollow, so they can be filled with sand to make the stands acoustically more inert. Finally, the top and bottom sides of the columns will be made of 15 mm scrap birch plywood I had on hand.
Pieces cut for one speaker stand.
The stands will be approximately 65 cm (25.6") tall, including the spikes. Each column will be 5 cm wide and 15 cm deep. The distance between the columns will be 2 cm. After cutting the pieces, I dry-fitted the columns to make sure the pieces fit each other, then glued the pieces together with wood glue, and held everything in place using clamps.
Column dry fit.
After the glue dried, I used my router table to flush trim all edges and applied a 3/8" (~9.5 mm) roundover to the columns for a softer look. Next, I drilled holes into the top and bottom sides of the columns and put in M6 threaded inserts. This will allow me to secure the top and bottom plates in place using M6 countersunk socket head screws.
I then performed a test assembly to ensure that the holes lined up. Notice the different top plate sizes in the picture below. The stand on the left uses a smaller top plate for my KEF LS50 Metas and the one on the right is for my bigger KEF LS50 clone.
Test assembly of my DIY speaker stands with different top plates.
After sanding, the stands were sprayed with several coats of black paint.
Stands painted black.
After the paint dried and cured, I assembled the stands and screwed brass spikes into the M8 threaded inserts I had placed in the corners of the bottom plate. Rubber feet could be used in place of spikes on hardwood/concrete floors.
Brass spikes.
Each stand, fully assembled, weighs roughly 4.5 KG (~10 pounds), incidentally about the same weight as empty KEF S2 stands. I haven’t filled them with sand yet, but they should weigh about twice as much when fully filled.
Stands fully assembled.
I think the stands turned out well. There’s a little too much orange peel in the paint for my taste, and there are a few minor blemishes that I might touch up in the future, but you need to get really close to see them, which is next to impossible in my in home theater with all the dark surfaces around.
Related: