When I recently set up an editing and production desk in my home office and moved my ADAM P11A powered monitors to the desk, I needed some way of raising the monitors to match ear height and prevent first reflections from the desk surface. Basically, I wanted 8'' high stands with only a slight tilt and a small footprint that could hold compact but fairly heavy (internal amps!) speakers. Plus, given how cool my silver-cabinet, black-component P11A's look, I wanted stands that matched aesthetically. I visited the websites of all the usual manufacturers and even went to a few hi-fi stores in the area. It seemed like no one made short speaker stands with zero or close-to-zero tilt. After an hour's worth of Googling, I stumbled upon speaker stands that matched my criteria exactly: OmniMount Series 200 steel stands available in various heights-including 8'.' Funny thing is, these are nowhere to been seen on the OmniMount website, which I'd checked before resorting to blind Googling. But they are available as a "Special Buy" (i.e. blow out price) from J&R (jr.com) for $19.88 per pair plus shipping. I promptly purchased them, and two days later, they were sitting on my desk supporting my P11A's. The stands are made of welded, textured steel. They're black. A single column at the rear of each stand lifts the speaker above whatever surface upon which you place the stand. The column has holes in it to pass speaker cable through it. (Unfortunately, the XLR and IEC power cables required by my P11A's are too thick.) Included are bolt-on floor spikes (for solid floor contact through a rug) and thin top-plate pads (to prevent sliding/scratching of your speakers). And the stands look great. Curiously, there's a sticker on top of the floor plate that says "FurnitureWorks International." A websearch failed to bring up a manufacturer's website but did bring up more links for both FurnitureWorks and OmniMount branded speaker stands at various online stores and on eBay. So, take your pick, and call them what you'd like. They're definitely one of the most satisfying purchases I've ever made. ($19.98 from jr.com)
Monitoring | No. 61
Sub6 Be active subwoofer
by Allen Farmelo
In Tape Op #60, I gave a glowing review of the Focal Solo6 Be studio monitors, and now I turn to the Sub6 Be, a mighty subwoofer especially designed for use with Focal's 6-range speakers. The Sub6...