Skylan stands

[skylan]

Hi folks,

Skylan will be on vacation from June 29 to July 22.

Our apologizes for some messages that may have Bounced back to sender or that we may have misplaced here at our end.

[Hu]

Hello Skylan,

I would buy Skylan stands for my M30s, the problem is I don't know what sand I should fill into and where to find such sand.

Best regards,

Hu

[Ned Mast]

My dealer filled his Skylan stands with kitty litter. Easy to find and cheap.

[Hu]

In China there are no dealer of Skylan.

[Rachael Q]

Hi Hu,
I live in Tokyo, and I can assure you that Skylan provides great service to their direct overseas customers as well. It was slightly cumbersome at the customs check at Japan side, but it is not within Skylan's scope of control.

Go for it :)

ps, my only advice is that you should fill them at different volumes to see which you prefer. I did it all the way to the top, and I am still scratching my head as to how I can pour some of them out and without breaking my back.

rachael

[Hu]

Hello Rachael,

Thanks! What material did you fill into? Oh, fill them at different volumes, tough job?

Hu

[Rachael Q]

Hi Hu,
Ordinary super-dry and slightly coarse sand. Skylan was kind and gave me some advice on sand selection (which I forgot already the details, oops), I could not find the industrial sand(s) for consumer use so I had to make do with whatever I can.

good luck.
rachael

[A.S.]

Skylan's Noel and I filled his stands at the Canada HiFi show in Montreal. Here are some pictures of 'kitty litter' being poured in.

Noel and I set off on foot across town to buy several of these large tubs. The girl in the pet store identified us as tourists from out of to town and couldn't understand why we needed so much of it and in such a hurry. Noel and I share the same celtic humour - I explained that we'd brought the pet bear with us 'on holiday' and that it was making a mess of our hotel room, hence the 'industrial quantity' we needed. Noel played along with more details and she seemed quite satisfied with that explanation. We did get some very strange looks from the front desk as we loaded the tubs into the hotel lift and disappeared skywards ....

The advantage of the kitty litter is that it is clay based and odour free and clean to handle and very inexpensive, lighter than sand and much much lighter than lead yet has excellent damping qualities. Because it is relatively light you can still easily reposition the stand.

We recommend that all four pillars are completely filled with kitty litter. You will need several large tubs to completely fill all eight pillar of both stands.

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[Hu]

Dear Alan,

Thanks! Should that be bigger grain or smaller one of kitty litter?

Cheers,

Hu

[A.S.]

Small grain is better as this will flow more easily through the funnel.

[Rachael Q]

Yes, I forgot to mention that you have to watch out for your back as you pour the sand through the funnel. Take rest in between. I had a friend to help but we both were aching the next day. :)

[Hu]

Hello Noel,

I want to order two slylan stands for my M30s, I mailed you, please reply, thanks!

Best wishes,

Hu

[tricka]

G'day Hu
I found that I had to give Noel a call to order.
I called him in the evening Canadian time and he answered straight away.
He was great to talk to and gave me the price including shipping on the spot which I paid via Paypal. There is a wait of about 2-3 weeks at the moment.
Hope this helps.
Kind Regards
Andrew

[Hu]

Hello Andrew,
Thanks! Yes, still waiting for the reply of Noel. Seems that I have to call.
Best regards,
Hu

[Jonathan]

Hi everybody,

My first post here... I live in Israel and there's a local manufacturer that makes hydrophobic sand for construction purposes. Basically it is fine grain sand coated with teflon (if I'm not mistaken). The big plus is that it will always stay dry and will not attract humidity. It does the job just fine.

I suppose you could find similar products elsewhere.

Cheers,

Jonathan.

[A.S.]

Well, how strong are the light-weight tunable Skylan stands? We thought we'd find out, so at the CES show in Las Vegas Jan. 2009 Skylan's Noel conceived the ultimate test .... two monitor 40.1s plus one Monitor 30 bearing down on just one Skylan stand. No problems at all - although of lightweight construction, the Skylan stands are more than strong enough to do a really good job of supporting a Harbeth.

By the way, Noel is one of my best friends and I have been needling him for some years to increase his production capacity to keep pace with demand so that he can spend more time communicating with you, his customers. Finally, I've beaten him into taking me seriously (I think it was after the seventh or maybe eighth beer in a dark corner of a very interesting watering hole in Las Vegas that he finally succumbed). So, Harbeth is working with Skylan to find simpler, quicker ways of producing these stands. As an example of the attention to detail, I had to take a picture of the Syklan shipping carton - see below - complete with instruction leaflet (individually hand written by quill pen) and even filling-funnel. But would you believe that Noel also cuts up and hand glues all the little pink pieces of packing foam? And customers wonder why he has no time to answer the phone! Noel -dear boy - do you have time to sleep?

Watch this space over the next weeks/months for an update.

>

[kenneth]

I'm a SHL-5 user just a couple of weeks, after I got the speaker, I've work hard to found which stand best matched with the speaker. Sound Anchors, Canadian made foundation stand, TAOC or China branded Guizu, etc. But finally I choose Skyland Stands. Since I am live in Hong Kong, I needed to e-mail to place order. At first, I feel so disappionted because no any reply for my e-mail order, but after a posted here, Alan Shaw quick respone and contact with Noel, the boss of Skyland. I finally got Noel's reply, and I ordered one pair at once. By the way, Noel is very nice and helpful. And after I searched here, I knew that any parts and any stands is only handmade by Noel! One man only! So I knew why Noel can't reply the e-mails as once.

Waiting for around 10 days, I finally received the parcel, shipped by TNT Express, a very good company, fast and safe. After I received the pacel, I open it immediately, woow, excellent packing(I think also packed by Noel), everything included, even the paper funnel and also a paper cup for sand filling use!

After I checked the parts and well understand the handwritting, I've started to set them up. Just for 10 mins easy setup, a handsome look Skyland Stands just standing in front of my eye! The outlook painting is superb, the rounded edge make them not so cold, light-weight but super rigid like steel! Pointed feet and flat feet both included.

For the sound performance, I feel that the bass become more concentrated and clean, more focus, postive result after used. I will try to fill the stands with sand later, see any difference occur.

Skyland Stands, I would like to recommend for everyone not only Harbeth user, limited budget for better performance!

Regards
Kenneth

[Hu]

Hello Kenneth,

Now I am using Guizu wooden stands for my M30s, what do you think, could Skylan make my M30s sound in better way? Thanks!

Hu

[kenneth]

Hello Hu,

I don't know will Skyland sound better than Guizu, since I haven't get comparsion with both stands. I think if the height of the stands do right, most of the stands can make perfect match with Harbeth.

Regards
Kenneth

[grunt72]

Hi Kenneth, what height did you order for your stands for the Super 5?

[kenneth]

Yep, the height of the stands that I order is 18", suggested by Noel

[musicquest]

Hiya!
Didn't know if this is where I should post this or not......Just wondering if anyone has tried Noel's newest recommendation of rice to fill the stands instead of kitty litter. I saw a thread on Speaker Asylum where he and a visiting friend of his were experimenting with rice, and decided they preferred it over kitty litter and sand. Recently I ordered Skylan stands for a lovely used pair of C-7-2's, and in a phone conversation I asked Noel about the article and he said to try it and see what I thought. So that's why I'm using, all the way full. It sounds great, although I have no comparison to kitty litter or sand. When I auditioned the 7's they were on some unknown metal stands. So, any opinion or experience?

Also, the stands/speakers are at a good height for me, although I'm tall and sit in a normal listening chair. I can easily see the tops of the speakers if I try, so I placed small brass pucks under the front feet. (I'm using the round heads rather than the spikes, softer wood floors) The pucks are probabaly an 1/8 of an inch-sorry, don't know the conversion. It sounds great, maybe a tad more involving. Is that allowable in your book?

Thanks!
MQ

[EricW]

Rice? Really?

It may work well acoustically, and it's probably not that expensive if you buy it in bulk, but it's food, after all. What happens over time if a bit of moisture gets in there? Or if some small creatures of whatever description infiltrate the stands and start to feast on your filling material?

Personally, I think I'll stick to something inorganic.

[garmtz]

Cones (points down) between the stands and the speakers work really well in my opinion. Best result is with the single cone near the front of the speaker.

[musicquest]

Noel included 3 magnetic discs per stand to try, he said to place them over the 2 metal threads in the back and in the middle in the front. I haven't tried the experiement yet.

As for the rice, you seal the top, so I doubt there'll be any problems with bugs or critters.
The stands sound really good, like I said, I have no comparison point. Maybe someday I'll pour the rice out and put in kitty litter! We'll see......

MQ