There are as many mounting or free-standing apparatuses for monitors as there are manufacturers of monitors. But one of the most important things about the studio monitor is that the sound should be as close as you can get to the audio being heard. With the amount of money spent on studio monitors, something as simple as a vibration or bad placement should not impede that sound.

Here's where the IsoAcoustics ISO-L8R 155 speaker stands come in. These little stands can help your studio sound cleaner by simply raising the studio monitors to ear level and cutting out unwanted vibration. Taken out of the box the set contains two upper sections for the base and two lower sections, four long pieces of tubing, four short pieces and four additional pegs to add a bit of an angle to the monitors. Using these pieces there are 14 combinations of height and tilt adjustments to achieve the ideal monitor positioning. The stands raise the monitor either 3" or 8" depending on the rods used, and from there you can angle the sides to tilt forward or back or any other direction at a 6.5-degree angle.

Gone are the days of trying to hang the monitors or having them sit on foam mattresses, which is really an eyesore. Any client who comes to listen to the audio needs to see a professional studio. The rubber isolators on these stands allow the speakers to "float" and remove that excess bass, which creates undesirable bass build up and resonances. This resonance/vibration can dirty up the sound and can even cause the monitors to vibrate themselves off a counter top. The rubber isolators also create a bit of a non-slip surface for the monitors and the counter so that when tilting, the monitor will stay on the stands.

Feeling isolated

Once I had the box opened it was time to put these little gems to the test. On the box it is written that the compatible speakers for the ISO-L8R 155 are studio monitors with dimensions greater than 6" × 7.5" and weighing less than 30 lbs. each. On the IsoAcoustics website there is a link to a document that provides guidelines for which monitors work best. (IsoAcoustics has two other sizes of stands, 200 for 7.8" × 10" and 130 for 5.1" × 6" monitors.)

I work out of three studios and each one has its own set of difficulties. I'll start with my radio station production studio.

- continued on page 2