Customer Reviews

SANUS SYSTEMS BF-31B Wood Speaker Stands

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(71)
3 star:		(30)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

FYI here are some product details not specified on Amazon's description. I did not realize these are only designed for smaller bookshelf speakers. Up to 15 lbs. The 24" stand has a 7.5" by 7.5" speaker base so it can handle a bigger speaker. I really needed the bigger base.

Model # BF31b
Package Dimensions
Black W = 30"
D = 10"
H = 3"
Product Dimensions
W = 11.5"
D = 11"
H = 31"

31" tall with 5"x5" top plate for small bookshelf speakers

They serve the purpose and look nice, but both the ad copy and the instructions may be misleading enough to invite comment.

1. They're not wood. They're some quite unobjectionable black stuff that may be better suited than wood. Sanus makes more expensive stands out of wood, but not these.

2. The "wire management" system, if implemented as suggested, is idiotic. There are holes but no grooves in both the base and the speaker platform. If you stick the wires through them, then both the speaker and the whole stand will wobble on the wires.

Fortunately, there is no need to do so. Just leave spaces at the top and bottom of the back and run the wires through there.

3. Even worse, they tell you to set the speaker on the stand, wire it up, and then complete the assembly by snapping the back on, which takes some force. Even if you are much less clumsy than I, this would be tempting fate.

Again, fortunately, there is no need to. Stick the wire through and put on the back, in whichever order you prefer, and then put the speaker on and connect it.

I wasn't expecting much for $30 but these were exactly what I was looking for. A nice looking 3 foot stand for my bookshelf speakers. It gives a very impressive look to your home audio system and really improves the treble as opposed to having your speakers on the floor. Great quality...definitely something to consider.

These stands are cheap in both senses of the word. They're a lot less expensive than most other speaker stands of this size, which is great. I also found them to be cheaply built, which is less than great. They'll do the job, but I'm not particularly impressed with the quality.

The "wood" split in a couple of places on mine when I screwed the pieces together. I may have gotten the screws slightly crooked, but they looked straight to me. In any case, I did the best I could and it still split in two places. In one, I had to leave that screw out completely to make it not look really bad (the further the screw goes in, the more it splits). The other looks acceptable with the screw in, so I left it.

The "isolation pads" (little padded stickers you put on top of the stands for the speakers to sit on) don't seem to stick very well. One of mine comes off every time I move the speaker (and yes, I'm sure I put the sticky side down). I have another older set of Sanus stands (I think from a different line, or maybe just an older style -- they look somewhat similar, but are defintely better built) on which the pads work fine.

The carpet spikes are also not as nice as those on my other Sanus stands. The old set I have has relatively small metal spikes. These go into the carpet easily, and hold the stands very steady. They were also fairly easy to put in, as I recall. The spikes on these stands are plastic, and they're very hard to put in. I had to use a mallet to put them in. They're also pretty big, and I find they're very hard to get into the carpet. If they aren't all the way in, the stand is very wobbly. Once the spikes are in, they make a big hole (not good if you move the speaker). The older style is a lot better in that regard.

All that said, these will definitely hold the speakers adequately, and they look decent. They're far from top quality, but they're good for the price.

Pros:
- They look good
- They have a relatively small footprint
- Style suits most modern home theater systems

Cons:
- They're a little unstable
- The top plate is very small
- Speaker wire shows through the front
- You can easily damage them during assembly
- The little rubber pads are tiny and do not stick well

Overall, they do the job. I bought two pairs and am happy with them.

I just received these yesterday, so my review is based on first impressions, but I believe they will suit my uses perfectly.

They look nice, seem sturdy enough, and are light. I only have 2 complaints: the surface the speaker sits on is only 5 inch square, and the "wire management hole" on the top plate barely accepts 16ga wire, but if you do get the wire through it causes your speaker to wobble. My advice, don't use that hole. For $40 these are non-issues for me.

Just be warned, when assembling these units start from the base up. Don't follow the instructions. 1. put the carpet spikes in, 2. hand start all the screws in the base, 3. put the speaker wire through the hole in the base, 4. screw in the long pieces of wood, 5. put in the back plastic pieces before putting the top part in, and 6. screw in the top. Oh, and the main thing is DON'T OVER-TIGHTEN THE SCREWS. The "wood" will split.

I haven't actually used them yet but these are my impressions. They're decent but I don't know if they're heavy enough for larger 6.5" bookshelf speakers such as the PSB B25.

They hide the wires in the back (and the silhouette) but the pillars are open a bit in the front. There are no grooves for the wires but the spikes should make space. The isolation pads will make space for the wires to go through the top only if they're a thin gauge, but you can just run them into the back of the pillar (at the top) anyway. A couple of notes on assembly:

1) Put the spikes in before you put the stands together, so you can pound them with a mallet on a flat surface, without breaking anything. They can be hard to get in without splitting the wood.

2) It can be hard to line up the screw-holes. Use 4 toothpicks to line them up, then take 1 out at a time and put the screws in. If you do one end and the other doesn't want to line up, take it apart and do the first end again.

I saw all these complaints about splitting the particle board and knew right away people were whipping out the chordless screwdrivers and over-driving the screws. For 4 screws a side, just take your time and use a hand-screwdriver and tighten until SNUG. I had no splitting issues. First start all the screws until all the screw points are JUST poking through the bottoms and use the points to align with the vertical pieces.

Also, I got BIC America DV62si bookshelf speakers which were bigger and heavier than these stands are spec'd for. No matter what the size, I'm glad I purchased some industrial strength velcro to attach to the speaker bottoms and it works/looks perfect!

Don't worry about the hole in the middle of the top-side speaker support platform not being accessible. Just tuck the wire down into the gap in the rear of the vertical support that the plastic shield allows in the top and bottom. It looks great.

For the price, these were a no-brainer. Do it and worry about upgrading to something fancier later.

They made a very strange choice in the design of these speaker stands!

The vertical piece that gives these stands their height is actually two pieces of wood placed next to each other, forming a V shape. The speaker wires run up between these two pieces. To hide the cables from the rear view, there is a thin piece of black plastic used to cover the back side. But here's the strange part: in the front, those two parallel vertical pieces of wood do not touch... there's a gap of about 1/4 inch at the tip of the "V" they form. Through this 1/4" gap, you can easily see the speaker wire running up the vertical leg of the speaker stand. It's tacky!

Paint your speaker wire black, or use some black electrical tape to hide the speaker wires inside the speaker stand so that the wires are not so visible.

I read some of the reviews that were a little harsh on these stands. I think we need to keep in mind the price of these against what we might be perhaps comparing them to.

These stands are solid and stable. They look pretty decent too. The shelf that holds the speakers could be a little larger but these are designed to hold little bookshelf speakers.

I think they deserve a little more respect. I'm using mine to hold the speakers for my 1200 watt Onkyo home theater system. The model is the HT-S9100THX. These speakers are kind of like bookshelf speakers on steroids! They are large, powerful, and heavy!

The stands serve me very well though I took the smallest personal initiative and put some velcrow tape between the shelf and the speakers. These speakers will not be knocked off the stands by accidentally bumping them after this simple modification.

I'm not trying to tell you that these are the best speaker stands out there. Certainly they are not, but I think they are a good value for the money and I would buy them again. Hope this helps you in trying to figure out what you want.