Baby proofing speakers (1 Viewer)

[John_RO]

My little girl is starting to crawl and pull up. My wife and I are worried that our speakers pose a risk to her. I have large bookshelves on 3ft. MDF stands. While they are pretty stable, an aggressive toddler could easily pull them over with a little effort. I don't want to put the speakers on the floor so i'm looking for other options.

One option would be to secure the stands to the floor. Only problem is it's a concrete floor. The other option would be to secure the speakers to the stands. Not a great option because i'll have to put holes in my speakers and I don't think they would be any harder to pull over. The final option would be to buy new stands that are fillable with lead shot to make them more stable and harder to tip over. Buying new speakers (ie. towers, is out of the question according to mom.)

Please help a desperate dad!

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

John,

We have a 15-month-old granddaughter regularly visiting us who’ is into everything, and our speakers have been the least of our problems. They are temporarily set up on short plaster of Paris pillars – probably about 3 ft., like yours - fairly stable, but not as much as a sand- or shot-filled stand would be. We’ve had to throw covers over the electronics to keep her from messing with them, but the speakers haven’t been a problem at all.

When you think about it, the only way they could be tipped over would be if the baby was physically strong enough to push them over. By the time she’s that able to do that, she should be well versed in the meaning of the word “no.” If not, the speakers are the least of your problems.

If you’re still worried, you could build a pair of small shelves for the speakers until such a time as it’s safe to return them to the stands. True, imaging and response might suffer, but that’s probably better than the alternative.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[KeithMoechnig]

What you could do is get a box built for you a little bit bigger than the base of the speaker stand and about 4-6 inches high internally. Fill it with sand or any heavy object inside. Put it under the base of the stand and attach the box on the stand's base with screws or something similar. It will be really stable with a lower center of gravity.

 

[John_RO]

Good ideas guys. Basically, I just need to make the stands heavier to lower the center of gravity. They are quite stable till you get about halfway up the stand, then they become much easier to pull over. I'm going to research some shorter, fillable stands for now. Thanks for the input!

 

[Kenneth Harden]

Ohhh, I though you were worried about the SPEAKERS, not the kid. Bruises heal, speakers do not

 

[ChrisHeflen]

Use "Blue Tack" to "stick" the speakers to the new stands.

They WILL stay on and you won't damage either the stand or the speaker.

 

[ColinM]

2nd Blu-tack. Wonderful stuff...

 

[Nathan Stohler]

I have a daughter who will be two next month. Many months ago, we rearranged our furniture for this reason. We now have a much more open arrangement, where the couch and love seat are against adjacent walls, and all the speaker wires, etc. go behind the couches, out of sight.

I have Boston CR-65 bookshelf speakers for my surround speakers. She can't get to the right surround, but for the left surround, I ended up having to put some free weights around the base:

http://www.geocities.com/floyd_1977/ht_equipment.html

Your stands are probably different, and my solution isn't pretty, but I'm just throwing out some ideas.

Fortunately, our daughter doesn't seem to be the least interested in our speakers. She's much more interested in the electronics, so we had to install some door latches, but I'm sure you already know all about that.

I think your best bet is to buy some fillable stands or some stands with a heavier base. Otherwise, you may have to come up with a "rigged" solution (like my weights) that may not be very attractive. Since your wife is against floorstanders, then rigging something up is probably out.

 

[Dean_S]

I third the blu-tack recommendation. I also have heavy, sand filled stands BUT they don't have a great wide base at the floor and can be tipped fairly easily. With the blu-tack holding the speaker in place a good solid bump by either the 40 lb niece or 85lb dog doesn't topple the stand or knock the speaker off the stand. Now if I could just keep the cat off of them, I'd be good to go.