Importance of Good Speaker Stands?

Use sand, and bake. I live by the beach, and when I constructed a DIY platform for my TT, I used fine sand from the beach for the interior. Put it in a large bowl, and mix occasionaly to facilitate drying. Easy as pie.

I use Star Sound and Atabits , both of which I am a dealer for. Both work well but as pointed out aren't cheap. But you don't need that much of them, too much will deaden the sound. I use to use lead and these are better. Someone recommended steel blasting shot as a cheaper alternative, I haven't used it; the Atabits are small steel balls and work well so I would think these should also.

Very important they be 'massive' and lead shot filled, but only if you do not have children. I've had three sets, two Chicago the other Studio Tech. They make all the difference. The tops of all of them are spiked, no pads viber stuff. The bottoms are also spiked. The speakers, all ProAc's sing, sing. sing.

The stands being filled with material will make the bass sound firmer and less 'wooly', and may even improve the clarity of the midrange.
My B&W 805s have a thick steel plate on the bottom of the speakers and THAT plate screws tight to the top of the stand. So SOME stand mounted speakers are designed to sound best when not able to vibrate at all in relation to the stand. I have a (less then .5 mm) thick layer of generic Blue tack (trust me it was VERY HARD to get the blue tack that smooth and thin, a LOT of kneading manipulation was involved, and a good rolling pin! but it was worth it!!between the speaker base and the stand top, and the stands filled (to the top, and vibrated before sealing to compact the sand) with stovetop dried playbox sand.
(My dealer asked me it it made the sound "GRAINY" hah ha..)

Also the sound perks up if the stands are solidly (all four spikes with equal contact) on the floor. Adjusting the individual spikes height with washers to make the stand 'solid' and not rock at all when pushed 'hard' diagonally made an additional improvement.
Fo you getting those rounded bottom spikes to have equal floor pressure would be a good improvement. (it would have to be done AFTER you found the ideal location.. or you would be spending all your time trying to balance spike pressure instead of listening to music! (If I had rounded spikes, I would check them for 'equal floor pressure' by using strips of paper. placing a strip of paper under each spike and see how hard it is to slide around under each spike. adjust the spikes with super thin washers (even slips of cut paper with a hole for the screw, the cut off the excess paper around the top of the spike and the spikes screwed in fully and tightly into the base of the stand at all times.) until they all have equal paper tension.
When music is playing I can feel a tiny bit of vibration in the aluminum stand shafts, but none in the speaker itself.

Wow, thanks everyone for your responses. It sounds like it's an worthwhile inexpensive tweak to try. Now, sneaking the sand into the house without my wife finding out will be the tricky part. Truth be told, the vibrapods and cones have made a significant improvement on my CD player and turntable. I did not, however, really notice any difference when placing them between the speaker stand and speakers.

With respect to rounded spikes vs "spiky" spikes (sorry, no other way to describe it), is there an advantage. I figured the spiky spikes were for when your stands were on carpet, and the rounded spikes were for flooring. Elizabeth- I'll give your paper pressure test a try.