Massive and rigid speaker stands are much in vogue today, precipitated by the desire to minimize relative motion of the speaker and listener. I have largely overcome this relative motion by mounting the speaker stands directly into the granitic bedrock underlying the listening building. An expanse of about two acres of solid granite was selected as the site for the listening building and all topsoil was removed from the area. Four mounting holes for the stands of each speaker were then drilled to a depth of seven feet into the bedrock and stainless steel supports were press fit into the drill holes. Glues and cements were rejected as interfering with coupling of the stands and bedrock; instead, the supports were cooled to cryogenic temperatures to shrink them. Expansion locked the supports in place as they warmed to room temperature. Speakers sit atop the supports on diamond points. I am currently contemplating the use of large counterweights from a drawbridge to clamp the speakers securely to the supports.
Despite the considerable attention given to speaker movement, no provisions have heretofore been made for isolating the listener's head. As "all motion is relative", I elected to purchase a head and jaw clamp assembly from a retiring brain surgeon. This is mounted to bedrock as described above and provides a secure and stable support for the listener's head. An ancillary benefit is that it completely prevents any jaw motion during serious listening, thereby eliminating changes in the shape of the ear canal documented by psychoacoustic studies.
