Sound Anchors ADJ2 Review: The $1,600 Speaker Stands That Make No Noise

As far as I know, the Sound Anchors ADJ2 stands are the best readily available commercial speaker stands you can buy.

Let’s get the obvious objection out of the way first: the price is silly. At the time I’m writing this, they’re more than $1,600. That’s a crazy amount of money to spend on something that doesn’t make any noise.

But that’s also part of the point. They don’t make any noise.

Silence Is the Whole Idea

Tap on a cheap hollow metal speaker stand and you may hear it ring. That isn’t what you want underneath a precision studio monitor. A stand should support the loudspeaker without contributing anything of its own.

The ADJ2s are remarkably dead when you tap on them. There’s some kind of damping material inside, although I can’t tell you exactly what it is. Mine came that way, as I recall, and I’ve never felt compelled to take one apart to investigate. It may be a composite or foam of some sort. Whatever it is, it works.

Of course, you can make an inexpensive hollow stand much less resonant by filling it yourself. Sand is the traditional solution. Steel shot is another. Personally, I tend to take the easy way out and use kitty litter.

Don’t tell my dog.

I’ve filled other stands myself, but with the Sound Anchors, I didn’t have to do anything. They arrived feeling like serious pieces of equipment.

Why Do They Cost So Much?

Because they’re made in the United States, they’re welded, they’re nicely finished, and the hardware is excellent.

Everything feels right. The structure is substantial, the adjustments feel secure, and the whole thing gives the impression that somebody actually thought about how it would be used in a professional studio.

There’s no exotic technology here. It’s a stand. But it’s a very well-made stand, and doing something simple exceptionally well can be expensive.

This is one of those purchases where you wince at the price, bite the bullet, and buy it once. I can’t imagine wearing one out in normal use. And while I haven’t had occasion to test Sound Anchors’ customer support, the construction gives me the impression of a manufacturer that takes pride in what it makes.

Not Every Studio Needs Them

There are other perfectly good approaches to monitor support. Some manufacturers offer stands designed specifically for their speakers. Barefoot has its own solutions, and I’ve seen interesting designs from European manufacturers as well.

And obviously, if your monitors are soffit-mounted or properly supported on a console meter bridge, you may not need freestanding stands at all.

Nor am I suggesting that every home studio should rush out and spend more than $1,600 on speaker stands. There are less expensive ways to support and damp monitors adequately. If the budget is tight, I’d put the money into the monitors, the room, or the acoustic treatment first.

The Verdict

But in a professional room where the monitors need to be on stands, the Sound Anchors ADJ2s are about as good as I’ve encountered.

They’re expensive, heavy-duty, beautifully made, and acoustically unobtrusive. They don’t do anything glamorous. They just hold the speakers exactly where they belong and stay out of the way.

For my money, that’s what a great speaker stand is supposed to do. And in a remarkable number of professional studios I’ve visited, when the monitors aren’t on the meter bridge or built into the wall, the answer seems to be Sound Anchors.