SanusBF31-B1 31" Speaker Stands for Bookshelf Speakers up to 20 lbs - Black - Set of 2

I highly recommend these Sanus BF31-B1 31" Speaker Stands. They arrived in excellent condition and look great and feel sturdy after properly assembled. Assembly was easy, as I first read and then followed the instructions. They very clearly warn the customer not to use any power tools to assemble the stands. That said, the MDF material seems strong enough for its purpose here, if you are simply very mindful that it is MDF and not solid oak with which you are working. Read the instructions and take your time to do it right. I did it in about 25 minutes and did not rush or regret it. I had read other reviewers' tips to use bar soap to prep/lubricate each screw before inserting, and it absolutely worked like a charm, allowing for easy turning manually with a phillips head screwdriver. I was very careful, however, not to overtighten any of them. I very carefully/gingerly and not too forcefully turned each screw maybe a final 1/8 to 1/6 turn only as soon as each felt somewhat firmly in place and looked completely seated with the screw head fully into the pre-drilled countersink (beveled hole) and the joined surfaces appeared reasonably tight and flush with each other. The pre-drilled holes in the prefabricated MDF pieces for my stands were precisely where they needed to be and in perfect alignment, allowing for easy alignment of all the screws before careful turning with my phillips screwdriver. I never felt the need to have to force or muscle any of them to fully-tightened position. The final product when fully assembled feels sturdy enough and looks really good. My wife is very pleased with how they look flanking our black and chrome with glass-shelf television stand with Vizio Jive plasma set. The Sanus stands have nice, clean lines and a nice sort of semi-matte/semi-gloss finish to match very well the black/charcoal vinyl finish of my Sony Core Series SSCS5 bookshelf speakers and nearby SACS9 subwoofer. One last thing: On another reviewer's tip, I purchased a package of QuakeHold! Museum Putty from Amazon as an add-on, and plan to use small amounts to help better secure the base of each bookshelf speaker to the corresponding platform atop each stand. That should help prevent any inadvertent bumping or nudging from too easily pushing the speakers off. Otherwise, I will keep all the little children and any visiting animals safely away from any fall or tipping hazards the stands and speakers could otherwise present.Amended Note (July 13, 2018): I did not install any of the provided carpet spikes on stand bases, as they are on a hard floor. They are quite stable sitting flat on our floor and away from any potential foot traffic, and there is little risk of anyone bumping them while walking by.

I don't often review the things I buy, but felt compelled to do so based on some of the other reviews for this item. While shopping for speaker stands for my Polk Monitor SII 30's I came across Sanus as a brand almost immediately. Having not heard of the company I, of course, turned to reviews; many of which made these seem like cheap junk.I was so worried about splitting the wood that I actually started drilling out the holes to one size larger than they were on one of my stands. This proved completely unnecessary. The screws fit nice and tight in the factory, pre-drilled holes. The ones I drilled out had the screws going in much too easily. I assembled the other stand without drilling anything out and there was no splitting, or even signs of splitting (cracking noises). Keep in mind I did all the assembly with a hand screwdriver, which is all you should need considering the pre-drilled holes.There also seems to be some confusion over what these are made of. The stands are "medium desnity fibercore" otherwise known as MDF to any car audio enthusiast. This is a staple of box building material and is used specifically for it's resistance to resonance. It's very dense, and quite substantial, much more so than cheap laminate particle board.The finish on these is interesting. It's a satin black, with quite a bit of texture to it. I was somewhat worried that the rubber pads for the top plate wouldn't adhere well to it due to this texture, but they seem stick on nicely.Finally, the plastic carpet spikes were no trouble to install. I simply inserted them into the base by hand, with minimal effort.All in all, I'd say you can't beat these for the price. I am very happy with my purchase.

UPDATED 5/11/2011:After having these about a year, they have split, even though I took extra precautions to prevent this from happening. It appears that the wood just got too dry and eventually gave out at the screw points. Calling sanus, they were very responsive and replaced the uprights, but I have no reason to believe they won't simply split again.First and perhaps most importantly -- These are excellent stands for their cost. I doubt if you could build nicer stands at this inexpensive price point.On to the observations:1) Build Quality is great. The stands are composed of 4 particle board parts, sprayed with a nice matte-black finish. The upright posts are pre-drilled with pilot holes that are very capable of facilitating proper assembly without damage to the product. I'm convinced that other reviewers who have experienced splitting issues with the composite wood upright are not properly lining up the fasteners before tightening. It is VERY easy to make this mistake, because the fasteners are 'wood' screws that have a sharp tip that will drill into the rough ends of the upright posts. In the case that you do not carefully align the upper and lower plates with the pilot hole, you WILL split the wood and cause trouble for yourself. Here is my recommendation:Assembly Note: Place all four screws into each the top and the bottom plate and begin to screw them through the plate BEFORE placing it onto the post. Allow about 1/8" protrusion of each of these four screws to act as guides when placing the upper (or lower) plate onto the upright. Once you have done this, continue with normal assembly -- you will notice that the screw turns smoothly with only mild turning-force on your screwdriver. Do not continue if you feel like you are biting into new, undrilled wood. Second: DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN the fasteners, snug them up and give them an extra quarter turn to solidify the build.2) I'm using the stands with Klipsch rear speakers that are slightly larger than suggested. They are quite stable if the carpet spikes and the rubber dampener pads are used. Initially I had planned on using velcro between the speaker stand and the speaker components, but that has not proven necessary.3) The Wire Management is not perfect -- but it is very serviceable. The stands are intended to be used with the carpet spikes -- which means that no groove would be necessary to allow the speaker wire to pass under the base of the stand. I do agree with other comments that the upper plate hole is A) Too Small to allow for good quality speaker cable (simple fix, drill it larger) B) in a useless location (directly under the base of the speaker).Wire Management Note: The back of the stand has plastic covers that are flexible and adjustable- simply running the speaker cord from the top of these covers rather than through the upper plate seems to be an effective and mostly acceptable solution. Also of value -- fastening the wire to the inside of the speaker stand upright will provide better aesthetics when looking at the stands from the front. There is a small gap between the uprights from the front that will allow the speaker wire to poke out if you do not fasten it, or make certain it is well managed inside the stand.Overall, I am very satisfied with these stands and they do look very attractive if your speaker components and room allow for the black colored finish.