I purchased these stands with a new Harmon Kardon surround sound system. At the same time I purchased a set of stands made by Atlantic Atlantic Satellite 77305018 2 Speaker Stands (Black) since I wasn't sure which set would work better.
The Atlantic stands are superb, with multiple mounting options, and a heavy stable iron cast base. They also offer multiple brackets, double-sided tape, and various nuts and bolts for different applications.
The Amazon stands have a much lighter steel base, with a design that isn't very stable on carpet, allowing the speaker to "droop" forward like a wilted flower. Another problem is the clasp that holds up the telescoping portion of the base. It is nothing more than a thin piece of plastic that doesn't inspire much confidence that it will hold up your speakers. In fact, one of the stands didn't hold up at all. The Atlantic stands, on the other hand have a very robust and easy to use telescoping bracket.
The Amazon stand has a crude plastic housing on top that doesn't fit particularly well and pops off easily. The Atlantic stand offers a neat and tidy method to route and hide the wire so you can't see it. The Amazon stand does not offer a way to easily hide the wire in the stand itself - the telescoping portion has such a small diameter that getting a 16 gauge wire through would be difficult - although I didn't try it so I don't know for sure.
I really like Amazon Basics products in general. I have many of their HDMI and other cables, which are excellent quality. However, these stands appear to have been made by the lowest cost manufacturer that Amazon could find in China. I highly recommend the Atlantic stands instead. Check the prices, when I purchased both sets the pricing was very similar - around thirty bucks per set.
EDIT: Another reviewer mentioned the weight of the speakers as they relate to these stands. I have to agree with this assessment. My Harmon Kardon speakers do seem to weigh a good amount even though they are considered small in size. These stands may be adequate for smaller lightweight speakers. I still feel that they are cheaply made and don't offer many mounting options. There are better stands available for a similar price. AmazonBasics Satellite Speaker Stands (Pair) (Black)
First question you should ask yourself before making a decision on these stands: How much did your speakers cost and what are they worth to you?
If your speakers weigh about a pound each, these could be the stands for you. I thought I'd give these a shot since they have Amazon's brand on them but the Harmon Kardon speakers I recently bought weren't the best match for these stands. They weigh just about 2 pounds each and are really unstable on these stands. That is, on the stands that survived the assembly process.
Things you should be aware of before you make a purchase decision.
- The included mounting option uses a "keyhole" mounting solution. Only. That's it. If your speakers have threaded mounts (mine don't) you'll have to supply your own machine screw. If your speakers mount on the bottom or don't have a keyhole, you may be out of options.
- The shaft bolts onto a plate on the base that's attached by two small tack welds. These are *very* delicate welds. I broke one simply mounting the speaker. The leverage from working on top of the stand shaft was enough to snap one of the welds. The second weld didn't last very long after that and I watched in horror as my brand new speaker went crashing to the ground. Luckily, there wasn't any visible damage to the glossy finish.
- When bolting the shaft to the base, you only have the strength of your grip on the shaft while torquing down the nut underneath. It's near impossible to get the nut reasonably tight as the shaft just wants to spin under your grasp.
The routing of speaker wire is pretty straightforward and easy. You thread the wire in from the bottom and up through the stand's shaft. Then there's an exit hole on the back of the cover where you'd have a little speaker wire showing before reaching the terminals. On the base, however, you have to pay attention to how the wire exits. Not really that big of a deal.
Aesthetically, these stands look really nice. And the kink in the shaft is great to keep the center of your (small) speakers centered. I'd have preferred not to have the "Amazon Basics" logo printed on the base, but that's a personal preference. The bases have a decent weight to them but I wouldn't trust them with a speaker that weighed more than a pound.
After breaking one of the stands, I decided it wasn't worth risking my expensive new speaker system. I ran to a local electronics shop and bought stands that were more than 2x the price of these and they're much more stable.
Bottom line: If you have a "home theater in a box" system that has small and lightweight satellites, then these will probably serve you well at a very, very competitive price. But if you have speakers that have any value or heft (or both) to them, keep looking and get yourself a more stable set of stands. - Satellite Speaker Stands - Speaker Stands - Surround - Speaker Stand'
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