Are these Atabite pebbles or have I been done?!

abmscopes

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Just bought a tub of these on ebay.. They don't feel very 'high density' to me and they look exactly like the plastic decorative pebbles you buy to fill vases at weddings.. I also cannot find a picture online that matches the way these look.
Before I leave negative feedback or ask for a refund, anyone else got these?
Thanks

Um.. tried to upload a pic but just get an error; the site does accept jpegs?
 
why don't you give us a link to the ebay page?
 
Quality Dry Speaker Stand FILLER - CHEAP | AVForums

Apparently these blue glass pearls were once promoted by Atacama -

Atacama Atabites Premium Speaker Stand Filler - Blue Pearls (Old Version) for £19.96 in Furniture

But the new Atacama Atabites are much different -

Atacama Atabites Speaker Stands Filler for £29.95 in Products

Atacama Atabites Speaker Stand Filler (SMD-Z 7.5HD)

These are like the drop-outs or punch-outs that are waste from making perforated sheet metal. Which is probably how Atacama makes them. However, they are also plated and treated to prevent rusting.

At the link at the top are listed many alternatives to expensive Atabites and similar speaker stand filler material. Most very cheap relative to the real thing.

Steve/bluewizard
 
Looking at the scruffy tub they came in, i think they're called 'Aurora'. I contacted the seller and he swears blind they are genuine, so they probably are. I could, however have saved money and just bought glass decorative beads from a wedding or gift shop! That's what I get for being lazy and not just sourcing my own 'high density' filler. I love Atacama's hifi furniture, but I think they really were extracting the Michael with this product!
 
I contacted the seller and he swears blind they are genuine, so they probably are.

I once had an Ebay Seller who sent me a power supply and UK adaptor which would not fit together.

I pointed this out and he sent me another (identical) unit, swearing that no-one else had ever had this problem before.

I sent a picture showing the impossibility of them fitting together.

He investigated and found that his supplier had changed the design of the power supply, but
failed to pass on that a different adaptor would have to be paired with this newer power supply !

The moral is that, even if an Ebay Seller SWEARS that something is correct - it ISN'T necessarily so !

As regards what you have purchased :-

1. Glass could never be described as having a HIGH density !

2. Unless the glass beads are only a few millimetres (2 or 3) in diameter, they are never going to 'pack' properly to fill the speaker legs.

3. Does the tub actually say 'Atacama' or 'atabites' on it ?

You should get what was described and refuse to accept anything else !
 
It did appear to be an Atacama tub.. there were old labels on it and that's where I saw the description of 'Atacama aurora'. Obviously a very un-marketed product as an image search reveals only one image showing something that looks like my product. Of course, one can put anything into a tub, so at this point I can only state categorically that the labels are genuine Atacama labels o_O

And yes, I was expecting beads much smaller so that they could pack tightly. These are exactly the same size as the decorative ones you get for wedding vases; about 2-4cm long..
 
And yes, I was expecting beads much smaller so that they could pack tightly. These are exactly the same size as the decorative ones you get for wedding vases; about 2-4cm long..

At that size they are definately NOT suitable for the job !

The whole point is to have the speaker legs filled tightly with dense material to deaden any resonances of the tubing, as well as to add stability to the stands.

However, I think I've found a link to genuine Atacama blue pearls.

Atacama Atabites Premium Speaker Stand Filler - Blue Pearls (Old Version) for £19.96 in Furniture

Unfortunately, there's nothing which states the actual size of the pearls.

But, if you look carefully at the top left corner of the first picture, I think there's the broken-off 'tab' from the lid of the tub visible, which would make these pearls much smaller than 2-4 cm, and they are all of an identical size, as well.

For confirmation, have you considered sending an Email to Atacama to ask for the actual size of their genuine (though superseded) blue pearls ?

You'll then have indisputable evidence, if you still want to take the Seller to task !
 
Good plan:smashin:
I have emailed atacama, asking for approximate dimensions. Will let you know outcome.
 
Received response from Atacama after sending them a pic; very helpful bods!

"Yes, these are the filler what we originally had for the Aurora speaker stands. The fillers that we had for the Aurora (clear) stands were for aesthetic reasons only and, although they did add weight, the stability of the Aurora was given by the torsion pole running through the middle. Therefore depending on what you have bought the filler for, it may not be suitable for your needs."

Makes sense. Though i've obviously bought the wrong product for my purposes; my fault really for buying from a seller who had virtually no product description and a stock photo of a different product.. Silly me just thought speaker mass loader was speaker mass loader :confused:
 
Makes sense. Though i've obviously bought the wrong product for my purposes; my fault really for buying from a seller who had virtually no product description and a stock photo of a different product.. Silly me just thought speaker mass loader was speaker mass loader :confused:

At least you know for sure now EXACTLY what they are !

It depends now on what the Ebay Seller described them as, as to whether you have a case against him.

If you give me the EBay Item Number, I'll be happy to look it over !
 
Cheers Steve:smashin: Perhaps that £20 was just burning a hole in my pocket and I really needed to waste it on some glass beads o_O
 

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