Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Lead shot can be toxic

Only if you are careless. It's perfectly safe as ballast when modest precautions are used. I'd still use sand unless you think the huge extra mass of lead is beneficial. Steel shot is half the price of lead by volume and has 75% of the mass gain over sand compared with lead, so you'd really have to be convinced that a little more mass was worth it to switch from steel to lead. If you need some "more money than sense" audiophile flex, there's always tungsten at one and a half times the density of lead and about 30 times the price by volume.