Sam,
I've put in the two way ATCs on standard Sound Anchors stands before, they are very solid and sturdy. No need for the custom built ones. fill the bodies with sand if you must. But get the standard adjustable studio model, then you can fit it to your room in situ. Its a very nice sounding system. Even better I bet when powered by the Ncore. I was using Bryston 4B SST's on them.
coupling beneath the speaker and using spikes are good ideas, but that will get you 99% or more without committing yourself to one position.
wire? big and short. I, like Stig (or Julf), don't believe in wire, (isn't this the wireless age?) Even though I can sometimes hear a difference between different juju wires, I attribute it to mucking up something, at least for speakers. If a speaker/amp combination relys on a certain wire with non standard specifications to sound good, its broken.
Alan Garren