Expensive Hifi Rack any diff?

[legoyoda]

Well, I moved from a "Argos Special" to an Atacama Equinox AV stand. Did it give me noticibly better sound performance? Probably... BUT I did gain the following benifits.

1. It really does dampen the vibrations. People walking near the unit no longer cause the CD to skip. THIS IS GREAT!

a. This probably has a more profound effect ont he rest of the music as well but I got annoyed after a week on the old rack and got this instead so I am unable to give a proper reaction to any improvement in musicality as the speakers were still being run in!

2. The Noise from the Xbox has subsided a little (probably because it's now level and the vibrations are not resonating throughout the rest of the frame.

3. It looks miles better (miles, miles better)

4. My AMP (Yamaha RX-V 2600), now has breathing space and seems to run cooler. This will probably mean it lasts longer!

5. Cable management is nicer as they all run down the back spine.

I really don;t regret buying the dedicated AV rack. It's just better than running a normal shelf. I'd love to do some comparative tests but, realistically, that's not going to happen!

 

[RobGardner]

I moved my hifi from a fixed timber shelf on to a Partington Minim stand and it made a huge difference to the overall sound quality. I had to move the kit to a new home as it was Cyrus kit and the number of boxes just kept growing and growing. Since I have had the rack I have had great hifi fun changing some of the original glass shelves for other materials eg slate, mdf and lg hi-max (that acrylic plastic kitchen work top material that is similar to Corian) Each of the materials has had its own sound character and so far my preference is for slate very closely followed by Hi-Max. The hi-max is surprisingly heavy, but no where near as heavy as slate. I look forward to finding other materials to try and compare such as perspex, granite etc. It helps create interest in tweaking the hifi between major purchases (none in the foreseeable future) . I have also done the granite chopping blocks beneath my floor standing speakers, placed composite rubber corners under the granite and will continue to tweak. I am acutely aware of avoiding falling into the trap of listening to the hifi rather than the music but its all part of the fun and it doesn't cost very much if you take the opportunity to acquire these materials when they are available for next to nothing. You can always change back if the difference isn't positive. Now don't get me started on different isolation cones!

 

[RobGardner]

Speaker stands empty/half full or full? I had a set of Partington Super Dreadnoughts under my Audiomaster LS3/5as and I tried them m/t filled with sand and filled with lead-shot. The sound quality improved with each change ie good on m/t stands better with sand and even better filled with lead shot. The kiln dried sand cost about £3.50 from a builders merchants/B&Q, the lead shot about £35 from a diving shop (it's used as ballast in diving bouyancy vests). The most cost effective was obviously the sand, the improvements with lead -shot well worth it in my opinion. The differences were in the bass response, extension and clarity, plus a more detailed and focused treble. Singers voices seemed to have more definition. It was as though I had removed a set of hi-fi curtains!

 

[audioaffair]

They can and do - depending on the equipment and surroundings etc. One of the main justifications for an isolated stand is to isolate from traditional transformer power supplies - thus a better stand will have a bigger effect on such a component with all other things being equal (i.e. more so than a component with a switched mode power supply).

Having cited this as only one variable though, there are lots of other aspects to isolate - CD mechanisms, turntables being the most important one in many cases and not only isolate them from each other but isolate them from the bass through the floor from your speakers and happy feet on the suspended wooden floors.

There are many inexpensive hi-fi racks that do an excellent job with isolation, with higher end models like Townshend's Seismic Sink rack and Audiophile Base Starbase offering the best possible isolation when you want to squeeze every ounce of the performance from your system as you can.

It tends to come down to system cost though - if you're investing in high end kit, it's worth getting a rack that will get every bit of performance out of the kit at a sensible investment for the rest of the system (keeping things in perspective).

Its worth a demo but bear in mind at home it comes within everything else in the room that can affect your system so some form and consideration for room treatment is important as well (wall panels, thick curtains, books on shelves etc where possible)

 

[Anonymous]

For what it's worth, my two penneth:

I started out with a sub £100 thing from Richers, and bought an Atacama Equinox as my sytem evolved. I can't say I noticed any significant difference, but hey, it looked a lot better. I'd read interesting things about isolating from vibration and tried vibrapods, again any benefits being difficult to differentiate and therefore not significant. I then tried using bike tyre inner tubes, and there were general gains in sound quality. Not huge, but clearly there. Next stage was some Townshend siesmic sinks, which gave another noticeable step up.

I finally ended up with Townshend stands for the speakers and a VSSS rack, with the latter offering the single largest increment in performance. My experience has been that racks that 'couple' with spikes and which do not aim to isolate offer gains that I couldn't be certain I was actually hearing, but isolation gives clear gains, and the further you are prepared to go, the better the sound will be. A Townshend rack may be expensive, but I think you'd have to spend a lot more on upgrades to your separates to get similar gains in overall quality, at least when the kit to be mounted on it reaches a certain level. And of course the rack will still be there providing gains every time you upgrade items of the system...

 

[Julian Stevens]

For many years I've used Mana racks. But, since I sold my Rose valve pre-amp (cheap build quality) and having lost the use of my Pink Triangle D:AC (the company's last owners ruined the battery power supply when the batteries needed to be renewed), I found that glass shelves induced an awful harsh, transistory sound to the system. It took me years (literally) to identify the problem, but replacing all the glass shelves with 18mm deal boards (having tried both MDF and birch ply) effected an almost miraculous cure. Racks are one thing, but the boards you put on/in them are quite another.

 

[Anderson]

Oh my, the foo is strong with some.

What would a dining chair do for sweet treble and warm grip, blackest blacks blah

http://matrixhifi.com/ENG_contenedor_ppec.htm

 

[JoelSim]

I noticed a big difference going from no rack to a wooden one. I was flabbergasted to be honest at the difference it made.

Unfortunately I only have one instance of changing racks so can't say much more than that.