Funky AV racks

[admin_exported]

Hi everyone.

Does anyone know of some high quality funky AV racks out there? I'm a bit tired of all this gloss black and silver. Sure, it looks quite swish, but when the rest of my equipment is all black and silver as well it makes me yearn for a bit of colour.

I really like the look of the Norstone Esse in green (£170): http://www.norstone-design.com/EN/Produits/Esse.html

Does anyone own this rack or tried it out? How does it compare to more expensive racks like the Atacamas etc for 'performance'? I don't currently own a dedicated AV rack so have nothing to compare to. Would a few isotone feet make up for any lack in acoustic quality of the Norstone Esse?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Any rack where only the front or rear is supported isn't going to be as solid as one which is supported in all four corners. In this case, visuals usually take a backseat to achieve ridgidity.

 

[idc]

Hi Mr DDD. It certainly looks stylish and solid and spacious. All of that is good as vibration control, ventilation and keeping kit and cables apart to reduce EMI between them all helps. I had a lovely green and black Target stand. It had wooden shelves and even though I have no evidence for this at all, wood seems a better idea than glass for damping vibrations. My inclination, based on what I have read is that the Norstone would be a good buy for the price and some feet for additional damping would be good as well.

My favourite feet from another forum member (I cant remeber who) is blue tac onto which you stick the broken off head of a spoon and then place a ball bearing in the spoon. Inner tubes have also been used. Its all part of the fun.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the tips.

I would have one potential problem with the Norstone - the height between shelves is 19 cm. My Denon AVR-1910 is 17cm high. Would this provide adequate ventilation (I'm not placing that great ugly box on the top)? It also means I wouldn't have room for any specialised feet underneath it.

 

[idc]

I would have a look at the spacing in other racks to see whether 19cm is big/small. I believe AV amps do put out a good amount of heat. But the rack is open front and back, so I would say it would do. My Rega amp got very hot underneath with its heatsinks. I raised it up on childrens wooden building blocks which was a bout a 2cm gap. It worked fine.

You can get bits of sorbothane and rubber pods off ebay to put under the feet. I am not shure what difference they would make.

 

[Messiah]

One thing I would bear in mind is that whilst the shelves look a lovely colour empty, once there is equipment all over them, most of it is covered up.

I bought a soundstyle AV rack a while ago with lovely blue shelves that looked great empty but once full was quite ordinary.....