Next upgrade: DIY Lavardin rack

gregvds

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Hello everyone,

A very long time ago, I heard a double CD of Woodstock. I was young, and practically everything sounded very old to my ears, except one man at the guitar, that exploded my mind by his sound, his creativity, the freedom, purity, immensely human as well as from outerspace play, absolutely not dated in any way. I began to listen to Jimi Hendrix at 14, and never stopped since then. After that, my ears were also captured by others, Keith Jarrett, J.S. Bach and so much others.

I decided to listen to all this properly, and bought what was the only stuff I could afford around 17: Kenwood entry level separates, very good Technics tape player/recorder (655 something?), and Warfedale 505.2 as Loudspeakers. That was expensive for me at that time (perspective...).

Now time passed, and I discovered Hi-End field, and heard there was far better sounding systems that my awful gear. I upgraded to Audio Analogue Puccini SE (no remote), and later Paganini second version, then third one, named Paganini 24/192. That fine couple still played through the Warfedale from the beginning.

Recently, I decided it was more than time to at last upgrade the loudspeakers to something more refined, more in par to the rest of the system, and ordered at my local dealer a pair of Rega RS5, cherry. I'm still waiting for them as it seems Rega is short on these.

As for cables, I picked up a long time ago a pair of Supra EFF-ISL limited edition they did for their 25 years. I found this interconnect to be very good, and so I bought another one to put between the rec out and my DIY AMB M3 headphone amp or my old Edirol UA5 USB interface. I use also Supra Ply 3.4/S between amp and speakers.

That's for the long intro. Now, I feel the next move should be good line cables, and I spotted the Wireworld Stratus 52, then the rack, for all this is only put lazily on top of a simple shelf box from Ikea, not deep enough.

As for the rack, I must say practically everything looks awful to my eyes, Atacama, Norstone and all the likes. I quite like the Clearlight Audio Nippon, but it's a tad too much for me. Second choice is the Custom Design Milan Hifi, which really catch my eyes. But here again, price is a little bit high for me. Continuing to search, I found recommendations from Lavardin to DIY a Baltic Birch Plywood rack. I try to design one at the moment, looking for the plywood, and thinking about a way to make one that would offer the possiblity to be dismantled, and that does not use nails, screws or anything to be mounted, to be the purest looking stuff, and easy to move dismantled if needed.

I was so wondering if someone had attempted to make this, if someone had plans for this, or any suggestions about the rack, or even the system.

Best Regards,

Greg
 

gregvds

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Ok,

In absence of any answer, I'll comment on my own post with some new ideas I had today for assembly.

So, I'll go for a baltic birch plywood panel of 125 by 250 cm, 30mm thick, and will have it sliced in 50 x 50 cm, 8 pieces and 75 x 12 cm, 6 pieces.

Now, glued two by two, that will give me 4 shelves, 50 x 50 x 6 cm, and three columns of 75 x 12 x 6 cm. Ok, that's for the basic elements.

To assemble them securely, I have good ideas, but I think that to explain them in english will be too tedious. As soon as I begin, I'll drop some pics of the work. My aim is to be able to assemble it and disassemble it when needed to move. One of my aesthetic requirements is also that no screws should be visible anywhere, so, inner plate of the columns should be hollowed and drilled, reinforced with M6 or M8 nuts, taken in sandwich between the to plates when these are glued together.

Next post, maybe pics...
 

CnoEvil

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It will be good to see how you get on, and how it impacts on the sound.

I do think that wood is less resonant than glass, metal or granite.....and certain woods are better than others.
 

gregvds

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I do think so too. All these hard materials have very high vibration transmission characteristics.

Lavardin goes at length explaining why plywood is the best of wood, plywood and MDF. I don't know if this is so much important, as these are all much more soft than the usual glass/steel/stone rack everyone sell.

I loved at first the Custom Design Milan one, but wood here is mainly cosmetics, as glass is held by rods that goes from one point to the next one, so one has a continuous steel/glass chain to communicate very efficiently vibrations from one element to the other.

I try currently in my design to avoid these bridges. I'll use steel and screws to fasten the shelves on the three legs, but the hidden nuts will never touch each others, they will be put on the back of the first panel of each leg, everything being hidden by the second panel coming on top. This should ensure stability as well as mechanical isolation.

BTW, following the layout of the different panels on the 125 x 250 panel, I should be able to have 6 24 x 33 pieces, that will make isolation plinths under the RS5 :)

The design could be made also in plain wood, at a certain rise of costs (currently around 220€)
 

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