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Equipment Rack - Rega Brio-R & DAC?

B

batfink10

Active Member
Having gone for the minimalist approach of SB Touch > Rega DAC > Brio-R, what would be a suitable rack to put it all on?

Most racks are designed for full width equipment so the new half sized boxes would look out of place. I'm looking for something stylish and wife friendly. I'm not too bothered about it's "sonic properties".

Thanks.
 
If you are not going to park them on an av rack under the telly I would suggest, given their diminutive size, just parking them alongside each other on the top of a side board. Optimum used to do racks for half-width equipment.
 
Build your own! I built one with a friend for his AV system about a week back, having seen this (http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/flexye.html) quite a while ago and having wanted an excuse to try it for a while. We deviated somewhat from the design here, using some 40mm thick composite (I think that's what I mean, made up of blocks glued together basically) hardwood kitchen work top for the top and bottom, dispensing with the rubber washers and damping, and using four uprights because we felt with the height and weight we wanted this was best. We also employed oversize washers and locked pairs of nuts, so we ended up with something very rigid. Rather than grinding spikes we locked two nuts at the bottom of each upright so that the lower nut formed a cup and sat it on large ball bearings.

Can't testify as to the sonic properties as it got to 9pm and I had to be up early so left before we had reconnected what is a rather complex AV system. On the WAF front, being impatient we assembled it without finishing the shelves, but after explaining to his GF that it just looked like that because the wood needed some Danish oil - and that it would look like the worktop in his parents' holiday let when that was done she seemed quite happy with it. (She also asked if she could put a lamp on it, I figure she must have thought it would look good once the wood was finished if she wants it more illuminated!) I'm inclined to think it will look fantastic when it's finished - I think the contrast between the pretty wood and the industrial looking bar will look awesome! But then I'm biased. It's a very flexible (sorry, terrible pun) system and you can design it to your requirements, tailor the size and height (important thing to remember it that the equipment needs to fit between the uprights rather than on the whole shelf), within reason (low density furniture board etc. probably isn't a good idea) the shelves can be made of pretty much anything, and so long as it can take the weight you can use thinner threaded bar to keep the cost down. You could even cover the threaded bar with chrome or painted pipe (radsnaps were something that occurred to me - though they're not big enough to cover the nuts too) etc. etc. if you don't thing the other half cant be convinced of the aesthetic merits of threadbar!

Or if that's too much trouble just find a nice light ridged piece of furniture that is the right size; and if you feel the need for something to make it a "proper hi-fi rack" stick spikes, or wooden cones on it (don't go to Russ Andrews for the latter - find a friend with a lathe or a wood turner at a craft fair - I have some that cost me a sum total of nil as they were made from an oak table leg my grandda found in a skip). Ikea do various things that tend to be quite well regarded on various forums if your home is the sort Ikea furniture would suit - a lot of it is full width, but I'm sure there must be smaller equivalents for some of them, or ones that could be cut down to fit in such a way that it cant be seen once assembled!
 
Steven Toy said:
If you are not going to park them on an av rack under the telly I would suggest, given their diminutive size, just parking them alongside each other on the top of a side board. Optimum used to do racks for half-width equipment.
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The setup is currently on an AV rack under the telly - Ikea Benno that I've had 10 years, but I'd like a more dedicated rack. I thought about putting them side by side but the amp runs quite hot so thought it might benefit from having plenty of air around it.

I like the idea of making one myself. We're about to move house so the existing Ikea furniture will be going to be replaced with something which will no doubt be much more expensive.

I considered the FleXy many years ago so might have a go at something, although it needs to look the part when it's finished so I would definitely need to modify the design.

The only other drawback (if you can call her that) is I have an 18 month old daughter running riot around the house so all 3 boxes need to be at a reasonable height, away from wandering fingers.
 
batfink10 said:
The only other drawback (if you can call her that) is I have an 18 month old daughter running riot around the house so all 3 boxes need to be at a reasonable height, away from wandering fingers.
Click to expand...

How about some sort of wall mounted affair? There are some three shelf AV ones that are quite straightforward, and look like they are designed for shallow & wide components, but perhaps would look right if mounted in a corner and used side on or some such or the shelves might even be mountable the other way - but it would possibly require quite a bit of research & probably luck to find something of suitable dimensions, weight bearing etc. Personally I'd be tempted to make something myself, there are loads of ways of making sturdy shelves and I'm sure you could find something to suit, wood or whatever to taste and brackets etc. have never been available in as many different designs and finishes as they are now - at least not since the days where it was only limited by the skill and willingness of your local iron monger or carpenter! In a corner with a couple of solid walls, or in an alcove you could even build some "floating" shelves - might look a bit odd though with narrow/deep components.

The important thing though, whatever you do is to always make sure that what you use and the fittings are suitable for the weight - and make sure the centre of gravity is actually over or spread evenly etc. between supports number of bookshelves I've seen where the thing is trying to twist itself off the brackets... Also make sure you're mounting into something solid - solid wall or into decent studs, if you're in a Barretts build etc. I'd only use a supporting wall, those partition walls are just 2" studs spaced far too far apart and having just tiled one - I can tell you they Fing bend like anything - not to mention that nothing is even remotely level or square which combined to made the job rather "fun"!
 
Ha - dudy beat me to it !

Was going to surgest the same , assuming Cyrus gear is the same size ?
 
I recently built this rack:

https://skydrive.live.com/?wa=wsigni...1322D5B!1119

Strange as it sounds, but I had designed this when 11 years old and although at the time I built it using a solid 6" x 6" rear upright with two front facing threaded bars, I have taken some inspiration from Tony Gee, the designer of the flexy table.

I must say it is the businss and although the photos do nto show the actual finish, which I only completed yesterday (varnish that is), it stands the wife test (she loves it - so much so, she let me build an indetical A/V rack - again varnished).

I appreciate this design, mostly due to simplicity, ease of change as and when required and moreso, dependant on what thickness of wood and size of nuts you choose, you could get it all done for less than £150, might sound a lot, but you wont need to change it for a very long time.

My future plan, is to incoporate the actual plug socket on to the rear facing part of the shelf, i.e. shelf will be slightly thicker than the height of a shelf, cable will be run internally to the edge of the shelf (do note shelves will be 3 sheet of 18mm ply clamped together). This will allow me to give a dedicated earth to each socket, without any running in parallel and keep cables tidier. Wont do so with the actual interconnects as it be OTT and we always change and swap these things.

Lots more can be done with money, but for my two units I invested £450 in total.

Do note that I used 50mm thick MDF and M24 nuts, washers (metal & rubber), threaded rod.

If you want the chunky look, you must go M20 and above. Anything smaller, and I tried this, looks pathetic.

If you need infor on cheap suppliers, do let me know. I researched prices for nearly two years as I was getting absurd quotes.
 
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