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Hi-Fi racks - still a thing

evand

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A fair proportion of my main system components have been resting in their packaging for the last few years. I’ve moved to driving active ATC bookshelves and my cans via a Phonitor 2, so really only two components to speak of being the Phonitor and DAC. If council get off their backsides and deal with my planning application I’ll soon have space to unpack the lot again, but it’s got me wondering whether I want a room filled with Hi-Fi furniture again or should just make do with regular furniture that happens to have some Hi-Fi kit placed on it.
 
I was advised by Richard Dunn of NVA that racks have their uses but sometimes they are not the best solution.

A few “experiments” later and I realised that the equipment I was using was better suited just left on top of a large sideboard.

My advice now is to try every variation you can think of until you find what sounds best to your ears. This might be a rack, no rack or only some of your equipment in a rack. If you already own some hifi furniture then it’s going to be a cost free investigation.
 
I do own a dedicated rack, but I tend to think Lavardin have the right idea, they suggest avoiding glass, metal, MDF and spikes (hmm, what does that remind me of?) and suggest that a decent piece of furniture often sounds better than many audio rack designs.

I remember years ago I had a Meridian 500 transport which always sounded better on a small Italian wood table with an unusual suspended shelf than it did on the Alphason and Aspect racks I had available at the time.
 
I have a naim fraim, to be honest, I wouldn't go down this route if I was making decisions today. I also have active speakers & will probably look at some normal furniture in future.
 
I prefer my current bamboo and aluminum Quadraspire SV3T to my previous glass and steel Atacama Equinox. As much for looks as for sound...
Too much equipment to use a sideboard - 10 boxes including the NAS...
 
A fair proportion of my main system components have been resting in their packaging for the last few years. I’ve moved to driving active ATC bookshelves and my cans via a Phonitor 2, so really only two components to speak of being the Phonitor and DAC. If council get off their backsides and deal with my planning application I’ll soon have space to unpack the lot again, but it’s got me wondering whether I want a room filled with Hi-Fi furniture again or should just make do with regular furniture that happens to have some Hi-Fi kit placed on it.

I think your plan to move away from hifi racks is a great idea. I think racks of black boxes is very yester-century and about as unattractive and vulgar as old colonials mounting heads of now near extinct animals on their walls. I k ow the Naimites will pipe up now in disgust and defence but I don’t and nor do most sane people want their living rooms looking like the server farm at CERN. Beautiful furniture and sideboards with a couple of items is probably the way to go. Even better if you’re on the active path. would be to go for no boxes at all and follow the minimalist method. Good luck.

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Too much equipment to use a sideboard -

Same here 8 boxes and counting as I still need to sort out a streamer/DAC. The living room is being repurposed as listening room. The system is currently in the study and sits on an Atacama Equinox stand. While it is practical in the study but won't look right in the living room.

I am looking to get a double width stand that the TV can sit on the top of. Things are very much at the design stage. What ever I choose will have combine practicality with good looks.

The LP12 will sit my Russ Andrews Torlyte stand.
 
I was very surprised how much better my system seems to sound now that it’s moved from an oak sideboard to a dedicated (but inexpensive) rack. So they do seem to matter still…
Not all sideboards are the same, not all racks are the same.
 
I use a Fraim mostly because I had one anyway from the old Naim days. If I didn't already have it, I'm not sure I'd go down that route, but it is one of the better-looking racks out there, at a price. Does/did it make a difference? Probably yes with the microphonic Naim boxes, but it's more for cosmetics now.
 
It’s not something I think about replacing. It’s tall enough to comfortably operate the turntable and preamp. There’s a shelf below the turntable for storing my record brush. It’s easy to level and provides access to connections behind the components. It’s also looks custom-made for the components it houses and is open on all sides providing great ventilation which prolongs product life. Now what was the question?

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I currently use Quadraspire for my rack. Sounds good and looks a bit more furniture like the old sound org racks I used before. This post reminds me that I should get around to selling them.
 
Having owned a pretty big Mana assembly for ten years, and then Hutter for ten more, the only thing that's actually "racked" in my system now is the deck - and it's there that I can both understand the idea, and hear it in practice. My P8 sits on an old school, light and rigid Sound Org single tier table (which is the next best thing for a Rega to a dedicated wall shelf).

Everything else (seven boxes in total) is on a kind of rosewood TV bench thing, which looks nice, is flat and stable. There is no glass, in particular, anywhere. Because a lot of the crucial things (DAC. pre, phono stage and UnitiCore) sit around each other on the top surface, it's also easy to change things, plug/unplug, etc, and less faffing about at the back amidst cable spaghetti.

I'm perfectly happy with this - added to which the prices of the dedicated things just seem obscene.
 
Racks on spikes surely increase vibrations from the speakers actually getting through to the components?

:D …runs.

Racks (or equipment on racks) need to be isolated with this way of thinking.
 
I currently use Quadraspire for my rack. Sounds good and looks a bit more furniture like the old sound org racks I used before. This post reminds me that I should get around to selling them.
The Quadraspire SVT range does indeed look more like real world contemporary furniture than most and is well suited to housing my 10 boxes. Black bamboo and silver 32mm columns in triple width here. Two tone to blend with my sliver, black and two tone boxes.
 
A fair proportion of my main system components have been resting in their packaging for the last few years. I’ve moved to driving active ATC bookshelves and my cans via a Phonitor 2, so really only two components to speak of being the Phonitor and DAC. If council get off their backsides and deal with my planning application I’ll soon have space to unpack the lot again, but it’s got me wondering whether I want a room filled with Hi-Fi furniture again or should just make do with regular furniture that happens to have some Hi-Fi kit placed on it.
I’ve got some active ATCs, a DAC and a MacMini as a source. More than happy with a bit of IKEA Lack in a corner to put the DAC and Mac on. And some flowers. Would suggest you most definitely avoid the oil-rig/altar/spikes nonsense.
 


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