[Closed] what hifi rack

Woppit will be along shortly to advise you about [s]snake oil[/s] proper hi-fi racks which won't compromise the quality of your music.... 🙂

Back to back test
$50 Atacama i got off TradeMe
$5800 Naim with isolated ball bearing shelves and extra snake oil.

Sounded no different to me. Sound of a wallet $5750 lighter did though.

Believe it or not, Simon at Nirvana Cycles has designed one and had a few prototypes built! Sells nice bikes too!!

Ah, this a goodun.. I actually purchased a proper hifi rack and even Mrs Grips noticed the difference. It really was startling - I didn't expect to hear anything much, I only bought it as somewhere to keep the thing. It was an Apollo I think, heavily discounted at the local hifi place.

I like Isoblue for the look and have a stands unique shelf for my deck.

Racks come up so often and so cheap on ebay that's where i'd look. As for sound quality, meh, I can't hear it under electronics but makes sense under a TT.

You can make a nice one out of ply like this if you're any good at woodwork..
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see now i was half expecting that someone might suggest i got one that was made of decomposed nuclear fuel rods and rests on a small lake of mercury or somesuch but really, it's just a set of shelves and i'm at the age that, even if there was a difference i probably couldn't hear it.

i did know someone who could make nice metal ones but he's inconvenienced me by being dead so i'm forced into the prospect of buying them..

+1 for Apollo.

They are a good sturdy rack but it all depends on what hifi system you have and how it looks in your lounge.

it's just a set of shelves and i'm at the age that, even if there was a difference i probably couldn't hear it.

I am happy that you know this. 🙂

I like that system above; big black box with one button on it! Want.

Isoblue is very well regarded for the money but still not cheap about £150 per shelf. Quadraspire EVO at £95 per shelf but looks tacky to me. The more expensive SV (£200 per shelf) one looks far better but costs more than the isoblue

Biggest difference to sound I ever made to my kit was to stick the CD player on half squash balls! Even my wife could tell the difference!

yes to half squash balls, dirt cheap as well. My dac and pre and power amps sit on them a well.:)

Whoa Joolsburger! **** me, Lavardin eh!

Elfin you say you like that set up. Well clearly you're a man who has impecable taste and, it would seem, a penchant for snake oil.

Lavardin kit is incredible. Jools I auditioned the Lavardin IT integrated amp a few years back and was blown away by it. I came very close to buying it, but at the time I just couldn't stretch the budget. I wish I had though; you end up going down one path and eventually you've spent as much if not more than you'd originally tried to resit.

Elfin - Lavardin work on the principle that solid state circuits have a 'memory' of the signals that have passed through them. This 'memory' adds a continuous colouration to all the subsequent music. It's something that, apparently, valve amps don't suffer from, which is one of the reasons why they sound quite different.

Lavardin have found and patented a way of removing that 'memory' effect from their ammps.

That could be snake oil or it could be sound (pardon the pun) engineering, but either way Lavardin amps are incredible to listen to.

Jools, what exactly have you got going on there? I'm guessing you're running twin mono power ams? Into what and from what?

I should add that when I got a rack the hifi had previously been stacked on the floor (temporarily - new house). And the Apollo rack is nothing much, just thick heavy sheets of glass held in plastic clamps supported by metal tubes.

That's not mine!! I had an IT, I sold it on a few months ago was made a very good offer for it. It was fantastic every bit of hype was completely true.

Now waiting for am Audio Research or similar valve integrated to come up. I've always wanted to try them.

Back to racks the OP could always take a spray can to the rack he has I suppose...

My amps and tuner sit on some Isoblue, think I paid about £50 a shelf as it was ex dem and matched the speakers. My LP12 and CD sit on Mana Acoustics stuff which I bought second hand.

I did try swapping my LP12 between the two stands but was not sure there was really a difference. Maybe slight but I certainly could not say I preferred one over the other.

Have a listen somewhere and if you can't tell the difference by the cheapest.

Now waiting for am Audio Research or similar valve integrated to come up. I've always wanted to try them.

Try contacting Esh at K J West One - 020 7486 8262

They are in central London but would happily ship to wherever you are. They deal a lot in very high end stuff and routinely have second hand part-ex equipment. Whenever I've been in there there's always been a second had ARC amp lying around somewhere.

The system that got me into HiFi comprised of Audio Research amps and Magneplanar speakers.

http://isobluehifi.com/mainmenu.html