Adona Equipment Racks

I have owned an Adona Zero SR4 for about 15 years, and I love mine and recommend it. The price is fair, they look good, and most importantly, they are infinitely adjustable. The granite shelves as you probably know are laminated to MDF underneath with a layer of damping elastomer, and I think it is really effective sonically.

I think that the customer service was fine, but I do wonder if they have, or had some influence with Audiogon as advertisers, because I did a positive review of the rack way back then, and only mentioned that there were no instructions for assembly, and the review was rejected by Audiogon.

I have owned an Adona Eris 6DW rack for about 4 years.  I also love it like @roxy54 and recommend it.  I had the cherry trim added to my shelves.  At the time I purchased it I also had it custom sized slightly taller.  The interactions I had ordering and actually picking up the rack in person were excellent.  If you look through the Virtual systems you will see many high end systems on Adona racks. 

Thanks for you input.  roxy54, I did read your review and your suggestions were very good.  The folks at Adona should appreciate them as well and improve their product.

I have always thought that the Adona racks were overpriced since they seem to have no real sonic attributes like say, Critical Mass, HRS, etc. who incorporate isolation in the design.

I also don’t like the wood trim on the shelves, it looks cheap.

IMHO that is.

ozzy

I have two of their Signature Series equipment racks as well as two amp stands. In my opinion they are not only attractive but a good value as well. No they aren’t the best out there in vibration control but to address this I use Voodoo Cables Isopods. Detailed assembly instructions are on their website. 

@ozzy

I usually consider your comments to be reasonable ad fact based, but I was surprised by your comment about the Adona racks. I went from a Target rack, which was obviously for beginners to the Adona, and noticed a substantial improvement. Yes, I use cones and Live Vibe Apprentice stands with it, but I’m wondering if you have the personal experience with them to say that they have "no real sonic attributes.'

I am well aware of course that there are other more expensive racks that perform at a higher level.

I have had an Adona rack for a couple of years. Paul was great to work with and the product delivered was of high quality materials.  I was able to sell all of my Townshend pods as a result.  

roxy54,

You are right I have had no actual experience with the Adona Racks. However, I thought about purchasing them.

But I did not read/see any type of special isolation built into them. So how can they improve sound quality over just a good solid rack? If there is, please explain?

ozzy

i owned -4- Adona ’Zero’ GXT racks for the last 12 years in my ’no-holds-barred’ system. you can see pictures on my system page.

here is the model i had. two of mine were 4 shelf, and two were 3 shelf. i sold them for 60% of what retail was when i bought them after 12 years. i experienced zero rack issues for that 12 years. the Zero GXT model has a very large and high mass top shelf ideal for turntables. which was the big attraction for me.

https://www.adonacorporation.com/zerogxt.html

in December 2023 i switched to Massif Audio Racks, which are all wood, mostly for cosmetics.

i highly recommend the Adona racks. high value solid racks. can’t comment on the lower level models, but the GXT level is very well made. but it’s not a decoupling rack. it’s meant to provide a very solid base to add your own shelf tuning/decoupling treatments. i really liked the Granite/wood shelves....high mass and very solid. Adona is modular, so you can move things around, and break them down for shipping too. i had good experiences dealing with Adona. they always followed thru with things.

high quality decoupling racks are very expensive and can be very difficult to sell or ship if you want to change. i prefer treating each component myself to investing in expensive racks.

having a very solid floor is critical for rack performance. i have 6 inches of concrete. the rack cannot fix floor problems.

good luck.

@ozzy

Adona racks are designed with granite shelves that are bonded with a layer of a special elastomer to a layer of MDF. Each shelf sits freely on a flat round brass piece at each corner. It does provide a stable and quiet platform that it a marked sonic improvement over thin MDF shelves, but special footers or Apprentice platforms will certainly provide better sound by draining vibrational energy that exists within the component.

They are good racks, and I really don’t think that they are overpriced comparatively, since the price of racks can get so high. Theirs start at pretty sane prices.

I like my ADONA Reference Rack. It replaced a VPI TNT rack and two inexpensive Lovan Sovereign racks and I was 98.5% certain that I could hear a positive improvement in sound. It looks cool, is pretty versatile with its fully adjustable shelf positions and has enough capacity for what I need presently.

Randy,

I owned a large rack system of multiple racks of Adona AV45 going back to 2003 & 4 with very good results. The AV45 racks can be assembled in many different variations/configurations and i've had alot of them between my old 7.1 & 2 ch hybrid system that I had in CT from 2003-2007 and then moved to other homes I've had in SC prior to me selling off all the HT/multimedia components and speakers in 2008-2009.  The flexibility of Adona allowed to treat is as an "audio erector set" if you will and rebuild into many different rack configurations from 2009 until last years in several different homes and system configurations.  If you look back at my virtual system and scroll down, you can see a sampling of photos that show the systems while also seeing a few of the rack configurations I was able to build out of all the parts.

Adona AV45 (and his other racks) have varying levels (as you go up the model list) of use of sound constrained layer damping techniques both in the multi-layer platforms as well as the use of different materials in the racks themselves. These CLD techniques help capture and channel vibration away from the gear.

Many of us have also found that supplemental use of higher-end footers, fine-tuned additional platforms and/or or damping platforms helps refine the performance even further.  Roxy, Mike L and others all have long experience with Adona as do both myself and 9 other people I know who either have a newer line (ERIS) or the AV45 line with a heavy emphasis for those who have bought in the last 5 years of adopting the ERIS models.  There an additional 2 who have gone with the Zero GX and the level that replaces it (Altaira).  Others like Mike L have the top model, the Zero GXT for their most important turntables and related components.

After 19 years with the AV45 racks, I decided last year to begin the process of swapping out my AV45 one rack at a time and moving to the Zero GX (has 3" columns while the Zero GXT has 4", both have slightly different aspects to them). From what Paul tells me the Zero GX has been replaced by the Altair for both design and supply chain reasons (the Altair is the next-gen design).  I finished the Zero GX upgrade with the last rack section early this year.

I was alway very happy with both the flexibility, price, overall value, function and look of the AV45 gear.   The Zero GX performs and looks even better and I an extremely happy.  The fit and finish of the Zero racks and other new models is even better and in the case of the Zero GX I was able to hear an even better sonic result in imaging performance and other aspects.

The great thing about Adona is that the multi-element platforms will hold any weight component I've had on them from 15 lbs to 150 lbs (and I'm told others put more on them).  The platforms are the same for all Adona racks and can be made into custom sizes in addition to the stock 18x18 (inch) and 19x24, 19x,21 stock sizes.  You can by the platforms with your first rack once and then use them over many different Adona rack models.  

The Zero and his latest models are a meaningful improvement; the AV45 however is nonetheless still a great performer for the money.

There are higher cost, more sophisticated (i.e. more detailed tech and designs), even more beautiful and fancier racks and platforms out there. Some of have limitations in terms of configurability, movement of shelves after initial build at time of purchase, etc... there are several major names on the "uber racks" list that frankly I think are great options from US, UK, Europe, South Korea.  All are excellent.  All have one thing in common,....the uber rack options are all extremely, and sometimes outrageously expensive. They will also take months to build and deliver and while frankly Adona builds at time of order and this can range from 2-8 weeks in my experience depending size of order, materials supply, previously in queue how they are still much faster than the 4-6 month timeframes and less costly than the uber options I looked at both in 2002-3 and over the last couple of years.

Adona gets the job done and at a fair price. The direct-sale model helps with the economics too for obvious reasons. 

You can pay multiple time more and get more or different or better in some way but honestly, I cannot justify the $75K-$100K+ (or more) that it would take in 3 different other manufacturers rack and platform systems based on quotes I have procured to try to do what I need with my 3 favorite uber-rack manufacturers.

There many, many options out there as well for alternate solutions at the same price points as Adona, many available in all countries, some not available outside of Asia or Europe or Eastern Europe (or other areas) that also great options.

For me, it's Adona for over 20 years and for the foreseeable future.

YMMV and IMHO and ll that :-)

@zephyr24069  Well stated!

Thank you Roxy!

Great racks and fair priced and high quality. I had mine for 10 years now the top of the line along with the matching amp stand. Granite is top quality and the under side wood is beautiful! This past week I flipped the shelves to the wood side up and it sounds great and I am leaving them that way, waxed the wood and it just looks beautiful! So my advise is to try the wood side up and see how it impacts the sound. This side up you could use cones and spikes, I spiked my power conditioner and the results were positive and easy to hear. Go product and priced more than fair, I see they are making black racks now!! Love to have that color. 

@phillyb

I’ve had mine for 15 years and mine are black. I think that’s always been offered.

Adona has always made black racks going back to day 1 as well as silver/silver-grey.   For the platforms, I know people who successfully use Revopods and other solutions successfully under their gear.