Audio Racks, Just How beneficial? looking for guidance in upgrading


Greetings all. Looking for guidance and your experience in racks & shelves for the ’sweet spot’ and upgrading. Do you find that applying a percentage of your total system’s value of perhaps 5% or even 10% is a good metric? Do you folks find that some of the leading Audio Rack companies, like HRS, CMS for ex., which seem great but is it beneficial to warrant spending well over $15k , $10k + or $5K on vibration isolation for a mid level system. Racks are really hard to demo; I’m reaching out to Audiogon community.

I’m trying to get my arms around some of the price points and the cost/benefits.
Anyone find wood is sonically better?
Doesn’t seem to be that much between A/V furniture manufactures and the better companies. Prefer a Modular approach like Bassoconuinuo- (anyone have it? I haven’t priced it yet.) or adjustable shelves. (not that keen on Solid Steel).
I need 6 shelves including top for turntable.
Currently have a BDI with glass shelves; using still points, or BDR cones, maple butcher blocks. Yes, I know the glass shelves...have to go.
Thanks!

blue_strat

Showing 3 responses by mijostyn

OK, There is only one piece of equipment that requires special attention and that is the turntable. It has to be at a comfortable height for you to work with on a shelf as sturdy as you can make it. Vertical racks are not optimal. The reason is they force you to run all your wires vertically in parallel which maximizes induction. With the equipment horizontal power cables run vertically and signal wires run horizontally. With wires crossed at 90 degrees there is no induction. Vertical racks are also inherently less stable than horizontal ones You also do not want to crowd equipment. A proper equipment cabinet should be tied into the structure of the house, preferably on concrete. You should be able to run into the rack and not have the turntable notice in any way. If you go to my system page you can see such an example. I like my turntable up higher. I change cartridges a lot and it is easier to work with the table up higher. To get the height I made the two bottom shelves record racks. The record cubbies have false backs, so I can get anywhere behind the cabinet if I need to. The turntable's vacuum pump and my cable modem are back there along with power management. The most expensive part of the cabinet is the Granite which cost $1500 installed. The materials for the rest of the structure cost just under $1000.00. You could have a cabinet maker do one and I can not believe it would cost more than $10K soup to nuts. Turntables should always be suspended regardless of what they are sitting on. Electronics could care less about vibration isolation. That is seriously wayward lay intuition and expectation bias. The navigation computers in rockets are more sensitive than anything we use in audio accepting the turntable. Have you ever gone to the Kennedy Space Center to watch a rocket lift off? It feels like you are being shaken by the hand of god. It is a continuous explosion. There is no amusement park ride that comes close. Turntables, on the other hand are vibration measuring devices and extremely sensitive ones. With my turntable operating normally I can hit the granite with a hammer and you will not hear anything with the volume turned all the way up. If I neuter the suspension you will hear it easily. There is no practical amount of mass that will stop the transmission of vibration to the cartridge, only a suspension tuned to less than 3 Hz will do that. 

I reviewed the Bassoconuinuo website. The scientific approach? Not so much. As with everything Italian it is all about style. This type of construction is inherently flimsy because it has no solid back or sides. The uprights in my cabinet are all 1.5"
plywood. The back is 3/4" thick. The construct braces itself. The only bracing four post racks have are the shelves which is not nearly enough.  

@erik_squires There are many topics to deal with in audio, You seem to be stuck on room acoustics. Room acoustics are important. The best way to deal with it is to build a room specifically for sound reproduction and the vast majority of us are stuck with the rooms we have. However, that is not the topic of this thread. How would you design an equipment rack or cabinet?