Prevailing wisdom is that stuff in between speakers is detrimental to sound quality, but expedient for set up, which is why it’s so common. Low as possible and behind the baffle plain of your speakers seem to be the goals. I’m actually planning a wider lower rack as well. The only personal anecdote I have is that when I removed the TV hung on the wall (another bad idea that is convenient) there was an undeniable increase in soundstage depth. Of course once I got a new TV it went right back, convenience over performance happens.
Are you looking at additional acoustic treatments as well?
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I had a local woodworker make me a rack out of maple, very low, two shelves. Everything fits and soundstage not interfered with.
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If you're contemplating a change, seriously consider moving the rack to a side wall if you can do so, it can help a lot. Go with longer interconnect and keep speaker cables short. Often the amp only between speakers on a low amp stand and everything else racked on the side wall is great if you can make it work. Cheers,
Spencer
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@cat_doorman
Totally understand the dilemma, had the same situation in our previous house! Validating to know that as low as possible can help in this scenario. I’ve built diffusers so far, placed on the first reflection point of the left wall and behind on the back wall. Big improvement. Looking to build another one for the right wall. Have now Gik corner trap as well. Cheap treatment elsewhere on the walls overall, but need to replace it with better quality panels. Trying to find the balance without over-stuffing the room.
@hilde45
Very nice, I should consider a local wood worker. Outside of pocket hole screws and wood glue, I’m not much of a builder!
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@sbank
I’d probably have to change the orientation, or use a current side wall as a new front wall to make that feasible. Doesn’t mean I couldn’t try it. Often thought about setting the rack to a corner or side.
Thank you 🙏🏼
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Timbernation is a good company to check out. He'll make whatever you want and his price is reasonable. Chris uses solid hardwoods and his work is very nice and he stands behind it as I learned from personal experience.
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@riccitone A couple of small considerations if you move it to a side or corner:
- if you have a turntable putting it very close(<3ft) to a speaker can cause feedback, when the speaker output gets picked up by the cartridge
- low frequency energy congregates in corners, so if side is an option vs. corner, it's usually a safer choice to avoid any complications
+1 on Timbernation, he made some custom sized amps stands for me about 20 years ago that served me well until I sold them along w/those amps. Good value and craftsmanship. Cheers,
Spencer
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I've used curtains to drape the top and sides of my rack to excellent effect. You can also get stand-alone absorbers to put next to them. Experiment with a blanket at first, if you like the results consider spending a little money.
I've also draped my speakers the same way with similar benefits. Thank you for the reminder, I may very well now go on a bit of a shopping spree.
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PS - Love my Butcher Block Acoustics rack. :)
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These are all cool ideas and sound suggestions!…
Part of the fun is trying things to good effect.
I’d love either a Timbernation or Butcher Block rack, just cost prohibitive atm. I’ve seen some nice low stands that might work, could modify with special footers? Was actually studying some of these nicely designed racks to mimic diy fashion.
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One thing I have found since upgrading power cords is how unwieldy they have become.
I have a somewhat shallow system rack, and, believe me, getting things to plug in at times makes me feel like Marlin Perkins wrangling an anaconda.
Bob
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I have a low wide rack behind the front of my speakers. I'm also planning to put curtains across the TV that can be pulled back to watch.
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A shallower rack will attract more Frenchmen, which may or may not be a benefit.
DeKay
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@gdnrbob
@dekay
Lol! Will keep that in mind 😂
@carlsbad
I remember putting a thick blanket over our tv in our former house (when no one was looking). Really helped. That should really make a difference, not to mention the aesthetic proving to be far better than a blanket.
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@riccitone I dumped my wooden rack with significant improvements in sound quality.
See Virtual System on profile.
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noromance,
It's hard to believe that some cinderblocks and a slab of wood are more effective than a proper wooden rack with good footers.
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@roxy54 Indeed it is. Yet, here we are. The concrete floor sounds best but I needed to elevate the turntable. I’ve had wood, and light and heavy steel frames, and spikes and cones, granite, glass, sand, you name it. The maple block is supported by adjustable brass screw spikes. The turntable is on springs, as are all the other components. Sounds solid, anchored, transparent, detailed and fast.
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@riccitone I missed earlier that you'd consider DIY rack. If interested, my system page thread has a very old post here listing the parts from McMaster-Carr that @slipknot1 and I used to build mine. I sourced maple from perfectplank.com Almost 20 years later, the solid parts quality and adjustable design has served me well thru 4 household moves and numerous component/configuration changes. IMHO, flexible shelf height adjustability is a must if you plan for the long run! Cheers,
Spencer
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Low racks behind speakers is great upgrade over taller stands, my setup all spread out over 13' wide room, nothing more than 19" tall. What is between speakers greatly affects sound staging and imaging. I was never able to fully lock in center image with tall equipment stands there, reflections all over the place makes for confused sound stage. Diffusion is what you want between speakers.
As far as equipment racks, I use a concrete fireplace hearth underneath diy sand boxes made of birch ply topped by 1/4" aluminum plates with built in vibration absorption sinks. Equipment footers various ball bearing devices or nobsound springs.
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@sbank
That rack - and that entire system - looks marvelous. Thank you for directing me to those specs! I’ve seen threaded rods with a similar construction, forgot how useful that can be for keeping things adjustable. Plus very cool aesthetically. Doesn’t look too incredibly complicate, though I just know I’d screw something up.
Building my own enables installation of m6 threads or some other accommodation of isolation footers of some sort.
@noromance
You know, in college I did something like that and remember it working really well. Believe me, I’ve considered trying that again! Alas, don’t know if everyone in the household would approve ; - /
@sns
Those are really inventive solutions…cool idea to design the actual shelves into isolation platforms.
Overall, really great to witness the resounding consensus of the improvements made by simply getting stuff below and behind the speaker plane.
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