2. tech-talk
  3. 1252231088

confused about equipment racks

I have been considering either a commercial or a DIY rack for my components.
The problem is do you isolate or couple?
I'm good with speaker spikes which couple the speaker to the house.
But what about a CD player? Isolate? Couple to something massive? Why do I read about Maple butcher block?
I've read about people who swear tennis balls are good. Others use hockey pucks or handball balls, whole or cut in half.
Steel shot, lead shot, cat litter and a host of 'custom' ($$$$) products to fill tubing.
All sorts of weird (to me) theories about resonance / damping / microphonics and related phenom.

Any opinions or stuff I can READ to try to straighten this out. Please, not too much advertiser hyperbole.

thanks in advance::
magfan
10 responses Add your response
magfan OP
1,583 posts
 
Make that 11 pages!

It is obvious that racking is of paramount importance for TTs and tubes. The theory and practice is in place with audible effects demonstrated. Anyone who ever heard a TT 'howl' or dropped a tonearm and had a woofer eject itself out on the floor knows.
I still have trouble with SS amps a preamps, though. Nobody has yet explained how this works.
The upshot of the article is that it is 'obvious' and everyone knows it makes a difference....but no explanation was offered for some of the more.......esoteric....claims.
Any help here?
magfan OP
1,583 posts
 
The Stereophile article is what? 9 pages, a bibliography and a couple sidebars.
Please give me till next week to finish that!!!
magfan OP
1,583 posts
 
Thanks for inputs::
Seems I've got some reading to do.
So far, however, I 'lean' towards all thread for the uprights, nothing hollow since I'm not going to open THAT can of worms!

I may experiment with tubing later. My fill idea is to use expanding foam with steel shot. The foam will increase the rigidity of the tube while the steel adds mass.
tpsonic
1,092 posts
 
Home-Depot sells a number of 1.25-1.5" OD tubing in various decors (brass,silver and PVC with different cosmetics),whuch can be loaded up with your damping material of choice.This will hide any tarnishing of the metallic up-rights and adds significantly to the mass/rigidity of the rack.
lewinskih01
910 posts
 
Hi.

This is the best article I know of, per your request to read something: 1995 Stereophile's "Bad Vibes" article http://www.stereophile.com/reference/52/index.html

You would probably benefit from reading it a few times over several days to let all the info sink in and start putting together a "strategy".

I hope it helps.
jdoris
972 posts
 
Hi Magfan. The below thread has a lot of discussion of a DIY "flexi" rack design, with some discussion of different materials. John

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?htech&1158841915&openmine&zzJdoris&4&5#Jdoris
magfan OP
1,583 posts
 
Just as I thought.
No consensus, plenty of choices from DIY to stratospheric.

Not as 'hot button' as say... cables / interconnects or powercords, but still lots of variability.

I will watch this thread for some more info, than go with my DIY plan, which apparently is quite unlike most of what I see.
tpsonic
1,092 posts
 
I believe in coupling the rack and decoupling the equipment(electronics).Check the "web" for 3/4" brass threaded rods and associated hardware,then decide on shelf material (min:2").I used wood-very easy to work with.
raks
468 posts
 
You’d be pleasantly surprised at how inexpensively you can have a metal fabrication shop build a rack to your specifications. With the money you save, you can go crazy to invest in the likes of Finite Elemente, Gingko, Black Diamond, Vibracone, Aurios, Stillpoints, and/or maple slabs to isolate or couple at will. Drill half inch holes, fill it with whatever you want, epoxy over the holes, spray paint it, and you’re good to go.
krell_man
827 posts
 
Personally, I wonder if it's not just a personal choice more than one way being better than another.

I used the Sistrum stand for years and really liked it. I've now switched to HRS M3 isolation bases and find them equally satifying in my system.

It seems that the bottom line is that as the sound waves bounce around your room and come back to hit your components. You want them to vibrate or be affected as little as possible. This keeps the vibrations from adding noise to the musical signal. How you accomplish that is your choice.

Something else to maybe consider is the size of your room. In my 10' x 12' room there's a lot more signal bouncing around than in a 16' x 20' room with an open end.

Chuck
Log in to respond
More to discover
Alluxity Media One
RSX MUSIC SERVER RSX MUSIC SERVER
Bluesound Node