Racks: Box Funriture vs Sistrum

The Sistrum may not be available any longer NEW.

The box furniture racks certainly look beautiful from what I saw on the website, but although they claim it was designed to make your system sound it's best, I don't see the vibration draining technology that the Starsound has. If you are going for better sound, I would get the Sistrum.

Star Sound is alive and well. I'm very pleased with the improvement in sound quality they provide, their technology simply works as well as advertised. If sound is you priority I'd give them a listen.

I apologize. That was just what I had heard somewhere. I owned one, and thought it was excellent. It offers good flexibility too. I added one of their top shelves for my TT.
Robert is a great guy, if he is still involved. I am a bit out of touch, so sorry I spoke too soon. Cheers -Don

I built my own very high quality furniture style rack complete with nice adjustable points at the 4 corners and used in for years. It was very strong, looked great, and I thought it was absolutely fine and functional. I was very surprised when I bought a relatively cheap somewhat "Audiophile" rack that is very similar or is a lower brand from Quadraspire that has groves underneath the shelves at 45 degrees designed to make the shelf sound better--my system did sound better. That shelf was just mdf with grooves, aluminum rods that I put silica sand in, and adjustable points from Adona on the 4 legs. It sounded much better than my wall mounted turntable shelf that I had built out of 3/4" plywood, with the inner shelf suspended on adjustable steel points and did not touch the main support parts in any direction. I was very surprised at that also and probably made some poor evaluations of turntables used during the time I used the wall mounted shelf. When I talked to Robert at Star Sound, they were temporarily not producing any Sistrums due to relocating in a different stste. He was extremely helpful and convinced me the Sistrums would be an ear opener for sound--even though he was going to make no money on the deal since I was buying used. Well, he was right. Although the Sistrums are very strong (can hold 300 lbs/shelf), they do have some small movement when nudged that I'm not a fan of--I build decks every now and then for friends or neighbors and take great pride in building a brick of a deck. The sound of my equipment when put on that Sistrum rack was the so much more clear, dynamic, live, and even louder sounding (volume control could be at 9:00 vs. 11:00 at the same volume level now). I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Robert also said you could remove all treatments form the room unless you wanted a couple diffusers. I sold my Real Traps Minis when I listened and found out absolutely no difference in sound with them at their locations or removed now that I had the Sistrums. Sure don't miss their look and that saved some money too. My system consists of a Modwright 9100 Signature cd/sacd with all the mods, super Lenco turntable (100lb. plinth designed ala Jean Nantais' Home Depot thread), Edge M6 amp, Audible Illusions 3A/w John Curl phono, and VMPS RM40 with all the options. There may be a better sounding rack made somewhere at some price, but I'm NOW a believer in the Sistrum technology. The only drawback of the racks is the equipment sits on 3 points and thus you don't want to lean on any of it as the component can tip off. Not a problem for someone with half a brain, HOWEVER...the potential is there and if you have kids or a cat or a dog that's nosey, eh...I'm getting the marvelous RTS couplers soon to strap each component to the rack that also drain vibrations to the ground quickly and will make the sound even better with another leap in quality of sound plus absolutely eliminate the possibility of the tipping component. Sorry this was so long, but I thought you might like some detailed info.

I built my own very high quality furniture style rack complete with nice adjustable points at the 4 corners and used in for years. It was very strong, looked great, and I thought it was absolutely fine and functional. I was very surprised when I bought a relatively cheap somewhat "Audiophile" rack that is very similar or is a lower brand from Quadraspire that has groves underneath the shelves at 45 degrees designed to make the shelf sound better--my system did sound better. That shelf was just mdf with grooves, aluminum rods that I put silica sand in, and adjustable points from Adona on the 4 legs. It sounded much better than my wall mounted turntable shelf that I had built out of 3/4" plywood, with the inner shelf suspended on adjustable steel points and did not touch the main support parts in any direction. I was very surprised at that also and probably made some poor evaluations of turntables used during the time I used the wall mounted shelf. When I talked to Robert at Star Sound, they were temporarily not producing any Sistrums due to relocating in a different stste. He was extremely helpful and convinced me the Sistrums would be an ear opener for sound--even though he was going to make no money on the deal since I was buying used. Well, he was right. Although the Sistrums are very strong (can hold 300 lbs/shelf), they do have some small movement when nudged that I'm not a fan of--I build decks every now and then for friends or neighbors and take great pride in building a brick of a deck. The sound of my equipment when put on that Sistrum rack was the so much more clear, dynamic, live, and even louder sounding (volume control could be at 9:00 vs. 11:00 at the same volume level now). I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Robert also said you could remove all treatments form the room unless you wanted a couple diffusers. I sold my Real Traps Minis when I listened and found out absolutely no difference in sound with them at their locations or removed now that I had the Sistrums. Sure don't miss their look and that saved some money too. My system consists of a Modwright 9100 Signature cd/sacd with all the mods, super Lenco turntable (100lb. plinth designed ala Jean Nantais' Home Depot thread), Edge M6 amp, Audible Illusions 3A/w John Curl phono, and VMPS RM40 with all the options. There may be a better sounding rack made somewhere at some price, but I'm NOW a believer in the Sistrum technology. The only drawback of the racks is the equipment sits on 3 points and thus you don't want to lean on any of it as the component can tip off. Not a problem for someone with half a brain, HOWEVER...the potential is there and if you have kids or a cat or a dog that's nosey, eh...I'm getting the marvelous RTS couplers soon to strap each component to the rack that also drain vibrations to the ground quickly and will make the sound even better with another leap in quality of sound plus absolutely eliminate the possibility of the tipping component. Sorry this was so long, but I thought you might like some detailed info.

Thank you for your responses, and it seems like Sistrum gets the vote. Anybody used and experienced the Box Furniture stuff?

Contact Eugene Hi-Fi regarding Box Funiture. You might get a sales pitch but they were very passionate about the quality when I called. The cost was a little over my budget so I made a compromise and bought a Solid Tech Radius Duo 2 rack.

Just a note to myself. The flat footers that came with the Box Furniture rack sound better than the chunky and shiny stainless steel(?) spikes. The flat footers sounded more natural and more musical.

Based on my experience with audio points I can only echo what the poster above said about my speakers now being much clearer and sounding "louder" and that is only using the audio points themselves.  I would expect that the Sistrum stands would be materially better.

And yes, Star Sound is alive and well as always - in fact, Robert is developing some custom audio points for me as we speak for my upcoming speakers.

Hi labpro,
I see that you have already gotten the BOX Furniture.

I have tried both the spikes and flat footers on the same parquet floor in my room.  The flat footers sounded better to me. With the spikes on, it sounded "liveless" to me;  a lesser "music".

I wonder what your experience is. Thank you.

My Box Furniture rack is on a carpeted floor so I am using the aluminum cone footers.  In my case, the rack makes my equipment sound more lively, not less, compared to the solid wood furniture I used before.  That is probably the biggest difference I noticed.

To be fair, I just heard of Box Furniture so I can’t make a direct comparison. But common sense should tell you that a piece of wood furniture marketed as an audiophile rack can’t begin to compete with a Sistrum rack or platform that’s scientifically designed to optimize the performance of components.

My Cary 303/300 CD player and Cary 300 SEI integrated amplifier (modified by Stuart Jones - Chapman Audio Systems) are on two special edition Sistrum platforms filled with Micro-Bearings. The platforms rest on APCD-5 Coupling Discs which are on a wood floor. Robert told me the APCD-5 actually absorbs more energy than the wood floor itself! I’m currently using the amp for headphones only so there’s no floor vibration. And I can tell you the difference between listening with the CDP on the floor compared to listening with it on the Sistrum is NIGHT AND DAY — much greater musicality, nuance, detail, dimensionality, dynamics, and emotional engagement with the music!

They are great products that really work.