Which Rack Is Better?

Before deciding on a rack I will suggest that you go to the Neauance website (http://www.neuanceaudio.com/) and research their custom shelving. I went from a very heavy cabinet (400-500 lbs) equipped with sandwiches made of soft footers, maple platforms and brass cones to the Neuance shelving and am very pleased with the results. I cannot recommend my rack (which has had some of its shelf supports break under very little weight and I am also not receiving any help from the dealer). I can however recommend the Neuance shelving which delivers a very even handed sound. I do not quite understand what the shelving does (other than drain off vibration), but it sounds like the musicians are playing "better" (more in time) and there is more "play" to the music, no matter what type it is. Before with cones and such, I could get the system too kill (say on female vocals) but then when I put on a classical piece, things sounded a bit out of balance. If I moved things around to flatten out the mids on the classical piece, then female vocals did not sound as involving (it was crazy and I was never able to get everything to sound right without constant adjustment, especially the bass and highs). I could get it to sound exciting, but then the "exciting" sound would quickly tire me out in an hour or so and I would be fussing with things again. I have not touched a thing in the past week and half and all types of music sound good to me on the system. I don't even think of too much of this or too little of that anymore and just enjoy the music. If you do a search under Neuance you will find a few other members that also use the product. I originally read RedKiwi's post's and became interested in it myself. The Neuance website has a list of recommended racks to use with their shelving and they are in all price ranges. I just started out with two shelves, myself, and will order two more when I can budget them. They are not expensive ($150-$165 each) but I am cheap/poor.

PS: The savings literally allowed me to update two of the "key" stock shelves with Neuance shelves and it sounds much better than my old setup.

I have an update on the equipment rack that I am now using. Audio Advisor finally responded (following my 3rd email which was rather threatening). They would not replace the faulty parts due to the sale being older than 30 days old (even though the rack had only been is use for less than a week), but they did forward the telephone of the manufacturer. The rack that I have is a Studio Tech PA-04 which retails for $249 and they have a 6 shelf version, the PA-06 that retails for $379. I had 6 (out of 16) support posts fail, but the rest of them are fine (I tested then with a substantial amount of weight, 80 LB, and they all held up), so this was just an isolated incident. The good thing is that I spoke with John at Studio Tech on Monday and received 16 replacement parts this morning via UPS (this was less than 24 hours after our telecom). I randomly tested the replacements in a vice with a torque wrench and they tested fine as well. This is a bolt together unit with 4 upturned spikes that support each shelf (not just the top shelf). I had mine mig welded into a one piece frame, but this may have been overkill as the fit of the parts and the sturdiness of the rack when bolted together was excellent. The design of the rack (the upturned spikes) is very desirable to use with after market shelves and the stock shelves are good as well (just not up to the performance of the Neuance shelving for my source and tube amp). Anyway, I feel that the rack is a steal, due to its design features and price, plus knowing that the manufacturer is great to deal with is an added blessing. I only know of one retailer in the Santa Monica, CA area (Audio Video City), but the direct number for Studio Tech is 1/800/887/8834 if you would like to find other dealers and I would guess that they will do direct sales if there is not one in your area.

Drubin: John at Studio Tech said that they had the PA-06 in stock and I think he said that they will be making them again.

Drubin: I mentioned to John @ Studio Tech that the upturned spike design feature (for all of the shelves) is what most of us are now looking for in equipment racks as it opens up the possibilities quite a bit. Perhaps if you reiterate this to him he will consider coming out with a "new" design using this feature. I also pointed that one piece frames are also desirable, but of course are more expensive to warehouse and ship. I doubt if I would have had a problem though with the stock rack, though, as is was very solid, but decided to follow the Neuance formula and welded it into a one piece unit. I also mentioned to John that the hook on the PA series was the "price" as it had the features (upturned adjustable spikes for each shelf) that I needed at way less that what the competition charged for the one piece units equipped with such.

I seem to recall from the Audio Advisor photos that the finish was just on the shelves, though I would double check with John as to this. I originally tried my player on one of the stock shelves and it sounded better than my previous setup (heavy cabinet/Pods/Maple/cones). The Neuance though was even better. I just set up the DAC and power conditioners on the lower two shelves (which are stock) and could again hear an improvement over the pods/Maple/cones that I had on these before. I will have to mess around with the stock shelves and different footers some more. I have a pretty basic system, but if I went back now I would purchase the 6 shelf model which would cover more bases in the future.