Hi Conlad -
May be too late to the party, but I have several, if not most of the racks/shelves mentioned already here and feel the need to comment:
The Symposium Acoustics Segue shelves and newer Foundations Ultra Top 4 shelf rack I now have (5 months old) are the "best heard" and the best value I have found and own for reasonably priced and "best value" products of their type. They are not prone to humidity variations. I have been through a few racks....
I bought (ordered) this rack from DevaAudio (Kansas); best value found.
The (also) new SolidSteel S3-4 rack I have is not even in the same ballpark as the Foundations rack - price-wise or quality-wise. I also have the older SolidSteel 5.4 welded steel rack and in the past used ~2" thick Michigan Maple butcher block (out of Petosky, MI) shelves cut to fit this rack. While it looked nice I wanted better - the rack would visibly wobble when a nearby door was opened or closed - so I bought Symposium Segue shelves to fit, but it was still not optimum. So I went with the Foundations rack. It is clearly superior to any other rack I have used and mentioned here.
The Foundations rack (designed/made in the USA) uses 1" thick shelves similar to the Segue. The bottom appears to use a sealed and finished fiber-like material. The top is aluminum. The SolidSteel (made in Italy) S3 shelves (28MM thick) are a painted MDF on one side and a rather thin sheet of composite material (laminate) on the other, considered the top.
The Foundation legs are almost 2" dia. and are solid aircraft grade aluminum; they are bombproof once built up. This rack is extremely solid (no pun, really). The S2, 3, and 5 racks all use a hollow aluminum that is fairly soft and thin walled that measures 30MM dia. Even really torquing down on their legs when making the rack will not prevent it from being anywhere as steady as the Foundations rack of the same number of shelves.
Yeah, I know it sounds like I do this sort of thing for fun...
...I should also note that I designed and had built an 2 x 4" oak framed 3 shelve turntable rack with the mentioned Mich. Maple BB as a top. It is rock solid but likely not the best; yes, wood does "move". I keep a combo humidity/temp meter in the room to monitor as needed. Ironically, I need a humidifier sometimes, not a dehumidifier. And I am from the Midwest so I do know about basements of suburban Detriot homes.
Finally, I have tried many DIY attempts with Ikea wood products and while it was fun and looked very nice it was no were near what I got with the Foundations rack.
Hope the above helps Conlad.
dadsears
May be too late to the party, but I have several, if not most of the racks/shelves mentioned already here and feel the need to comment:
The Symposium Acoustics Segue shelves and newer Foundations Ultra Top 4 shelf rack I now have (5 months old) are the "best heard" and the best value I have found and own for reasonably priced and "best value" products of their type. They are not prone to humidity variations. I have been through a few racks....
I bought (ordered) this rack from DevaAudio (Kansas); best value found.
The (also) new SolidSteel S3-4 rack I have is not even in the same ballpark as the Foundations rack - price-wise or quality-wise. I also have the older SolidSteel 5.4 welded steel rack and in the past used ~2" thick Michigan Maple butcher block (out of Petosky, MI) shelves cut to fit this rack. While it looked nice I wanted better - the rack would visibly wobble when a nearby door was opened or closed - so I bought Symposium Segue shelves to fit, but it was still not optimum. So I went with the Foundations rack. It is clearly superior to any other rack I have used and mentioned here.
The Foundations rack (designed/made in the USA) uses 1" thick shelves similar to the Segue. The bottom appears to use a sealed and finished fiber-like material. The top is aluminum. The SolidSteel (made in Italy) S3 shelves (28MM thick) are a painted MDF on one side and a rather thin sheet of composite material (laminate) on the other, considered the top.
The Foundation legs are almost 2" dia. and are solid aircraft grade aluminum; they are bombproof once built up. This rack is extremely solid (no pun, really). The S2, 3, and 5 racks all use a hollow aluminum that is fairly soft and thin walled that measures 30MM dia. Even really torquing down on their legs when making the rack will not prevent it from being anywhere as steady as the Foundations rack of the same number of shelves.
Yeah, I know it sounds like I do this sort of thing for fun...
...I should also note that I designed and had built an 2 x 4" oak framed 3 shelve turntable rack with the mentioned Mich. Maple BB as a top. It is rock solid but likely not the best; yes, wood does "move". I keep a combo humidity/temp meter in the room to monitor as needed. Ironically, I need a humidifier sometimes, not a dehumidifier. And I am from the Midwest so I do know about basements of suburban Detriot homes.
Finally, I have tried many DIY attempts with Ikea wood products and while it was fun and looked very nice it was no were near what I got with the Foundations rack.
Hope the above helps Conlad.
dadsears