Does a component stand impact the sound

The stand/rack certainly has an impact on the sound. The question of which one will offer an improvement over what you have is the difficult part. If you are satisfied with the appearance and sound of your system you should leave things alone. I purchased a polycrystal rack to put my tubed gear on and it sucked the life right out of them. Conversely, I thought my solid state gear sounded better on the polycrystal rack so I put the tubed gear back on the room tunes rack. It is impossible to take something home just to try out and if you don't like it you're stuck.

As much as cables, that says it all.

I had never noticed a big difference one way or the other until I built a DIY component stand entirely from jars of Brilliant Pebbles. If fact, it made such a huge difference that I was able to sell my entire system and replace it with an $8.00 am radio. Of course you realize they are not just rocks, they are Brilliant Pebbles.

Mags5000- LOL!!!

Hey I was wondering the same thing. I have a tall/slim stand that was under 150. The bottom shelf is MDF, but all the other tiers are smoked safety glass. It looks great but the paranoid audio geek in me wonders what the effect of the glass resonant freq is on the cdp and preamp.
SOunds fine the way it is too...

I originally bought my Billy Bags rack ($600 here on A'gon!) primarily 'cause I like the look and felt it was a good deal, especially 'cause I could pick it up close to home. I was floored by the sonic difference, quieter with more detail were my immediate impressions. Wasn't looking for sonic improvement but it's definetly there!!