[deanym]

Do different racks give a different sound?

Or is there same lack of science behind this as there is in cable claims?

[eviljohn2]

Pile of rubbish to me unless you have a really badly designed stand that resonates a lot at audio frequencies induced by your speakers.

It may be a different story for those who use a turntable but the only real benefits to simple solid state amps and disc spinners are that they're raised off of the floor so don't get kicked/hoovered and should get some decent ventilation around the units.

Of course I'm also of the opinion that speaker stands only make a difference as they raise the speaker to a useful height.

[GFS AV]

I've been thinking about this for a while now.

I have a pretty sturdy, thick glass shelved TV stand with my equipment on. The unit seems very solid. What baffles me though is what I have read in hifi mags - I personally find it amusing when What Hifi writers say things like "this unit only gets 3 stars because it just doesnt have the extra bass extension of the other units". IT'S A HIFI RACK!!!! How can a solid rack be any different to another solid rack??????????

On the other hand, if a nice Atacama AV unit 'would' make an improvement to all me gear, I would gladly spend my money. But somehow, I doubt i'll ever believe a rack can make a difference.

With speaker stands, I believe you can benefit from having them filled so they are weighty. I wont go into the physics... as I havent a clue but I used to have standmounters, and when I filled the stands, I did notice an improvement... I think

[CJROSS]

I Have a £525 Ash Designs hifi rack and a £19 Ikea Corras (bedside cabinet) hifi rack, both sound indentical when used as hifi racks.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57...2ndsystem1.jpg

[pwood]

There are differences in how equipment react on certain stands.. My mate bought a stands unique rack and there was a difference in the presentation and space around instruments. I have found that as most racks are an arm and a leg and dont always fit well with the house decor that the most effective (cheap) thing to do is try various isolation cones /platforms etc under your CD player as thats the area that the most improvements can be made. If you like theory from a different perspective then have a look at Russ Andrews.com as he has a rather different approach (expensive!) to isolation.
Most important point to bear in mind is that all equipment is built differently regards isolation in the chassis and therefore will react differently.

[eviljohn2]

Of course it's also worth remembering that the simple act of disconnecting and reconnecting all of the cables along with physically moving the equipment may have more effect than the actual rack the equipment is situated on.

[Knightshade]

I had a glass Apollo stand for a while. I wasn't overly impressed with the quality (Nice split Oak legs in about a month!) So I built an AV Rack. The whole thing weighs about 80KG (Make it heavy it's not going to vibrate!) and is made from solid hardwood. I've yet to build another one for the HI FI but i'm sure it won't make any difference to the sound. But it looks nice (IMO)
I did take the trouble of building two concrete pillars for the speakers in my Hi Fi system purely to isolate the speakers from the rest of the room. I did notice a big difference by doing this, tighter, smoother, better extended bass. Not the kind of thing you can do unless you're laying a new floor etc. Mass loading the stands or speakers would have a similar effect.

A dealer once demoed a pair of JMLAB Micro Utopias too me, he insisted that the only stands that sound any good with them were the £800 stands that JMLAB build. 'Everything else sounds rubbish.' he said. I took them home and experimented. And to a degree he was right. I noticed the stands were very heavy. However, when I filled some Attacama stands with a mixture of sand and lead shot I suddenly couldn't tell the difference. The dealer wasn't best pleased when I told him, he was also disinclined to believe me..... Ah well, one born every minute.


But lets look at this sensibly, if a few grands worth of HI FI kit can be affected by the quality/design of a HI FI rack then something is very wrong with the design of the HI FI.
If the rack is solid, has plenty of airflow, a bit of cable management and is wife friendly it's plenty good enough.
As has already been said, unless you're playing with vinyl that's all you need.