Audio stand needed....Moving main components from mechanical room to listening room

@lalitk thanks for sharing the catalog with me.  Great resource.

Woots

@woots 

Here is another brand ~ finite elemente that’s build to last and backed by serious engineering in eliminating resonances and vibrations, 

https://www.thecableco.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=Pagode

Try this great small company in Central Pennsylvania. https://www.timbernation.com/
 

They are great to work with and true craftsmen. 

A high quality Audio Rack is a long term investment and very likely outlast your components. I haven’t upgraded any of my isolation platforms or audio rack from Core Audio in over 10 years. Choose wisely. 

Apparently Lovan is out of business.

I purchased 10 Lovan stands used years ago. Best audio investment I’ve ever made. Each stand is filled with lead pellets. They’re sonic perfection, and each stacks easily via spike inserts on the bottom. I have a wall of 3 stacks each that creates a wall of components. I use one stand for a turntable with a slab of granite beneath it. I couldn’t imagine having a better “rack.” Today these are likely expensive. But I purchased the entire set 14 years ago for less than $1k. Good timing, and or clean living?

@woots You may not need spikes with a concrete floor, even if you have some sort of covering over that and even if you are using a sub.  Again, I would wait to see or hear if there is an issue with the sound.  If there is (and I doubt it), you could try putting an area rug under the rack to see if that addresses the issue and under your speakers, if you are not using spikes with them.  If there is a problem, you might want to check this out:

Spiking Your Speakers: What’s the Point? – PS Audio

Herbie's Audio Lab | Home Audio Vibration Control (herbiesaudiolab.com)

@gordon 

What I'm saying is that for that amount of money you could buy a stand with adjustable shelves that were made of materials that are better for audio purposes.

@roxy54 Isn't that up to the buyer to decide?  Also, Hitchen's razor.

I would definately call Mike the owner of Saluda River Audio Stands in Easley SC. Master craftsman and will make stand, rack to yours spec with a beautiful selection of prime woods and finishes. Talked to him at length last year and was about to order and had to replace my home AC.....bummer. The prices were in line with Butcher Block and other quality options but seemed much more substancial and IMO much better looking. Go to site and take a look at his work and customer comments......I'm building back my emergency fund and will hopefully buy one in next year or so. His racks are ultra heavy so not knowing where you live shipping will be high....but if you have a van or truck to pick up at his shop sane $$. I live in Charleston SC so was going to load my truck bed with blankets, pads and tie downs to go pick up as less than a couple hundred miles from me.  

@gordon 

For that ridiculous price you could get much better.

Black frame, but wood shelves.  Built to custom sizes.

https://www.fernandroby.com/products/details/rack-1

@lalitk  -- Thank you.  Yes, I still have the CS Port and just moved up to a Koetsu Blue Lace. Still playing with SUTs and will be receiving a Koetsu in the next week or so to try.

The OP might want to consider having a local cabinet maker build what he would need. I had a local guy that builds and installs high end cabinets do a pair for me. One, a riser, to go on top of my Salamander synergy cabinet. The other for my guitar amps. Price was very reasonable and very high quality workmanship. Both can be seen in my virtual system photos.

@thr1961 

Beautiful system!  Do you still own CS Port TAT1M2? 

@oldaudiophile Thanks for the input. Yeah, didn’t mean to stir anyone up just looking for a nice stand.  I have wall to wall carpet and based on my speakers and I how I set those up I plan on just using spikes onto the concrete floor as my system resides in my basement. 
 

Woots

@tyray  it is a basic Furtech 6 outlet strip. I actually just upgraded it to a 

Furutech Pure Power 6 NCF along with their Project V1 power cord. 

When you see magico offering a rack for $40,000 you really have to wonder what the hell is going on.

All the isolation specs that you see, does anybody really really really notice a sonic difference. Yeah if you don't isolate the turntable its going to skip around during earthquakes and dance parties and while doing jumping jacks.

@woots Looks like you've stirred the passions of some obsessively compulsive audiophile types with this simple question.

Yes, from a scientific point of view, most living and/or otherwise energized things (e.g.  circuit boards) do, indeed, emit a certain amount of vibration and/or an electromagnetic field.  The question is how much this really affects the sound quality of your system, if at all.  There are many other issues or factors related to vibrations in a sound system and sound room (e.g.  construction of the stereo components; construction of the sound room itself, like the floor; pictures hanging on the walls; windows; furnishings; etc.).  If you can truly hear a problem then, by all means, do something about it.  If not, relax, save some money and enjoy your music.  To some "audiophiles", it ain't high-end unless it costs mucho dinero and purports to do things even they or most humans on the planet can't hear or sense (e.g.  audio cables & connects).  While Salamander products aren't cheap, go to their website and check out the different products they have.  All of the dimensions and configurations they offer will be there.  My McIntosh amp fits just fine on the bottom shelf of my Salamander Synergy rack, without the back panel installed.  The MAC's weight and total weight of my other components is easily handled by the Salamander.  This helps insolate everything to the floor and I can get away with using only the standard adjustable rack feet because my sound room is wall-to-wall carpet.  I should add that I usually like to listen to my music at what I consider to be concert level gain (e.g.  50% to 60% on the MAC, depending upon digital or vinyl source).  If your sound room is, for example, proverbial hardwood flooring on top of half or three-quarter inch plywood subflooring, with 16" O.C. single 2" X 10" floor joists (12" O.C. with doubled or even tripled up or married floor joists is even more rigid and cross bracing helps, too), with or without felt or some other liner, you might feel a need to invest in spikes or whatever.  However, I would wait to see if you can actually hear a negative impact on sound performance.

@thr1961 what power strip is that in your pictures?

+1  on Core Audio. I worked with Arnold on my rack and also added a platform for my power amp. The photos in my system do not do it justice and I would be happy to share additional images if you would like. However the best option is to have a call with him and talk about your goals for the rack and hear more about his approach to the work. Best of luck!

@vinylshadow 

i have a Townshend isolation unit under my turntable.  Works great. 

@gdnrbob 

I have a Sound Anchors rack for 1 of my Monoblocks as well. They made me a custom rack with 9 coves. Steel filled with sand. Must weigh over 400 pounds. 

I've got all Townshend everything and they do not make racks. However, they do make Seismic Rack Isolation Corners which isolate equipment racks down to 30Hz. I've got those too. 

@tyray @emergingsoul 

My apologies. I went overboard in my criticism of casters. I do realize that in some situations they may be needed, and I apologize for being coarse about it. 

+1 @emergingsoul, my Sound Anchors five shelves vertical rack also has welded pieces as one unit for anti vibration and with the weight of all the gear and the rack  it really is a lot of weight and I have no problem using casters/wheels also. Ahh the subs, I haven’t got around to putting aftermarket footers on my subs, yet...Thanks for reminding me of that tweak.

@roxy54

@tyray

i have adequate feet underneath my individual components on my rack. The casters underneath the rack are invaluable to an ever-changing landscape where I live.

I have three listening rooms and another room entirely devoted to keep all the boxes I gotta maintain. I Shuffle things around a bit. Underneath one set of speakers I have rubber feet placed on top of square acoustical ceiling tiles that allow me to slide it around when I want to. This is a really cool thing to do.

My amp racks are customized with steel pieces welded together supported by casters. It weighs alot. Ideally it would be nice not to have the casters in a perfect world. But the negligible benefit of not having casters is not perceivable and I don’t care how good you’re hearing is. For your information, my subwoofer is not on casters but on some isoacoustic rubber creations that do have importance because of all the freaking vibrating this thing does.

@roxy54 , I try to be civil when having discussions here. Of course I understand casters or wheels aren’t as anti vibration as spikes and metal coasters. Not everyone has the luxury of having sufficient room as you may have for an audio rack. Some folks have small listening rooms and really don’t care about anti vibration. But of course you knew that right? @emergingsoul brought up casters/wheels, not me. But you probably have spikes on wooden floors, right?

@tyray 

Emergingsoul meant putting amos on racks with casters, and you're just as wrong as he is. Casters are bad if good sound is your priority. You say it makes moving convenient when making gear changes. How about placing it with sufficient room behind it to begin with like most other people do?

@emergingsoul,

The other gear you have also should have casters but especially amplifiers.

I don’t think you mean ’casters’ as they are wheels and that’s a tough thing to pull off trying to attach a wheel to an amp or other components . I think you meant something like Vibrapod Cones? But I do agree that casters or wheels are perfect for attaching to the bottom of the component stand for ease of use and getting to the back of the rack/component stand when making changes and adjustments. Especially if the rack is one vertical piece of shelves. Which makes said rack very heavy indeed.

@emergingsoul 

"There you go again!" as the late Ronald Reagan used to say. As usual, you say the opposite of what is true, and then call people who do the right thing crazy.

Using casters on an equipment rack is absolutely the worst thing that you could do. They move, they are unstable and they don't aid in draining vibrational energy.

Salamander makes great stands that are very reasonably priced and you can get them with casters. Have to get casters on stands. 
 

Always been amazed how crazy people are to not use casters for amplifier stands.  Amplifiers don't get impacted by how a stand rests on the floor as long as it's designed with some mass. The other gear you have also should have casters but especially amplifiers.

@woots

Buying a rack and then adding vibration control can be tedious and expensive. It does however gives you ultimate flexibility with trying different vibration control devices (a tweaker’s delight). But if you’re the guy that don’t want to mess around with vibration controls then couple of ultra elegant solutions comes to mind in addition to Core Audio Designs,

Modulum Audio - https://modulumaudio.com/products/

Artesania Audio - https://artesaniaaudio.com

Bassocontinuo - https://bassocontinuo.biz/lines/ultimate-line/

And lastly, SRA isolation platform customized for your components. 
https://www.silentrunningaudio.com/component-specific-design/

Take your dimensions to a talented carpenter to get exactly what you require and use high quality footers to aid in further isolating your components. 

As for your turntable, this might be of interest to you, I came across this a few days ago and can't personally vouch for it but maybe it can negate the bother of figuring out which rack would be the best in isolating your turntable.

All the best,
Nonoise

@woots, I think we are talking about the same thing as the Sound Anchors products do the exact same thing and 'send' the vibrations of your rig all the way down to the tips of the metal spikes screwed in the bottom of the component stand  to the conecoasters and then to the floor. Everything has a vibration, especially electrical mechanical components turned on.  

@roxy54 +1

@oldaudiophile  

I have had Salamander in a previous home.  Nice stuff.  How wide is each section?  I think my max is 2 wide.  I will probably need to use some anti-vibration platters.

I know that Salamander makes a lot of different racks and configurations, but I don't think that they can really be called a serious audiophile performance brand, but more of an upscale lifestyle brand.

I have a Pangea, four shelf rack I’m not using.

Make me an offer if you’re interested.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10BBbN8Vd2_2sgQAoMI8N5CqnWdhASrbH

Depending on where you are located, I custom build (view my system) and will deliver and assemble on-site.  Completely customizable to whatever size and configuration needed. 

@woots Correction:  the link I gave you is the kick-off point for customizing the Salamander synergy racks.  What I have is the 7-shelf version with black posts, open in the back and on all sides, mainly for proper ventilation for my amp.  The link shows a super duper ginormous configuration.

@woots Don't know if this will do the trick for you or not.  However, check out Salamander racks.  Don't know if they still do this and can't remember what time of the year, but they used to run an annual sale that makes their stuff less expensive.  You can customize their racks in many different configurations & styles.  I have a basic, open version of one of their Synergy racks that works quite well for my system.  My rack is quite sturdy.  I don't need any isolation for any of my components and I play my music quite loudly most of the time.  Unless you listen at unhealthy, ear-splitting levels, I don't think you'll need isolation stuff.  This is what my rack looks like without the back panel.

Synergy Core Module - Salamander Designs   

I forgot about Sound Anchors, they made my racks for my monoblocks and subs.

Also, Townshend Audio offers nice platforms and isolation devices- I don't think they do racks, though.

B

@roxy54 @lalitk @arafiq @stereo5 @winoguy17 @tomic601 @bigtwin @vair68robert @mgw @vinylshadow @tyray @gdnrbob @chayro 

Thanks so much everyone!  I'm really blown away at the contributions and possibilities that exist out there and would have never found without you great Audiogoner's. It shows how many craftsman are out there with direct to consumer business models that rely on word of mouth and referrals which is terrific.  Over the next couple weeks or so I will read and review then make my decision. Much appreciation and I'm sure I will have more questions.

Woots

@bigtwin Yes, I can operate a skill saw.....however, my confidence in building a stand that will hold my audio equipment is a road I'm not going to take.  I appreciate the offer though.

https://butcherblockacoustics.com

They'll make whatever you need...

+1 for the Quadraspire, I have had the Q4 for 24 years now. Never had need nor inclination  (let alone space) to separate the TT, just six shelves with the TT on top. 

Sound Anchors. 

They make custom stands as well. 

@woots  Can you work a skill saw and a drill? Would you consider a DIY project?  Have a look at my virtual system.  My build shows the few steps required.  This unit is SOLID and you can build to your exact requirements.  It was satisfying to build. Except for paint dry time, its a one day project.   Happy to answer any questions if you PM me.  Cheers. 

@woots 

I agree with @lalitk that core makes beautiful racks, but I still think that if ultimate performance is your goal, Live Vibe is the best choice. They are actually the opposite of anti-vibration. They allow speakers and components to vibrate as they will, and they then quickly drain that vibrations ground, and the results are stunning.