Racks vs. furniture w/pods, points, aurios, etc?

Here's my two cents worth (if it's worth that).

I am a woodworker just as much as I am an audiophile. I build all my own racks/entertainment centers. It's much cheaper that way. For me to build exaclty what I want, and to have it very sturdy isn't a problem. It also doesn't come with the 6000 dollar price tag. And I get my choice of wood and stain color without waiting for it to be shipped to the dealer. I can't comment on the increase of sound quality using platforms or spikes under my equipment, but if you find a rack you are happy with, it will atleast look good. Regardless of whether or not it does more than just hold your equipment off the floor.

My racks are nothing more than to display my equipment and keep it off the ground. I doubt it helps the sound any.

I use Salamander racks as a good-looking compromise (cherry and black) and use Signal Guard II isolation platforms under all key components with the spikes of the Signal Guards resting in Aurios Pro isolation devices. It all grew up over time, but works beautifully, and I'm not sure I'd do it any differently if starting from scratch.

You can realy get even with buying cheap or non-audio racks but you will loose necessary isolation. I possess a standesign quatro rack and it's considered to be a basic meaning that there is no isolation what-so-ever. I cut extra mdf shelves and place them on the top of stock shelves using vibrapods. In addition I've screwed Michell spikes onto each stocked shelf. In one-more addition I've welded an extra-heavy base onto the bottom of that rack to hold-up an extra-component.

I too ran into this dilema. As my system was going into a newly rennovated living room my wife was very explicit it had better look great or it wasn't staying. I looked through every available rack on the net and would agree there were a lot of wonderful looking ones, though most tend to be very modern rather than classical (ie open with no backs). Prices too were also incredible. We ultimately went with a local chap who manufactures and is an audiophile. We drew up a rough draft of what we wanted it to look like and the he drafted the final blueprints. He put together a price is no limit option which came in at 3500 canadian which was a bit more than we had wanted. We therefor got a slightly tuned down model for about 2500 canadian. It is heavy slabs of mdf with sand filled sides and central struts. It weighs a ton (4 guys to lift) and sits on carbon blocks. The sound is quite good I believe (my system by the way is audiomeca mephisto II and ekianthus and romance turntable, musical fidelity integrated m3 nuvista, with piega p8ltd speakers, and audiotekne/hms wiring) though I did notice that with the audiomeca cd the isolation was not perfect. I went on to try out darumas which improved things substantially (much more open) but have not noticed any improvement by trying to isolate any of the other components so I suspect it is working very well. One option you might wish is to contact the chap I worked with as if you are in the states the conversion rate is excellent. We have since had a dining room table done by him and all the work has been gorgeous, both in finish and quality. He is very prompt and reliable. If you have any interest drop me a note. Otherwise you should be able to find someone locally, you may just need to do a diligent search. I think you will get a lot more bang for your buck and if looks are important you can get what you want.

Gary