What makes a good equipment rack?

I would suggest solid construction, damping, and flexibility for different sized equipment.

I had good success with a Sound Anchor equipment stand, which is solid, welded steel with a sand filling for damping.  I currently use Sound Anchor stands beneath my monoblock amplifiers and beneath my stand-mounted speakers.  For reasons of aesthetics, I now use a purpose-built wooden furniture cabinet for my front end gear, but I have significantly reinforced the cabinet making it very heavy and solid.  Wood seems to have some inherent damping properties but I also use a variety of damping platforms on each of the shelves, including one carbon fiber Black Diamond Racing shelf and three Z-slabs, which are constrained layer platforms that originally came with a Zoethecus equipment stand.

I like the ability to adjust the shelf height for use with different equipment. My wood cabinet originally had adjustable shelves but for stability a have since mechanically anchored the shelves to the frame of the cabinet. However, I can adjust them to different heights if I need to in the future.

If you start with a solidly built stand (or rack), you can then experiment with various equipment footers (such as Stillpoints, etc.), platforms underneath the gear, and damping on top of the gear.  You can also experiment with different footers for coupling or decoupling the stand itself.  

Nothing beats a good rack. A solid equipment stand is a good thing too.

Say, didn’t those Zoethecus platforms originally use Sorbothane for the viscoelastic material? That would certainly explain their sound. 😃 We were going to use a Zoethecus stand under Curl and Crump’s Bar-B-Q amp at the show until we discovered placing the amp on cones sounded much better. That is when I opened the Zoethecus up and spotted what appeared to be uh, Sorbothane.

zavato
Nothing beats a good rack. A solid equipment stand is a good thing too.

>>>>>You need to work a little on your stand up.

Decoupling from the floor.