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How, or why does an amp stand improve sound???

I love the Grand Prix shelving and amp stands (especially appearance. The only reason I do not have the amp stands is that I thought the price (especially with apex footers) was too high. Just browsed a past thread that espoused the "extreme" sonic improvement over normal stands.

To add insult to injury--let me inform you that due to lack of space with my fairly elaborate high-end system--I currently have 2 Bryston Monos on top of a nice art pedestal (pedestal is on carpet, balanced and made of the high quality black piano finish material that many speakers are made of) on top of each other with a Sony 400 DVD player on top of the top Bryston mono. I do have a glass plate made for the Sunfire amps with rubber feet between the 2 monos. There is plenty of air circulation, but again, they are simply stacked on top of one another except the Sunfire glass plate between the monos.

So--please feel free to berate me as appropriate. Will getting a couple Grand Prix stands with apex footers really improve my sound along with finding a way to get the monos on the floor as most "normal" audiophiles?

BTW--i have B&W800D's all the way around with 805's as rears / very high-end CD, DAC, all cables, Processor, Sony 5000 Blu Ray, Furman Ref conditioner.
djones1915
lenny_zwik
259 posts
 
I can only comment on a direct comparison I made with a Grand Prix Monaco w/F1 shelves against a Finite Elemente rack using just a CD player to compare. It was definitely an improvement. Consequently when I bought my MX-Rs, I went ahead and packed up by Zoethecus stand and bought a Monaco amp stand, but only w/ standard spikes. I agree the apex footers are very expensive. Why don't you get the stand w/ standard spikes? Your dealer should be able to arrange for a temporary swap w/ apex footers for you to evaluate.
samhar
1,048 posts
 
The more vibrations you reduce to/from the amps the cleaner the notes will be. Will the sound be "better", if you like more defined notes and a tighter base I'll venture to say yes!!! Will the DVDs be a little "cleaner" when just the player is on the pedestal I think so, although a softer shelf like MDF with some vibration reduction devices between the pedestal and shelf would be better still.
Separating the amps will reduce/eliminate "cross talk" between the amps resulting in better channel separation, more definition in each channel and should improve the sound stage and imaging.
Personally I've found in general the "better" the rack/stand the "better" the sound, and Im at best half way up the ladder of possibilities in isolation from racks and platforms.

stanwal's avatar
stanwal
3,147 posts
 
Agree with Samhar.
rhljazz
1,255 posts
 
Materials and construction of the rack/stand will be audible on a high resolution component.

I don't agree with Samhar's statement of "The more vibrations you reduce to/from the amps the cleaner the notes will be." There will be a rack/stand that will be less harmful and more sympathetic with the sound you want to achieve. Granite and materials like my Polycrystal rack tend to remove harmonic overtones thereby emphasizing the leading edge. Some may describe the sound cleaner, but to me it sounds thin and bright which I don't like.

I would go with the Mapleshade stands. Try the Grand Prix if you want and resell if you don't like them.
djones1915 OP
53 posts
 
Thank you very much for your commentary--
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