Changing racks from Grand Prix to home made??

If you are competent at your craft, surely it will turn out great--it will meet your own high standards and work with your environment better than stock shelving. Go for it! Post pics when done, please.

You could also check out Core Designs. They use solid technology, and they look like furniture.

There are several members of my old audio group that built their own racks All of them seem to be quite pleased with the results. You can tweak your rack by using heavy brass footers. I highly recommend Edensounds products which he can customize to meet your needs. I say go for it, maybe thicker maple would look more impressive.

It probably won't sound as good as the Grand Prix. I say this because you probably don't have the engineering chops and testing ability to engineer a solution that are available to the Grand Prix design team. Nor will you build a few dozen prototypes to work out variations. That said there's absolutely no reason you should not be able to construct a workable setup that meets your setup requirements and sounds very good.

It sounds like you have the skills necessary to build your own. I would not hesitate to go the custom route if I had the talent and the right equipment. Where are you located? I may be interested if you do not like what you create. As long as it is not 1980's glass and brass you should be fine.

I seriously doubt that you or anyone else on this site or anywhere else on earth would be able to "hear" a difference in an A/B/A blind test. Purchase the material you like best at the best price you can find and enjoy your music. There are no absolutes when it comes to anything posted on any of these forums.You will probably get as many recommendations as there are materials to work with.

Look at the system pages, our members own every conceivable type, shape, brand and material you can buy. Don't give it a second thought.

Most on here have great intentions but cannot provide a shred of proof or data for anything they post, it is mostly opinions and a lot of conventional wisdom that gets repeated as fact.

Some discussions do center on electrical codes, physics, engineering principles etc, but even those discussion seems to go way off-track and there is seldom a consensus and never a "Solved once and forever" FAQs folder.

I hope this makes you and others with similar questions put into perspective what it is you are really getting from the forum. Do not take anything you read here too seriously.
This is a hobby and we are all hopefully in it for the best music reproduction we can afford. If it sounds good to you...it is good! Period....!

Happy Listening and good luck with your new rack. Post a Pic when complete!