Audio rack


Hello I am looking into designing an audio rack for my equipment. I am not sure if it should be made all of wood, metal or a combination. I would like it to be about 50 inches tall and about 24 inches wide. This would be for a turntable, tube preamp, cd player, tuner, phono pre amp and some vinyl and cd storage at the bottom.I don't want it to resonate and I was looking into some spikes for coupling it to the floor. My tube mono blocks would have there own stands. Any thoughts or ideas? Jim
128x128hoghead1
If I had to do it all over, I would have bought one of the Mapleshade racks.  It is actually quite easy to build and the parts would be available at any Lowes or Home Depot type store.  Look at the pictures on their web site to see what I mean.  You could substitute the maple shelves for some other type of wood too.
I have built my own racks in the past, but I must admit the Lovan rack I now have is superior in every way - but I did have to tweak it

As glennewcidk points out...
- three legs - easy to level - very important
- floating shelves - help isolate components from floor vibrations
- mass - helps redice severity of vibrations

Add to those features - Damping

The Lovan stand I have consists of...
- seperate  metal supporting "frames" that fit on top of each other - each isolated with spiked feet
- I replaced a couple of the 8mm MDF shelves with 18mm (3/4") MDF for the amp and the turntable for additional mass/support
- between the frames and the shelf I inserted sorbothane damping strips
- on each shelf
- on each shelf I added a granite tile (cut to size), but between each shelf and the granite I placed a damping layer of 1/10" foam drawer liner  to further limit vibrations - it's an MDF/Granite "sandwich"
- the feet of each components were replaced with ball-bearing feet and 1/10" sorbothane cushions

The entire rack is isolated from the floor by inert damping material - a fancy name for hocky pucks + spike protectors

I'm a handy DIYer and did make a metal rack in the past with spikes for isolation etc..., but could I make a rack that provides this level of isolation, configurability and stability? - the answer is no.

If you have access to metal/wood-working tools that allow great accuracy WRT cutting and welding - go for it

Otherwise - making some simple mod's to a Lovan rack will reap huge benefits and save you lots of hassle.

YES - the same tweaks can be applied to any rack, but the Lovan range is quite affordable, robust, nicely made and even without mods - are better than many higher priced alternatives. 

My stand cost $400 CDN for a 4 shelf unit, so I did not feel that guilty about drilling a few additional holes :-)

Hope that helps - steve