Benefits of a Shallower Rack


I’ve got a relatively small listening space to work with. Also limited adjustment toward the center of the room as I’m not the only one using the space (yet it is largely dedicated to the stereo). Although I’ve managed to arrange things so my speakers are at least three feet from the sidewalls, I really can’t go past 19” from the front wall - measured from the rear of the speakers. Being that the room is only 11x12’, I’ve noticed that even minor adjustments and wall treatments can render serious results. Even moving my Pangea (a cheap and monolithic four tier) audio stand slightly from left to right when experimenting with sub placement can majorly affect the center image.

So I wanted to ask here how many of you may have gone to a wider/lower rack to good effect? Or did it present yet another problem that became more of a trade off than a benefit? The idea being that I would remove some spurious reflections via bringing my gear closer to the floor and out from between the immediate field between the speakers.

Ultimately looking to diy a decent wood rack that would sit far lower than what I’m currently using.

Thanks to everyone in advance!

 

riccitone

noromance,

It's hard to believe that some cinderblocks and a slab of wood are more effective than a proper wooden rack with good footers.

@roxy54 Indeed it is. Yet, here we are. The concrete floor sounds best but I needed to elevate the turntable. I’ve had wood, and light and heavy steel frames, and spikes and cones, granite, glass, sand, you name it. The maple block is supported by adjustable brass screw spikes. The turntable is on springs, as are all the other components. Sounds solid, anchored, transparent, detailed and fast.

@riccitone I missed earlier that you'd consider DIY rack. If interested, my system page thread has a very old post here listing the parts from McMaster-Carr that @slipknot1 and I used to build mine. I sourced maple from perfectplank.com  Almost 20 years later, the solid parts quality and adjustable design has served me well thru 4 household moves and numerous component/configuration changes. IMHO, flexible shelf height adjustability is a must if you plan for the long run! Cheers,

Spencer

Low racks behind speakers is great upgrade over taller stands, my setup all spread out over 13' wide room, nothing more than 19" tall. What is between speakers greatly affects sound staging and imaging. I was never able to fully lock in center image with tall equipment stands there, reflections all over the place makes for confused sound stage. Diffusion is what you want between speakers.

 

As far as equipment racks, I use a concrete fireplace hearth underneath diy sand boxes made of birch ply topped by 1/4" aluminum plates with built in vibration absorption sinks. Equipment footers various ball bearing devices or nobsound springs.

@sbank

That rack - and that entire system - looks marvelous. Thank you for directing me to those specs! I’ve seen threaded rods with a similar construction, forgot how useful that can be for keeping things adjustable. Plus very cool aesthetically. Doesn’t look too incredibly complicate, though I just know I’d screw something up.

Building my own enables installation of m6 threads or some other accommodation of isolation footers of some sort.

@noromance

You know, in college I did something like that and remember it working really well. Believe me, I’ve considered trying that again! Alas, don’t know if everyone in the household would approve ; - /

@sns

Those are really inventive solutions…cool idea to design the actual shelves into isolation platforms.

Overall, really great to witness the resounding consensus of the improvements made by simply getting stuff below and behind the speaker plane.