I Was Stunned


For years I have resisted a rack for the front end gear because of concerns of the effects of hard vertical surfaces at or near the same height as the tweeters and midrange drivers affecting the center image and the illusion of a soundstage.

My gear sat on the floor.

And then  I got an idea.

A few weeks ago I visited with a friend who is also a craftsman and artisan.

The rack I designed and he built is made from 1" square steel tubing.

All tubes are filled with sand before being welded together.

It has two shelves made from 1.5" butcher block. They are 18" deep and 48" wide.

The top shelf is 20" high.

The tweeters are 48" high, the midrange 40".

The shelves are isolated from the frame with silicone.

It is non-resonant, heavy, solid and gorgeous.

It sits on a wood floor, over a concrete slab.

I wasn't expecting what I heard. Amazing transformation. Greater clarity, cleaner highs, mids and lows. More natural timbres. Better dynamics. 

You get the picture. 

I was stunned.

tomcarr

@thecarpathian Good eye!  A  heavy book that dampens resonances and makes my CD player sound better.

I thought it was so you can really sink your teeth into the music!😃

Yeah, sorry.

@tomcarr

Form AND function. You gotta love it when all the stars line up and things turn out better than you expected. Stunning!

I couldn’t help notice the walk clock with the album playing with simulated tonearm. I actually found one of these recently and thought it would be an appropriate gift for my big brother for his first anniversary. I designed and laser printed a new custom record label for it. He married a fairly abusive women, so I thought the song title "The Beat Goes On" was a good choice. They didn’t "get it" and proudly hung it in their exercise room.