Confusion about "high-end" racks

I looked at all the ones you listed and more. While I liked the SRA they aren't flexible enough for me and would require two which I can't fit in the space I have. GPA look cool, but just don't seem to have any real science behind them (to me) next time you see one, grab the top and shake it, you'll see why I didn't buy these! Sistrum? I have a Great Dane and suspect she'd knock something off those platforms so they weren't even a consideration. I liked the look of Acoustic dreams but they didn't work for me either. I haver seen the Critical mass systems, and they look great, but they are huge shelves and take up a lot of space, I think for a large complicated system like mine they are to bulky and they are rather expensive. I liked the looks of the Finite Pagode Master Reference, but alas it's too small and not flexible enough for me. I looked at a bunch of others not mentioned here too, as well as all the stock ones like Billy Bags, Lovan, you name it I likely know them.

I literally spent two years going through which racks I wanted to upgrade to, and knowing I was going to spend some serious coin on them, I wanted one that I could live with for a long time. I wanted a solid build with large weight handling, the ability to level on my Terra Cotta tiled floors with stability, preferably a rack that could be pretty tall and have multiple, adjustable shelves. I only found out about AudiAV a few months ago and well, my rack will be here before Christmas!

I went with a black Crystal 6' tall with 8 shelve, all signature and several with Granite for my really high end pieces. All shelves are equipped with the Mag Block as well, in black.

I spent hours on the phone with Jared Poiry and the guy is into some serious science with these things! The vibration isolation used is akin to what is under electron microscopes, and the Mag Bloc is straight out of defense contracts, you have to see his video about this stuff!

Feel free to drop me an Email privately to discuss these further, but I don't think you can find a more flexible rack that does as much as these do anywhere.

Oh, you might want to rethink the Diamond, unless you are running several hundred pound components they are way over kill, and costly (Jared told me the average $ for a Diamond setup runs close to $30K when fully spec'd out!)

Ken

First of all, after reading the subject title of this thread, I am most dissapointed that we are talking about audio gear. :)

I agree with Larry (Lak) that at the level you are talking about, appearance and ergonomics are the main issues. All the mentioned racks should perform high quality isolation regards of design. I also have a rack (Lovan Sovereign) that has the middle leg in the back, and agree that it can be a PITA functionally. It seems to interfere with either power cord or interconnects at some time. Though I have a couple friends who rave about the Symposium Isis rack, this also has the middle leg in the back that you'll have to learn to 'work around'.

Good luck,
John

Best to get a rack, four posts, with no shelves but one that will support granite. Ideally, the shelve heights should be fully adjustable and not fixed. Then, have quarter inch granite shelves made. Should not cost you more then $40 a square foot. Avoid glass. Finish on granite can be polished or dull. If you have a TT, make its shelve half inch, bottom with quarter inch top putting spikes in between. Enjoy.

Sistrum has some new products coming out soon that sound better than even thier current racks. I am in the mechanical grounding school, unless you have springy wood floors. I dont have any thier full equipmemt racks, just speaker stands and a their stand under my turntable. Both made a huge improvement.

But I do think some magazine should do a comprehensive review/comparison among the major types of racks.

So you think that racks affect the sound of a system? Aside from the acoustic imprint the shape, size and location of a rack can have in a room, how, exactly, does a rack affect the sound of a system and, if it does, how audible are these effects?

I would upgrade real components and simply make sure the rack is out of the way, acoustically speaking, rather than being used as an altar for componets.

Setting up your electronics in an adjoining room with only the speakers in the room is always a possibility, if you don't mind the walk.