The Importance of Audio Furniture

"Audio Furniture" Adds nothing to the systen and usually gets in the way of good sound. I see a lot of great components that are stacked into a "entertainment center" All speakers need room to breathe. must be that WAF thing.

Most manufacturers of audio equipment don't make stands or furniture. When they are showing their equipment at a show, I suppose that they want the focus of attention to be on their equipment, not to provide free advertising to someone else's stand. Perhaps a reviewer reading this thread may wish to comment as to why they don't mention stands/furniture.

Proper equipment stands and furniture do make a difference of course. If it doesn't, then people should feel free to place their monitors on the floor, or in the china cabinet, or on top of a bar fridge in their basement listening room. Or they could put one on top of their amp and the other one on an overturned flower pot. When I was in university, I had one speaker on my bed headboard and the other one on a clothes trunk....on diagonally opposite corners of the room. Surround sound from only two speakers!

If a stand/cabinet has any glass, just say no. It would 'sing' along with your speakers. Best it be wood.

I'm sure that a solid stand with no resonance would have some effect on the sound but in my situation convenience trumps that consideration. I've got an all-metal rack from IKEA that I like better than anything else I've had for one reason, it has wheels.

Because I'm constantly adding or swapping pieces as I play around with things the ability to roll it out and turn it to the side to get to the cables and the backs of the components is great. I'd guess it has saved some wear and tear on the gear, too, since I don't as often have to move them in and out of the rack.

I made some concession to the usual concern about the metal rack 'ringing' by covering the bottoms of the shelves with sound-absorbing sheeting. I also put the components on sorbothane pucks and then heavy tiles. The convenience factor easily outweighs any other considerations for me.