New rack or power conditioner


Hello, new to this forum. I am a long time looker however. I am in the market to up grade my rack, which is a 15 yr. old home built 1 1/2" mdf shelves and 3/4" allthread supports, and a Tice power conditioner. I only have funds for one item and was woundering what is the most important, the rack or power cond.

Thanks for the input.
woodworker501
It sounds and though you would really like to upgrade racks. I was in the same position, and didn't like the look of some audio racks. Ended up buying the Samson Rack from Mapleshade Audio. Very sturdy -- very nice old growth maple -- gorgeous finish. Sounds great.
Since everything has some effect, it's hard to predict, in the abstract, which will make the most positive difference in your system:
I'm not a naysayer to power conditioning, but once I did dedicated lines, I eliminated some highly regarded power conditioners- the system sounded better without them. (It's not that the dedicated lines 'improved' the sound, but they did eliminate one additional variable in AC power noise and interference and I generally have pretty quiet power, with the occaional spurious noise). Power conditioners and regenerators will make a difference, whether it is better is a separate question and depends in part on how nasty your AC is to begin with. (Note that I have invested in a very expensive power system for my next room, so I'm not negativing the value of dealing with AC power, just talking priorities, especially at a budget).
Racks- big improvement in that department, but you should know that even bigger improvements may be obtained by using a less fancy isolating rack and going with a very basic rack that allows you to use decoupling devices, like the Stillpoints. Having gone both ways (system currently uses some fancy Grand Prix Monaco stands and a very basic Adona platform combined with Stillpoints Ultra SS, you may find that the latter is more within budget and gives you considerable flexibility).
I would first check with the people at Star Sound.

They built and worked on your type of racking format for years. We have a few older versions of Mike Green racks in house and RobertÂ’s affordable recommendations worked out so well we kept them.

Quite possibly you could serve two masters with a single budget.

I would second the Stillpoints as they made a nice improvement to my sound. You might try adding Stillpoints to what you already have before replacing your rack.
Thanks, that might be the way to go. I see they have a few different types, is there one that I should be looking at?