Regards to the Rack

I have two different racks, a Polycrystal, and a Deluxe Room Tunes and I prefer the Room Tunes rack. I can't justify the price of the Finite Element rack but it was judged best by Hi Fi+. I'm considering a Mapleshade rack but will probably order an amp stand first to check the sonics with a couple different components and see what their cherry stain finish looks like in person. The Mapleshade looks like an extremely well built rack and the price is reasonable.

Another piece of audio insanity: what physical property is addressed by a rack? There is no known effect on transistor equipment of the vibrations in the room, either from footfalls or from the speakers. In room acoustics is a very important factor and, when it comes to racks, I feel that the size and location are the two things to look out for. If it wasn't for the religious aspect of high-end audio, and the fact the equipment rack has to be reminiscent of an altar, these crazily expensive racks wouldn’t exist. I think the equipment should be in another room, away from the speakers, on anything that will hold it up securely. Lack tables from Ikea are less than twenty bucks a piece. Buy records with the money you save.

I've gone a similar route, investing several $Ks in a Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack. Very well worth it and the improvement was evident in back to back comparisons with Finite Elemente Pagoda, let alone what I previsouly had my components mounted on.

Same here. Didn't think too much of it at first. I had the Solidsteel and bunch of Lovan Sovereign shelves which I thought should be good enough isolating the vibration. Last year, a friend bought some Grand Prix Audio rack and amp stands. We moved his BAT tube amp from a piece of 300 lbs slab (that used to sit underneath a laser in his company's lab) to this light-weight stand. Lo and behold, the four of us could not believe we actually heard a difference. It really buffled me because the Grand Prix was made of steel and carbon fiber. I can easily lift the amp stand with three fingers. But the differences were there.

I've since invested in some nice rack and stands from SolidTech (from Sweden) with some good results. Come to think about it, it makes good sense. A company I used to work with in the high tech industry invested a lot of money on vibration control tables for all their sensitve equipments like lasers. SolidTech's website has published white papers on how their products minimizes vibration.

FrankC

I think the rack can make a difference depending on your needs. Any rack with a good damping factor and ability to "drain" the energy may be of benefit to you. At one time I wanted a rixrax or symposium rack (5k), It would still be nice It's like buying jewelery both are stunningly beautiful. Do I need to spend that much, No of course not. Do others need to spend that much? well maybe. Remember synergy and balance is what makes a system really great. It's not how much money you can throw at it. I figured that out when I hit the 50k mark. Now I have my system on a great rack (don't laugh) from Staples I got on clearance for 49.00, (you can't get them there anymore) It has the best damping factor of any inexpensive rack I could find. The shelfs are thick but not solid, If you tap on a shelf It has a nice quick ring and then does dead. They are some kind of practical board covered with real wood, they are also reversible if I decide to change to a dark cherry. But sense I seem to like change I have plans of replacing it what a nice vintage danish piece. (At least I won't be out much money)

All that said, you have a wonderful system, it looks great on the rack you have. You could play around with different racks but keep what you have in case you want to go back.