Anyone use Salamander Design racks? Comments?

I am using the Salamander Archetype 5 in a second system with very nice results. Reasonably affordable and sturdy.

I have two 40 (black/rosewood) with two bridges in between carrying very heavy stuff (McIntosh MC 2000 and Revel LE-1, which are 140kg alltogether!) The front end such as transport, DAC, Pre, DAT-recorder, harddisk DVD etc. fits nicely into the two columns, the turntable "crowns" the right top shelf. The whole thing really stands like a rock (probably because of the heavy weight in the lower centre) so I don't need to care about vibration control at all. Bottomline: the thing looks beautiful, is very rigid and offers you every thinkable way of putting the shelves.

Salamandar stands look great with lots of accessories, but have no vibration control. I own one for home theater. Even with vibration control tweaks, there is no substitute for a stand that starts out addresssing these issues. Check out Music Direct's new line called Solid Steel. They are great stands and I have placed two of the 3 shelved units side by side and it looks like a low boy stand.

Rigidity is great, but it does not preclude other aspects concerning vibration from factoring in on sound quality.

If memory serves, the Synergy system got a great review in Stereophile. Vibration control was considered excellent except when placement is on the "top of the top" panel. Then, a simple cone or something like that clears things up easily. It's built like a tank, no A/V store phony garbage here, sorry. Design choices can easily compliment most interiors. I added the "extra weight" isolation shelf option ($50) for my amp and it works very well.