How important is the rack you use for your components

@polkalover

I went from a simple cheap corner hifi unit thing that in all honesty was pretty wobbly and had glass shelves to a home made unit that consists of 4 pieces 24x18x2 maple block drilled through at each corner and suspended with all thread.
This had a truly large impact on sq, I almost seemed to gain 6db and noticed I am running with a fair bit less volume control for same listening volume. Cant say as soundstage and bass appeared to change any although female vocals do seem a little more defined.
Now it could be such a big impact because my starting point was so crappy!
But for cost of about $300 all in materials I am very happy, it is solid and heavy and very well damped now imho.
I would not hesitate to build another in the same fashion if I needed more rack space.

I like a big rack




needs to be well supported

My question is if you have Isoacoustics , Stillpoints, or any other "effective" footer under all of your components, do you need a very expensive rack? If so, why?

Great question ricred, I'd like to know the answer to that also. I'm using Symposium Rollerblocks and platforms under all of my components that are sitting on a solid wood rack I built. I have spikes coupling the rack to the concrete floor. Since my components are already isolated from the rack would it behoove me to get an expensive audio rack? 

@ricred1 

My question is if you have Isoacoustics , Stillpoints, or any other "effective" footer under all of your components, do you need a very expensive rack? If so, why?

In my experience the answer is yes. Think of it in terms of layers of defense. The footer is the last layer to isolate the component from external influences, but it stands to reason that if you reduce the vibration reaching the footer the less it will have to do, and the more effective it can be. In my case my source components sit on the following (from the floor up): GPA Apex footers (a roller ball system) -> GPA Monaco shelving system -> GPA Shelf -> Marigo custom sub-shelf -> Marigo Mystery Feet. So 5 different layers the removal of any one of which is audible

Arguably a solid wooden racking system will be the most in need of replacement as it may store energy and give the footers more to work with

There are of course exceptions -- if you are using an active isolation system such as a Herzan you want to firmly couple it to the floor and not have intervening layers of potentially competing isolation