I built my own very high quality furniture style rack complete with nice adjustable points at the 4 corners and used in for years. It was very strong, looked great, and I thought it was absolutely fine and functional. I was very surprised when I bought a relatively cheap somewhat "Audiophile" rack that is very similar or is a lower brand from Quadraspire that has groves underneath the shelves at 45 degrees designed to make the shelf sound better--my system did sound better. That shelf was just mdf with grooves, aluminum rods that I put silica sand in, and adjustable points from Adona on the 4 legs. It sounded much better than my wall mounted turntable shelf that I had built out of 3/4" plywood, with the inner shelf suspended on adjustable steel points and did not touch the main support parts in any direction. I was very surprised at that also and probably made some poor evaluations of turntables used during the time I used the wall mounted shelf. When I talked to Robert at Star Sound, they were temporarily not producing any Sistrums due to relocating in a different stste. He was extremely helpful and convinced me the Sistrums would be an ear opener for sound--even though he was going to make no money on the deal since I was buying used. Well, he was right. Although the Sistrums are very strong (can hold 300 lbs/shelf), they do have some small movement when nudged that I'm not a fan of--I build decks every now and then for friends or neighbors and take great pride in building a brick of a deck. The sound of my equipment when put on that Sistrum rack was the so much more clear, dynamic, live, and even louder sounding (volume control could be at 9:00 vs. 11:00 at the same volume level now). I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Robert also said you could remove all treatments form the room unless you wanted a couple diffusers. I sold my Real Traps Minis when I listened and found out absolutely no difference in sound with them at their locations or removed now that I had the Sistrums. Sure don't miss their look and that saved some money too. My system consists of a Modwright 9100 Signature cd/sacd with all the mods, super Lenco turntable (100lb. plinth designed ala Jean Nantais' Home Depot thread), Edge M6 amp, Audible Illusions 3A/w John Curl phono, and VMPS RM40 with all the options. There may be a better sounding rack made somewhere at some price, but I'm NOW a believer in the Sistrum technology. The only drawback of the racks is the equipment sits on 3 points and thus you don't want to lean on any of it as the component can tip off. Not a problem for someone with half a brain, HOWEVER...the potential is there and if you have kids or a cat or a dog that's nosey, eh...I'm getting the marvelous RTS couplers soon to strap each component to the rack that also drain vibrations to the ground quickly and will make the sound even better with another leap in quality of sound plus absolutely eliminate the possibility of the tipping component. Sorry this was so long, but I thought you might like some detailed info.
