AV Racks. What difference does it make?

A good solid support for the turntable, and perhaps the CD player is obviously a good idea. The notion that it needs to be "designed" in some exotic way, and cost more than any good piece of furniture is ridiculous.

Vectorman67....A slight correction...Error "correction" does not interpolate data points. It recovers the original data values through processing of the redundancy in the data stream. Hence, error correction is not undesirable. In fact, to transmit a maximum amount of information the hardware should be operated at so high a frequency that correctable errors do occur. The error correction process permits this...if the hardware had to operate without any errors it would have to be run much slower.

Of course, at some point errors occur so frequently that the original data values cannot be recovered. When that happens, interpolation is used. If things get really bad, the machine gives up and quits.

Twl...Cool it! Those who disagree with you may be just as experienced and knowledgable as you. You can't prove a technical point by personal insults.

OK everyone...Question.... is there ANY idea that you would dismiss as being wrong without taking the time and trouble to try it out? (In other words "ridiculous" in your opinion).

What if I told you that Side 1 of an LP sounds better when played during odd hours of the clock, and side B during even hours?

To go back to my original comment...I completely agree that "a good solid support is important...) but I respectfully suggest that this is not hard to achieve, and should not cost much.

Many of my friends have some ridiculous ideas (who doesn't) but I still like them.

Stehno...My use of the word "ridiculous" really applied to the pricing policy of firms that sell racks, not to the people who buy them. Sorry if I offended. As sean pointed out, a low cost home-brew rack can be good. Figure out what characteristics to want heavy or light, rigid or compliant (shock mounts), enclosed or open (to acoustic input) etc. and then build it. It's not rocket science.

Of course, I forgot microphonic problems of tube gear (because it's a few years since I fought that battle)... it too could benefit, although my experience was that good mechanical design of the equipment, tube selection, and tube dampers or metalic tube covers were most important.

My source equipment mounts in a custom-build alcove that I constructed for extreme solidarity. Power amps live in the cellar. I have never experienced any problems with vibration...the background rumble level recorded on most LP's is greater than what I get from my turntable/pickup despite an elaborate subwoofer system that is good for 20 Hz.

Finally, cosmetics is a very valid consideration, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Materials don't have any natural frequency. They have properties like mass, elasticity, etc. Natural frequency is determined by the shape into which the material is formed, how it is attached to other objects or otherwise damped, and the abovementioned mechanical properties. Consider that you can make a whole belltower of bells, playing different notes, out of the same metal.

To be specific, the fiber board that speaker enclosures are usually made of can ring like a bell, or be completely dead, depending on the bracing and damping material included in the design.

Viggen...Shape, damping..AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES is what I said. Some materials are easier to make resonate than others. Bells are usually made of metal, not styrofoam. However, a metal structure can also be non-resonant if it is designed and built with that objective in mind.