How important is an audio rack?

The rack/platform makes a difference. If it makes for bad vibes, it will be almost impossible to compensate further up the chain.

Anything that wobbles is not good. Things that ring, such as glass shelves, undamped metal frames are to be avoided. Too much damping also degrades the sound, resulting in a lifeless presentation.

What I like: the custom plywood cabinet in my secondary system sounds great, better than the A/V cabinet that was made of a wood particle board. I chose Mapleshade for the main system. The sound is very slightly tilted to the lower midrange with my gear. The shelves are infinitley adjusable and the racks look fantastic.

What I don't like: I hated the Polycrstal rack, but it sold fast so it must work for some systems better than in mine. It was terrilbe with tube components, sucked the life right out of them. I have a Stand design rack that has a metal frame and catilevered shelfs which doesn't sound good either. It now resides in my office with a cheap receiver.

I would lean towards Mapleshade, Cambre Core, or Quadraspire. I think it's easy to go overboard with too much hi-tech material and overdamp/isolate the music right out.

Every material and construction has its own resonance signature. That's why you find turntable plinths, platters, and arms of acrylic, aluminum, magnesium, and so forth. Some tables are mass loaded, others light and rigid. Same thing with speaker cabinets, baffles, and drivers, all with different materials and construction. There are many different flavors and many ways to success or failure.

If you don't think it makes a difference, you are mistaken. If you can't hear a difference, I can't argue with that.

If your gear is that prone to resonance and vibrations maybe your using the wrong gear.
Gshepardbuster

Actually, it's the other way around. The higher the resolution of the component, the more likely you are to hear a difference. Not so much a problem for mass market and mid fi components.

Very few products at any price attempt to address internally generated harmonics or reduce externally transmitted vibration. Some CD players have sprung transports for example. There are amplifiers with floating circuit boards and Berning even uses Stillpoint devices in some of their amps to isolate the boards. Some of the casework on my VAC preamp is damped but it still is not immune to the stand or the room. All transformers create noise.

I generally find I like Stillpoints and spikes (although I don't buy into the vibration draining theory, whereby every resonance in the component is grounded through the spike)

Racks are expensive to try out, but maybe trying some of the footer tweaks would prove enlightening.

I am not familiar with the products from Box Furniture Company. I do know that Art Dudley from Stereophile has a piece of theirs on loan and seems to like it.

There was an article in Hi Fi+ by Roy Gregory awhile back documenting a demonstation performed at one of the RMAF shows. They set up a demo using the same equipment and speakers, only changing the set-up and substituting the equipment supports and cabling to demonstrate the audible advantages of proper support and cabling.