'Racks'. Important? Best bang for $$?

I strongly recommend either building your own or getting a local carpenter to make you one to your design.

IMO Finite Element are probably the only racks worth spending a large amount on. If you're not willing to spend that kind of cash then I wouldn't bother with the cheaper common welded steel and glass racks. They always add an aggressive edge and reduce detail. Metal, glass, various minerals, MDF etc all have poor damping characteristics and won't remove micro vibration from the rack. Wood is a much better choice of material as the varying density of the grain structure allows differing frequencies to be absorbed. Better still, and this is where it gets really good for your bank balance is ply. The lattice grain structure of ply is almost taylor made for damping varied resonances from components and it's cheap. Ideally make the whole rack out of ply and if you have to use spikes for leveling purposes, sit the whole rack on a large, at least 40mm thick ply plinth.

PM me if you'd like any contruction advice.

Hey Blindjim,

From what you've said I think you're well on your way to making a rack that would give 90% of what's available off the shelf (pardon the pun) a run for it's money. The wood you've already got, are they component sized blocks or just small footers ? If you've got component sized butchers block type pieces then all you need are uprights and some joining hardware. Basically three legs of some description, two on one side and one in the centre of the other side. I've experimented with independently spiked ply shelves (in comparison to one piece leg supports) that are then stacked on top of each other and there was a slight difference but I'm not convinced it was positive. Don't forget a spike is omnidirectional so it's pretty good at moving resonances up as well as down the rack. Like I said, I would get some solid wood or ply (if you haven't guessed I like ply) for the legs and then some screw-in (usually with a 5 or 6mm allen key) inserts that have a internal 6mm thread. Mount these into the sides of the wooden shelves/blocks you have, two holes per leg/per shelf. Then drill through the legs to align with the holes, leaving at least 10cm clearence on top of each component. Countersink the holes in the legs and use coresponding sized countersunk allen headed screws to attach the legs to the inserts. The only difficulty I see you having if your using solid wood for the shelves is when you have to drill into the end grain to mount the inserts. I usually make a clampable template for the drill when doing this as there is no way you will be able to drill consistantly straight holes into end grain with a hand drill. Like I previously said, I would then suggest putting the whole rack on a think ply plinth. The plinth only needs to be slightly larger than the outer legs of the rack. In my experience a plinth beats spiking hands down unless your making speaker stands which obviously need to be ridgid to allow the piston drivers to work effectively.

Anyway hope that helps and remember, measure twice, cut/drill once !

Fishboat/all,

I think some of that Soundown acoustic foam glued/sandwiched inbetween some thin siff wooden sheets like ply (oh no not again) would definitely be worth a try. Don't forget the vibrations and resonances you're trying to damp are very high frequency so high mass structures aren't IMO the way to go.

Blindjim,

I prefer two legs on one side and one on the other. It makes access to the rear of the components much easier. Like I said I've tried independently splke shelves and there was very little difference V's one piece legs, both using 1" width maple ply. As you said you could put a slot in the legs rather than a basic butt joint but you need a router I guess.

Jadem6, Have you tried making a rack out of ply ? I think you'll find it's lighter, more than rigid enough and damps vibration far better than any metal. I think there's an argument to be made but mutiple layered composite materials like carbonfibre for instance, but metals are in general very poor for absorbing/damping vibration. There's a reason various musical instruments, photographic supports etc stay away from metals.