Hanging Audio Rack?

Hi JD. I was being a bit provocative, albeit trying not to criticise "being American and all", by pointing out that I think "you all" (if I can use that term mate?) have a tad too much faith in throwing mass at an engineering problem. I do believe that light and rigid gets out of the way of the music better. I don't like much British equipment but their light and rigid approach seems to work. But I don't believe a floppy floor under the rack is good either. I really don't know the best way to bolster the floor as it is difficult to experiment. But I recall Caterham1700 (who knows much more about this than me) stating in another post that the biggest source of vibration energy muddying up the sound of our systems was in the ground under our houses. So direct coupling our gear to the ground does not sound right to me. If I am honest, I too have felt that a massive support must surely be less subject to vibration than something very light. But if you ponder on the physics theory you realise that the more massy support vibrates with the same energy as the light support, but holds on to that energy longer. There are times when I have been fooled into thinking a massy support sounds better, only to realise later that the music was robbed of energy and that there was smeering at low frequencies (which some like since it adds bass weight). The execution of light and rigid is also not easy - the principle problem being getting a shelf that is light and rigid, but also appropriately damped.

O.K. Red, I'm following so far. The shelf of course we've discussed at length and I believe as you do that the Nueance is as good a solution as we've found so far. If we're acceptant of that statement, then the next issue is the interface between the shelf and the support. Again I feel very confident that you have provide some excellent recommendations on that topic. The next issue is the rack or base for the shelf. I'm personally at the point of wanting to investigate racks, construction methods, and design philosophy. I have gotten some good input from Caterham 1700 off site and hope some of the products he's trying work out. In the mean time I was thinking of trying some D.I.Y. systems just to get more in tune with the issues. The first question that comes to mind for me is material. I wonder if steal is the best material to use or is it just used because that's what was used in the past? Is brass, aluminum, graphite, or whatever a better choice? I realize the difficulties of working with aluminum or graphite vs the ease of steal, but have the other options been explored? I was also wondering if welded is the best solution vs, bolting with isolation between each member. Any thought on these ideas?

I use a Billy Bags Tripod rack filled with sand. I then suspend my Dac from the rack with mon filiment fishline. I use a medium weigth spring between the fishline and the Dac to help absorb any low frequency transmission. I decouple the fsihline from the rack with a small swatch of EAR Iso-Damp. This very effectively isolates the Dac from the room/rack enviornment. Lastly I place a reasonable amount of the brown EAR damping sheets on all chassis serfuces of the Dac (I know, it looks lousy) to dampen any airborne feedback back into the Dac it self. This has produced very satifying sonics. My transport is isolated with a Nimbus air bearing platform whihc I would recommend over just about anything out there. It is exceptional and you can tune the platforms resonance almost infinitley. Good luck.

I love your post 90493m, I've copied it to my hard drive for future reference. You have some very creative approaches to isolation and I may need to play with some of them this year. Thanks for the thoughts, J.D.

Sorry JD, been away on the boat again, and just saw your post. I like 3mm thick bright steel in an L-section and welded not bolted, from the playing around that I have done. I have tried aluminium and quite like it as a support for certain types of speakers - such as those British speakers that use Birch ply rather than MDF. But I was not so keen on it as an equipment rack. I have not tried either of graphite or brass, but would be doubtful of brass. Personally, I have stopped experimenting with supports because my only objective was to get something that worked very well, and that was not letting the rest of the system down - and I believe I have achieved that.