Equipment Rack - How important in the grand scheme of things?

Hi,
first get an appropriate rack, look upmarket considering your invstment, racks are equipment and are expensive. Then you can further investigate for room treatment. Let your equipment breathe and throw away all supports. A well designed rack will let them sound as were supposed to do.

I have entered a direct link to my system to make it easier to view my particular audio stand example.  Mike will make a stand according to your dimensions.  The unit is very heavy and inert.  I measured every surface and angle myself on the finished unit.  Every dimension is exact.  Note the side openings make for adequate ventilation.

A brief note Mike sent me early in the process to indicate that no detail is overlooked in the building of his stands:

"One of the things I do that is different than any other wood stand builder is I not only notch the supports ( which is all the other guys do) I also notch the shelves. So they lock together."

...and also,

"I use only dyes, no stains, I use only alcohol or waterborne finishes. Please be very leary of any audio stand that uses oil-based finishes ie, lacquer, they can color the sonics of your system, and never for the good."

You can easily spend $5K or $10K for a stand of this quality if you can find one on the same level.  You can even spend many multiples of this on a Stillpoints or HRS unit.  However, why pay for marketing with little or no demonstrable sonic benefit over the Saluda River Audio Stand?

The beauty of the stand is quite something.  My wife has absolutely no interest in anything audio.  However, when she saw the finished stand she was as happy as I was and could not stop looking at it.  She is actually encouraging me to order the matching amp stands so as not to waste the remainder of the custom dye color Mike has remaining.

Here is my Audiogon system link:

https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8501

I hope all this helps!

.

@kodak805 - Beautiful looking stand (and nice system). Can I ask how much your stand cost you? 

Thanks,
Jay

Hi!

The stand was $1995.00 for a five shelf unit measuring 24" wide x 18" deep x 44" in height.  The vertical spacing is 8 " above each shelf.  I chose the dimensions and Mike confirmed with a line drawing on graph paper e-mailed to me.  He never made a 5 shelf vertical stand prior to mine.  He had to construct special gigs for the spacing of the many notches involved for mine.

Regarding the cost:  $400.00 of this was for the custom color dye he had to mix for the exact shade I wanted.  A standard dye would be much less.  He only charged me $50.00 for personal delivery to my home.

I mentioned photo progress:  Mike even e-mailed me pictures of the raw wood maple boards he picked out at his lumber supplier before he began building the stand.

Mike's customer service is exemplary as is the quality and care of his finished product.

i hope i helped you to make a fair decision.

The wood rack you shared is truly gorgeous.  I recently bought a rack from Timbernation.  It looks much like the one shown in link provided with Tiger wood maple shelves - 2 inches thick and for me, I had the legs died dark cherry to match the wood color in my speakers.  Mine is 3 tiers and must weigh about 200 llbs.  I paid for Nickel Cones for the four feet of the rack.  All told, including shipping it was $2450.  Better sound than what I had before.  I don't think so.  Does it look better.  Absolutely.  In a most aesthetic way it displays what I've ended up with in the way of my ideal audio system.