So I don’t normally comment on forums much, I won’t assume that my opinion matters much but I’ll go the extra mile here for Arnold Marr over at Core Audio.
I now have three plyKraft 4L racks and an amp platform from Core Audio, ordered one at a time over a roughly 3 year span as I went full on a full on degenerate gear upgrade process. What I want to flag for anyone considering them — and this is the part that genuinely amazes me — is the consistency. If you set the three racks side by side and told me they were cut from the same lot on the same afternoon, I’d believe you. Tone, grain, figure, color match — it’s uncanny. That kind of wood selection discipline over multiple years, from a small shop, is something you just don’t see anymore. Somebody is paying very close attention at every step, from sourcing through layup through finish, and the result is that you can add to your system years later without ending up with a mismatched piece of furniture in the middle of your listening room. Most builders couldn’t pull that off if you handed them the original logs.
The craftsmanship and the detail work speak for themselves. The shelves are dead quiet, the architecture is rigid, the hardware is right, and the finish is the kind of thing your guests notice before they notice anything else in the room. Edges, joinery, fit and feel of the threaded hardware, the way the shelves seat — all of it is dialed in. Nothing creaks, nothing rings, nothing shifts. They’re heirloom-grade pieces that happen to also be doing serious mechanical work under your gear. Honest truth — people comment on the racks more than they comment on the CH Precision sitting on top of them. That’s not a knock on CH, its a compliment to what Arnold builds. These racks punch well above their weight, and once you live with them you start to understand why so many people end up with more than one.
Sonically, the contribution is exactly what you want from a rack: nothing added, plenty subtracted. The noise floor drops, transients tighten up, low-level information that used to live just under the surface starts to come forward, and the soundstage settles into place with more authority. It’s the kind of upgrade you don’t fully appreciate until you put your gear back on whatever you were using before, and suddenly everything sounds smeared and tense. A rack shouldn’t have a "sound," and these don’t — they just let your components do what they’re supposed to do without fighting them.
I’ve also had Arnold do some bespoke acoustic panels and those are next level. This is where his real strength shows up. he’ll accommodate custom orders within reason (sorry Arnold if you are reading this, I didn’t mean to toss you under the bus here!!!), he genuinely listens to what you’re trying to accomplish, and he’ll work with you until you land on a solution that actually solves the problem rather than just selling you what’s already on the shelf. He’ll ask the right questions about your room, your setup, your aesthetic constraints, and what you’re hearing that you don’t want to hear, and then he’ll come back with something thoughtful. Open to ideas, collaborative, no ego about it. That’s rare. Most builders at this level have a house style and you either take it or leave it. Arnold meets you where you are.
Communication throughout is exactly what you’d hope for from a small shop run by someone who cares. He responds, he’s honest about lead times, he tells you what’s possible and what isn’t, and he doesn’t oversell. Packaging and shipping are first rate — these things show up the way they left, which matters when you’re talking about pieces this heavy and this carefully finished. Mine showed up in triple ply cardboard wrapped with care, and the panels showed up in a custom crate.
Is he cheap? No. But when in the history of man has quality ever been cheap? You’re paying for materials, time, craft, and a guy who actually cares whether the thing is right when it leaves his shop. Worth every dollar, and worth the wait. Arnold is one of the genuine good guys in this hobby and Core Audio Designs has my unreserved recommendation. If you’re on the fence, get off it — you won’t regret it, and odds are you’ll be back for a second one.
