Stand and deliver.

I have been using an Ikea kitchen stand to house my gear for the past couple of years. My only gripe is that it won't house full width electronics on the shelves beneath. I realise to many that this will be an act of heresy as it does not fit in with the dedicated support ethos. however, my experience over the years having owned many of the different and expensive stands is that they don't deliver sonically. I do sense a lot of snake oil with regards to expensive equipment supports and stands. I would be interested in peoples views and also if people are using none kosher stands and supports. Would love to hear from you or even get some ideas from you. I have housed my support into my fireplace.

Cheers

The Petch:)

I use Ikea Lack. It works for me. My laptop, dac and amp don't seem to be affected by me slapping them, so why would they be affected by tiny vibrations from any other source? I have rubber feet under the front of my dac to tilt up the screen and rubber feet under my laptop because the fan vibrates through the LACK amplifying its mechanical noise. Nothing comes out of the speakers though.

My turntable is suitably isolated though with an air-bladder.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7181/6...7e8476cc_c.jpg

Some people claim to have great success with supports, I've never found it an issue.

I have only ever bought second hand Sound Organization tables (some 3 shelf and some 5) mainly because years ago every one thought the black tubular steel look was not of the moment (or the wife gave them an ultimatum!)

As they were about £10 - £15 a pop I think they sound fine. I have no desire to ever use anything else.

Now....bring on the naysayers....:popcorn:

I've been looking into this of late, call it a coffee table, it's £150, call it a HiFi stand and the same thing is £800+. I've bought a 4000mm oak worktop, which is going to be turned into a very nice 4 tier unit costing £250ish.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sq225917

I use Ikea Lack. It works for me. My laptop, dac and amp don't seem to be affected by me slapping them, so why would they be affected by tiny vibrations from any other source? I have rubber feet under the front of my dac to tilt up the screen and rubber feet under my laptop because the fan vibrates through the LACK amplifying its mechanical noise. Nothing comes out of the speakers though.

My turntable is suitably isolated though with an air-bladder.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7181/6...7e8476cc_c.jpg

Some people claim to have great success with supports, I've never found it an issue.

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We were in Ikea this norning :mental: Looking for ideas for the inpending house move.
The Lack stuff is really good value and very strong and solid, the Tv stand would make a great hi/fi rack and they are only £45. I was thinking of getting 2 and just stacking them, that would house all my gear.

About £120 when I got this from Superfi, quite solid with glass shelves

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/s...6/P1020716.jpg

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Originally Posted by phoenixpete

. . . the Tv stand would make a great hi/fi rack and they are only £45. I was thinking of getting 2 and just stacking them, that would house all my gear.

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Not sure who it was, but somebody else here has done that very same thing and was extremely pleased by the results.

I was going to suggest IKEA Lack but obviously it's no secret. If you're not going to go to the giddy heights of my Sold Tech or Marco's Mana Mania, then a Lack or two seems like a good bet.

Always perform secondary isolation wherever you can, though. Examples are Isonoe feet under a Technics deck, sorbothane feet under small electronics like DACs, Aurios MIB bearings, Stillpoints/Vertax etc. If you're on a budget, go to e-Bay and buy a job-lot of medium size sorbothane dome feet and put them under everything. You will be surprised at what a difference such a cheap mod does to the sound.

Or go DIY & build a fridge :rfl:

Seriously though, the Ikea Lack stuff looks the business, & if I didn't happen to be a DIY nerd I'd have probably gone the very same route :D

I built a couple of supports out of Lack coffee tables. Here's a photo from a couple of years ago:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48...i/CIMG2286.jpg

Each layer is isolated from the other with spikes. They took a few days to modify but they've worked really well for over two years. The only down side is that they're not as strong as solid wood. So you have to place heavier equipment down gently and make sure that you don't over load them. Other than that they're great and an absolute bargain.

Buy whatever type of furniture does the trick, there's no right and wrong to it, but in general terms, the more you can isolate what your kit is sitting on, the better. Many mix up isolation with coupling. Spikes couple, sorbothane or rubber isolate. Spikes are generally there to help level a piece of kit (CD players and TT's should be as level as you can get them). Sorbothane turns vibrational energy into heat energy by absorption. There are many other DIY materials you can use too to help isolate, so building an effective kit rack on a budget is easily doable. I like the IKea stuff but avoid MDF since it has terrible damping properties. Chip-board is better, ply better still.

Well, yes and no, although materials like Sorbothane do isolate, they do not do so in an entirely linear manner (nothing does) and this can lead to the perception of increased colouration if not used in an optimal manner (which it rarely is in hi-fi applications). The matching of Sorbothane to load, relative to isolation frequency, is discussed in detail on the Sorbothane website.

By the same token, as you say, spikes generally couple rather than isolate. However, they will not couple equally at all frequencies and amplitudes.
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I would also say that It's rather a broad statement to say MDF has poor damping etc. It depends very much on what density and stiffness of grade you are looking at and what result you are looking for - do you want to maximise broad band attenuation or rapid decay, for example. There are many grades of MDF, just as there are for chipboard and ply - what may be appropriate for a specific speaker cabinet is not necessarily true for another application.

I enquired about the weight the Lack TV bench would safely support from Ikea, and the reply I got said it was designed for a maximum of 65kgs.
So should be ok for most equipment. :)