Timber HiFi Racking - Questions for you all
Discussion
Dear All,
Your thoughts please. This is a serious question.
Background:
Big into hifi years ago but hadn't been into a hifi shop or bought a magazine for years. Until last week that is.
Whilst visiting family in Bath and awaiting said family to arrive, we usedd the time up browsing a high end hifi shop. I was showing my wife just how much money can be spent on top end hifi, and she was amazed at the cost of a lot of it.
I gave a knowing nod when she exclaimed at the price of a pair of floorstanders at 12K. However she was not as gobsmacked as I, when we checked the cost of a wooden hifi rack.
Now I make furniture for a living, fully bespoke furniture at that. I know how timber is bought, how much it costs, the different qualities there are, how you can buy waney edged, or square edged boards and also when you want, you can buy cheap timber blanks.
I also realise that there is a lot of 'Speculation' that's associated with hifi .... from replacement 'all singing all dancing power cables' to supporting turntables on bubble wrap (I really have heard this one) ..... all things that we are told adds an added dimension to the quality of the music we listen too. I have no real idea if this is correct or not.
Now when in that HIFI shop with the 12K speakers, I looked at said wooden hifi stand for sale at somewhere like £900.00 .
What I am after.
I have decided in my spare time in the coming months to design and build a modular hifi racking system. There is a steel fabricator down the road if needed and I am going to design and build it in predominantly MDF and solid timber. Not cheapo timber blanks. This will be designed for the use of seperates.
So I am after the thoughts of the HIFI PH collective as in what I should incorporate or any suggestions on design or materials I should use. Like I have stated before, it's so long since I was into the hifi scene that I haven't kept up with the latest thinking, plus I am really interested in your thoughts.
The two important points will be design and sound reproduction ..... the only real restriction is that it has to be in solid timber, or composite timber board material or a mixture of both, so it can be 100% made in my workshop, and if needed can contain some non decorative metalwork (ie for hidden support purposes only).
Basically imagine a child in a sweet shop ...... I'm here to put those dreams into reality.
All suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance.
Your thoughts please. This is a serious question.
Background:
Big into hifi years ago but hadn't been into a hifi shop or bought a magazine for years. Until last week that is.
Whilst visiting family in Bath and awaiting said family to arrive, we usedd the time up browsing a high end hifi shop. I was showing my wife just how much money can be spent on top end hifi, and she was amazed at the cost of a lot of it.
I gave a knowing nod when she exclaimed at the price of a pair of floorstanders at 12K. However she was not as gobsmacked as I, when we checked the cost of a wooden hifi rack.
Now I make furniture for a living, fully bespoke furniture at that. I know how timber is bought, how much it costs, the different qualities there are, how you can buy waney edged, or square edged boards and also when you want, you can buy cheap timber blanks.
I also realise that there is a lot of 'Speculation' that's associated with hifi .... from replacement 'all singing all dancing power cables' to supporting turntables on bubble wrap (I really have heard this one) ..... all things that we are told adds an added dimension to the quality of the music we listen too. I have no real idea if this is correct or not.
Now when in that HIFI shop with the 12K speakers, I looked at said wooden hifi stand for sale at somewhere like £900.00 .
What I am after.
I have decided in my spare time in the coming months to design and build a modular hifi racking system. There is a steel fabricator down the road if needed and I am going to design and build it in predominantly MDF and solid timber. Not cheapo timber blanks. This will be designed for the use of seperates.
So I am after the thoughts of the HIFI PH collective as in what I should incorporate or any suggestions on design or materials I should use. Like I have stated before, it's so long since I was into the hifi scene that I haven't kept up with the latest thinking, plus I am really interested in your thoughts.
The two important points will be design and sound reproduction ..... the only real restriction is that it has to be in solid timber, or composite timber board material or a mixture of both, so it can be 100% made in my workshop, and if needed can contain some non decorative metalwork (ie for hidden support purposes only).
Basically imagine a child in a sweet shop ...... I'm here to put those dreams into reality.
All suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance.
Edited by Wozy68 on Sunday 28th July 21:36
I think people expect it to cost a lot of money so it does. Generic furniture doesn't meet the needs of the hi-fi fan and specific stuff is expensive because it does. It took me ages to find a cabinet that supported my needs for an enclosed TV cab with flexible shelving, ventialtion and cable routing. Got something semi bespoke in the end and had to have it modified to meet the cable/ventilation requirement.
Just to add Ventilation, this kit runs hot in many cases.
Just to add Ventilation, this kit runs hot in many cases.
There are two schools of thought (that I'm aware of).
One that says it needs to solid and very inert (non resonant).
The other says that 'wobbly' is good.
If you're building to accommodate a turntable, then the shelf for the turntable requires some extra density.
I've seen all manner of different methods of achieving inertness - to sandwiches of different timber, and even glass / timber sandwiches.
I suggest you Google - there's plenty of DIY info out there.
Whichever method is used, the goal is to try and limit/control resonances within the audio band. Some http://www.townshendaudio.com/hi-fi-home-cinema-vi... use decoupling/isolation, Mana Acoustics used the energy 'sink' method and were well thought of. Solid Wood/MDF/Ply type materials are extremely resonant and are very poor for making stands ( and speaker cabinets ) unless treated / damped in some way. Viscoelastic damping materials are easy to get hold of now http://www.studiospares.com/green-glue-single-tube... or http://www.genfab.co.uk/acatalog/3M__Damping_Polym... will help a lot if you plan to make a rack or stand with wooden uprights and/or wooden shelves.
Alternatively, laminated shelves made with glass & low shore rubber can work very well, if the correct adhesives are used. Hollow uprights usually benefit from being filled with dry (Kiln dried) sand.
Good luck.
Alternatively, laminated shelves made with glass & low shore rubber can work very well, if the correct adhesives are used. Hollow uprights usually benefit from being filled with dry (Kiln dried) sand.
Good luck.
Edited by Crackie on Wednesday 3rd July 19:47
Not sure if any help, but recently replaced my old hifi stand with one from HiFi Racks which looks to fit in with your assessment of pretty expensive for some (admittedly) fairly heavy chunks of wood.
What I did find is that each tier is isolated from the one below via metal spikes sitting on metal cups, the turntable sitting on the top tier used to suffer from jumps if one walked past it heavily. The new stand, you can prety much jump up and down near it and the turntable appears very well isolated.
Don't know if this helps in any way, but agree that the prices of this stuff are not cheap, but it does look pretty smart - we went for the oak shelves with black legs and stainless steel spikes.
What I did find is that each tier is isolated from the one below via metal spikes sitting on metal cups, the turntable sitting on the top tier used to suffer from jumps if one walked past it heavily. The new stand, you can prety much jump up and down near it and the turntable appears very well isolated.
Don't know if this helps in any way, but agree that the prices of this stuff are not cheap, but it does look pretty smart - we went for the oak shelves with black legs and stainless steel spikes.
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