Stand and Rack Reviews

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Stand and Rack ReviewsThink Pieces
Bob Katz on Loudspeaker Isolation
Jim Austin  |  Dec 14, 2020  |  29 comments
(Photo by Mary Kent)

Of late, Stereophile has written a lot about vibration-isolating footers under loudspeakers. The idea of isolating loudspeaker vibrations from floors is controversial. Many (perhaps most) designers believe that dynamic loudspeakers in particular—those with significant moving mass in their cones—should be rigidly connected to the floor as is typically done with spikes. A rigid connection of the speaker to the floor reduces the Newton-1 reactive motion of the cabinet in response to the motion of the cones, heavy woofers in particular. Cabinet motion could be expected to smear the loudspeaker's sound.

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Stand and Rack Reviews
Grand Prix Audio Monza equipment supports
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Nov 01, 2019  |  29 comments
Why?

That's the question that many will ask about the new Grand Prix Monza equipment rack, prices for which start at $19,000 for a four-tier, 42"-tall rack and can even stretch to $29,500 for my review sample, which comprises a double-width, fourtier, 42"-tall rack (two side-by-side stacks of four shelves each) with two matching Monza amp stands. Why spend all that money when a solid oak table, built-in shelving, or Great Aunt Tillie's antique cabinet might do the trick?

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Art Dudley ListeningPhono Cartridge ReviewsStand and Rack Reviews
Listening #186: Miyajima Saboten L phono cartridge
Art Dudley  |  May 22, 2018  |  4 comments
In the early 1960s, young people who were anxious see the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show had to first sit through a seeming eternity of bad comedians, bad puppet shows, and acrobats spinning dinner plates to the tune of Khachaturian's Sabre Dance. So it is here: Before I can get to the Miyajima Saboten L phono cartridge, I have to report on something I left out of my April 2018 column, which was devoted to Zu Audio's modification of the classic Denon DL-103 cartridge. And since this is information I've been holding on to for almost a year, I suppose I also left it out of my August 2017 column, which was devoted to the MusiKraft Audio's own modification of the Denon DL-103.
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Stand and Rack Reviews
Archidee TNX turntable stand
John Atkinson  |  Jan 04, 2016  |  First Published: Sep 01, 1990  |  0 comments
You can blame Casey McKee for this one. I found myself sitting next to Casey, who works at Brooklyn high-end dealer Innovative Audio (footnote 1), in the Phoenix rain last March, watching the first Formula One Grand Prix of the 1990 season. A month later, in New York for the High End Hi-Fi Show, I therefore thought it appropriate to visit Innovative and say "Hi." Audio pleasantries over, Casey enthused about this new Italian turntable stand he was setting up as I walked into the store, the oddly named ArchiDee.
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Art Dudley ListeningStand and Rack Reviews
Listening #93
Art Dudley  |  Sep 23, 2010  |  2 comments
One more word for unhappy consumers, in any marketplace, who confuse praise for the new with rebuke for the old: 20 years on, I continue to admire the best qualities of my Linn Sondek LP12 turntable (itself not the first LP12 I've owned). I smile to think of all the records I enjoyed during those two decades.
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Art Dudley ListeningStand and Rack Reviews
Listening #66
Art Dudley  |  Jun 25, 2008  |  0 comments
The subject comes up every now and then: Audio reviewers don't write nearly enough negative reviews. One old attention-seeker on Audio Asylum went so far as to characterize Stereophile and our would-be competitors as "happy face" magazines—a joke in which he seemed to take tremendous pride—simply because we hand out a lot of As and Bs. By that logic, assuming that a certain percentage of underachievers is inevitable in any population, our schools aren't handing out nearly enough Fs. (I have a suggestion for where they can begin.)
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Stand and Rack Reviews
Finite-Elemente Pagode Master Reference HD07 equipment rack
Brian Damkroger  |  Feb 19, 2006  |  0 comments
About once a week, I hear about some new audio accessory heralded by breathless claims of stunning performance gains that "you've got to hear for yourself." Most of these I ignore, and of those I do consider, nearly all wither when subjected to logical engineering analysis. Every so often, however, one of these wonder widgets finds its way into my system.
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Stand and Rack Reviews
OSAR Selway & Magruder audio/video racks
Wes Phillips  |  Jan 09, 2006  |  First Published: Jun 09, 1999  |  0 comments
There seems to be a fairly common evolution among audiophiles: First, they notice that there is better sound available than they have ever experienced before, so they buy (we hope!) better-sounding equipment—but sooner or later, upgrading becomes terrifically expensive, while the urge to improve the system remains constant. What to do then?
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Stand and Rack Reviews
Bright Star Audio Rack of Gibraltar 2 equipment rack
Brian Damkroger  |  Aug 01, 2004  |  First Published: May 01, 2000  |  0 comments
When American architect Louis Henri Sullivan said "form ever follows function" (footnote 1), he was referring to the transition from the 19th-century view of architecture, driven by aesthetic concerns, to the bold new 20th-century approach of beginning with a building's functions, and letting the design flow from there.
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The Fifth ElementHeadphone ReviewsStand and Rack Reviews
The Fifth Element #16
John Marks  |  Mar 23, 2003  |  0 comments
The lease said about my and my fathers trip from the Bureau of Manhattan to our new home the soonest mended. In some way ether I or he got balled up on the grand concorpse and next thing you know we was thretning to swoop down on Pittsfield.
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Stand and Rack Reviews
Grand Prix Audio Monaco Modular Component Isolation System
Paul Bolin  |  Dec 05, 2002  |  1 comments
It's no longer news that uncontrolled spurious vibration is one of the greatest threats to high-quality sound and video reproduction. Source components are, by themselves, a nightmare to isolate from the omnipresent vibrations in the environment. The intrusion of uncontrolled spuriae into the playback of LPs, CDs, SACDs, and DVDs has a deleterious and occasionally disastrous effect on the ability of the stylus or laser to precisely do its almost-molecular-scale job. Electronics are nearly as susceptible to such vibration-induced headaches as microphonics.
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Budget Component ReviewsStand and Rack Reviews
Black Diamond Racing The Shelf
Wes Phillips  |  Feb 23, 1996  |  0 comments
At the 1994 Summer CES, I was sitting in ProAc's room listening to Vangelis's Blade Runner score, when a couple of guys walked in carrying a shiny black board. "This is pretty interesting stuff," one of them said. "Want to hear it?"
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