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E&OE Copyright 2010-
Equipment Supports
Solidsteel S2 Series
The S2 series from Solid Steel offers great value for money, with a simple, clean and timeless design. The black mdf shelves are held together by the black aluminium threaded legs making for a strong and rigid assembly. The shelf spacing's are 220mm tall, making it suitable for most items and the only option is how many levels you would like. Spikes and spike ‘shoes’ are included.
Solidsteel S2-
Solidsteel S2-
Solidsteel S2-
Quadraspire Q4 Evo
The Q4 Evo is an evolution of the design that started it all for Quadraspire. It’s is a modular rack system that is both beautifully crafted and very stylish. The shelves are now made only from bamboo, with 4 different finishes -
Each tier comes with a set of 32mm diameter legs or feet finished in either Silver or Black with heights of 100mm, 140mm, 180mm, 216mm, 256mm and 326mm.
The shelves have an external width of 59cm and depth of 39.5cm (from the tips of the corners to the rear), with an internal width of 49cm (assuming the 19mm legs are chosen).
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The top shelf can also be upgraded with the Bronze upgrade kit, please see here for more details
Quadraspire have an excellent ‘product builder’ section on their Quadraspire website, which makes designing a rack very easy.
The Q4 Evo is fully interchangeable with its predecessor, the classic Q4 rack, the difference is the new Evo version has some resonance reducing slots machined into the underside of each shelf (pictured below), which are effectively invisible in normal usage.
Quadraspire Q4L Evo
The Q4L is a deeper Quadraspire rack with the same appearance and finish options as the Q4Evo detailed above. The depth is a more substantial at 47cm from the tips of the curve to the back.
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The top shelf can also be upgraded with the Bronze upgrade kit, please see here for more details
Something Solid EXR equipment support
The EXR has been derived from the reference XR rack detailed below (EXR actually stands for Economy XR). This equipment support features many of the revolutionary elements found in the bigger version, including the tensioned shelf supports. The frame uses a thinner steel skeleton but it’s still made from solid bar rather than hollow tube and is available with plywood shelves rather than the more expensive Dissipating Shelves found on the XR. The bottom shelf can also be placed directly upon the frame when using it for less critical items, saving the cost of another tensioner.
This rack is remarkable, as it offers real hi end performance at a very reasonable cost. Equipment placed upon it sounds more dynamic, unstressed and refined with improvements in timing and speed. It is also remarkably adept at extracting a lot more performance from budget items than you’d ever expect, and is one of the first upgrades we’d suggest for the audiophile on a budget. What’s more the rack can easily be upgraded as your budget and system allows.
The EXR rack measures 76cm tall (excluding spikes), 58cm wide and 42cm deep. The shelves are 46cm wide and 36cm deep (deeper pieces of equipment can overhang the shelves if necessary).
EXR rack components
EXR frame in Black: £200.00
Standard shelves
19mm Birch plywood shelves (natural or stained): £35 each
Tensioner to support and suspend shelves -
Optional upgrades:
DS2 Dissipating Shelf (Balsa and plywood laminate): £125each
DDS2 Double Dissipating Shelf (double balsa ply sandwich), the lightest and best sounding option: £250 each
Missing Link feet (optional special offer) to support the rack for best performance: £110 for four when purchased with a rack.
The most common EXR racks are supplied as a 3 or 4 tier, and if they are specified with the plywood shelves and without the Missing Link feet this gives a price of £380 for the 3 tier and £440 for the 4 tier (prices assume all shelves are on tensioners, as mentioned above the bottom shelf could sit on the frame saving the cost of one tensioner if desired).
Quadraspire SVT
The SVT (Sunoko Vent Table) from Quadraspire takes the Q4Evo recipe featured elsewhere here and takes it even further. The shelves feature brass inserts that the aluminium uprights sandwich which allows the rack to be tensioned more firmly and provides a more distinct path for the vibration. The shelves themselves feature cuts which reduce mass and have the additional benefit of allowing more convection for hot running items of equipment. Overall dimensions are the same as the Q4Evo range above.
Each tier comes with a set of beautifully subtly fluted 32mm diameter legs finished in either Silver or Black with heights of 100mm, 140mm, 180mm, 216mm, 256mm and 326mm
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The top shelf can also be upgraded with the Bronze upgrade kit, please see here for more details
Something Solid XR equipment support
Regular visitors to the store (and even this website) may have noticed that we are big fans of the Something Solid range of speaker stands. We use them under almost all of the speakers we recommend and feel they represent by far and away the best value for money of any design available today.
However, until now Something Solid have not offered an ultimate equipment support, instead concentrating on affordable entry level racks. But the XR featured here changes all of that.
The basic frame has many of the ideas already seen in the XF speaker stands (i.e. Steel rod skeletal construction), yet it is the shelves and their supports where things start to get really interesting.
A variety of different types of shelves are available (see below) but for the best performance the Dissipating shelf is mandatory. These are constructed from end grain Balsa on an plywood base, edge veneered with a Maple real wood veneer. Each shelf includes a set of dissipating feet which use Carbon fibre pads attached to yet more balsa end grain to go underneath the individual item.
The shelves themselves are suspended on a tensioned Polythene chord which is exceptionally strong (many times greater than steel) that can easily be moved to vary the spacing between shelves for different components.
Above: Shown with one shelf removed, you can see the shelf support with adjustable tensioner just visible at the back
When compared to conventional (or many other hi end) racks it becomes apparent that they are adding an awful lot of colourations which tilt the tonal balance in a very false manner, placing an emphasis and resonance at particular frequencies.
The overriding impression of the XR is one of a very natural sound that is unforced yet in no way lacking the dynamic contrasts of other designs -
The XR rack measures 81cm tall (excluding spikes), 59cm wide and 42.5cm deep. The shelves are 46cm wide and 36cm deep (deeper pieces of equipment can overhang the shelves if necessary).
Pricing:
XR rack components
XR frame in Black: £250.00
Recommended shelves
DS2 Dissipating Shelf (Balsa and plywood laminate) : £125each
DDS2 Double Dissipating Shelf (double balsa ply sandwich), the lightest and best sounding option: £250 each
Alternative shelves
19mm Birch plywood shelves (natural or stained), lower performance but cheaper shelf: £35 each
Tensioner to support and suspend shelves -
Optional upgrade:
Missing Link feet (optional special offer) to support the rack for best performance: £110 for four when purchased with a rack.
The most common XR racks are supplied as a 3 or 4 tiers, assuming the DS Dissipating Shelves are specified (highly recommended) then the price for a 3 tier would be £700 and a 4 tier would be £850. We would strongly recommend that the Missing Link feet are used beneath these (or any) rack, if these are purchased at the same time as the rack then they add £110 (a saving over their normal price).
Heretic Audio ‘The Rack’ equipment support
Above: 3 tier ‘The Rack’ sitting on optional Something Solid Missing Link feet (not included, but always recommended)
The Heretic Audio ‘The Rack’ is our reference equipment support system. It is made almost entirely from wood, with a precision CNC cut Birch Ply frame that interlocks together and is effectively tied into place with tensioned cords. These cords not only serve to damp the whole assembly, but they also suspend the shelves -
The frame is extremely low mass and low resonance, both of which we feel are extremely important in achieving the best sound from the items placed upon it. The shelves are a ply wood framed and backed with a top layer made from end grain balsa wood. This fantastic material helps transfer and damp the vibration very efficiently, without adding large spikes of resonance. Matching balsa and carbon fibre feet are supplied to be placed between the shelf and the underside of equipment to help complete their connection to one another.
This rack has a very natural, neutral and even presentation, with excellent dynamics and faithful tonal colouring. In comparison, every other hifi rack tends to sound coloured, dynamically constrained or forced, and it makes you realise just how much potential you are missing from your equipment. Recommended without hesitation for use with any hi-
Dimensions Size:shelf size 46cm wide by 36cm deep
Frame external dimensions: Height 80cm excluding spikes, width 63.5 and 50cm depth.
Finishes: Natural (as pictured), various stains available to special order.
Heretic Audio The Rack 3 tier: £1,000
Heretic Audio The Rack 4 tier: £1,150
Quadraspire X Reference & X Reference Signature
Above: X Reference Rack 3 tier rack with Cherry Bamboo shelves and 400mm tall legs
I’ve been listening to quite a few hi-
So it came as quite a breath of fresh air to finally spend some decent time listening to the X reference rack from Quadraspire.
I’ll start with a brief description. The look will be familiar as it has many styling queues from other Quadraspire models, but look closer and a few things become obvious. First, this is a pretty lightweight rack, and that’s a good thing,as lower mass stores less energy and all things being equal sonically results in a cleaner sound, which tends to time better and sounds more open.
Also rigidity has not been chased at the exclusion of everything else, and again, I would say this is a very good thing. Make something ultra rigid and you make the resonance's more obvious by focusing them into one narrow bunch of frequencies. Allow a degree of decoupling (ideally without adding elastomers) you help spread the resonance's and reduce their audibility significantly.
Different materials have been used throughout, and this I feel too helps spread around resonance's and reducing the dominance of one materials tonal character.
The X shaped structural frame of the rack is made from mdf, with as much material cut away to reduce its mass. Upon this the lightened bamboo shelves are supported on bronze spikes, where even the cups that the points rest upon are not rigidly fixed (but securely mounted nonetheless). The uprgihts are made from aluminium, and like the bronze pieces are turned from solid bar and beautifully made.
So on to the important bit, how it sounds, or rather as is the case with a good rack, how it doesn’t sound. I would have to say that this is up amongst the very best sounding racks I’ve come across, for overall balance and neutrality it is very impressive. It is open, sounding large, natural and expansive as the recording requires. it’s fast too and doesn’t hang onto notes, allowing them to finish when they should (which I know sounds odd when typed, but is oh so obvious when heard), the bass times well and doesn’t sound thick and ponderous like manufacturers other racks at this price point. So it’s a resounding recommendation from us and is clearly a very well thought through design, not following fashion but doing its own thing and I think it’s a great hit sonically.
It is sold per level (prices below) so if you need 3 tiers then the prices are a multiple of x3 below, for example.
Above the X Reference is the Signature version, this has different finishes to both the aluminium and bamboo shelves, both changing the way they resonate and in pursuit of the very last performance improvement (albeit at a higher price).
The shelve spacings are available at 200, 250, 300, 350 and 400m but please note that due to the height lost to the spiked Bamboo shelf you do lose 70mm of internal usable height from these measurements.
Prices and Finishes:
X Reference. Isolated shelf finished in Natural bamboo, Cherry Bamboo, Dark Bamboo, and Black Bamboo. Structural shelf matt black. Legs matt black.: £1,280 per tier
X Reference Signature: Isolated shelf finised in Nextel Black only, with structural shelf in either Nextel Black or Nextel Orange (see pictures below). Avilable only with Natural aluminium Legs (silver): £1,600 per tier.
Above: The two different finishes available on the X Reference Signature