Best HiFi rack shelve material ?

After reading the best speaker enclosure material, I started wondering what would be the best material for replacing shelves on an old Target or Apollo rack , around 15mm to 18mm thick and capable of supporting some weight ?

 

acrylic would be good but prohibitively expensive.

you could try a mix of mdf, ply and bitumen, if made up slightly bigger you could sand the edges for quite a nice finish.

 

Definitely acrylic.

 

Out of curiousity, why?

 

low resonance, it looks nice etc, but is silly money in that thickness.

I should think the mdf etc will be as good, and could look nice too, oh and will be cheap to boot.

or just leave the glass + focal pods? don't see why not.

but I guess the original question was what is the best. acrylic should be the best if cost is not a problem.
then again if that is the case buy a load of mana wall shelves, ugly but better isolation that a rack. because of the floor not being directly coupled with the wall etc.

 

I dispute that a rack on a solid floor is inferior to a wall shelf fixed to a stud wall bouncing around as a passive radiator!

 

Another one of my never-got-round-to-finishing projects. Composite honeycomb board - sometimes referred to as aerolam given its usage in the aviation industry. High stiffness to weight ratio. Expect to pay around £50 for a sheet sufficient to make a rack shelf from.

http://www.plascore.com/
http://www.coretexgroup.co.uk/

 

I would use simple thick plywood.

 

well maybe, but no mention of material for walls was mentioned, or floors for that matter, so I assumed brick or block, there is normally an outside wall availabe in most rooms, so I would still go for the wall rack for the best isolation, I have a normal target 6 shelf rack btw
just a 2" thick piece of solid pine hollowed out and filled with lead sheet and silicone sealant, under the preamp. this combination of lead and wood is very dead sounding, but is way too thick to be used on anything but the thinnest of equipment.

anyway I am quite happy with the isolation this offers as it is on a concrete floor and on spikes, but if I had problems I would use a wall mount for sure.

 

Audio Racking

I bought a 4 shelf set of Quadrasphere shelving second hand for £150. I believe that they can be have secondhand from various dealers. Quadrasphere units are superb

 

So a few suggestions.......

for my two pence worth, I'd look to combine 2 x 6mm mdf with a 18mm stiff light foam centre[foamed butyl rubber]. This has given me a very rigid light shelf that has the ability to damp the higher freqs getting back into your kit. This is easily tested using a stethescope [...go ask your doctor for an old one....as they get them free from drug companies]. use a ball bearing 10-15mm dropped from say 15cm on to the floor[no carpet]. listen first to the floor ,then the rack, then the old shelf and then the new one ....I was impressed by this simple solution. Attenuation of higher freqs was about 40%.

total cost £30...and that left enough mdf and butyl rubber to make four more shelves.

 

How about a paving slab cut to size ? I've been thinking about doing this for the top shelf of my rack, for the turntable. Finish it off with some smoothrite, should look nice and be very inert.

What do you guys think?

 

I use 30mm thick granite. Heavy is good imo.

 

Where do you get it from, if you don't mind me asking.

 

A place that makes granite worktops. The cut-outs from sinks and off-cuts are usually good sizes, and they will cut it for a modest fee. Some bits might even be free. I paid about £45 for the 4 shelves of my rack (which are different sizes, but they're ok.

 

I find heavy is bad as is glass.