What is the deal with expensive HiFi racks?

[BeeKay]

Furniture pricing is weird

Which is very true when licensing for design classics comes into play.

 

[jsrtheta]

Can vibrations really impact electronics via the generation of tiny currents? Is microphony a thing or just a phony (!)

Gosh, I wonder if there's any way to test this? Or can you only sense this with no science and no controls?

It's a mystery...

 

[jsrtheta]

Chips with quartz crystals do react to pressure or temperature, so reducing vibrations might have some merit.

If only there were a way to test it....

 

[Palladium]

A scrwed-together plywood & angle iron Eames Storage Unit can be over ten grand (vintage) or two grand (new Herman Miller). Furniture pricing is weird.

Tons of IQ tax in furniture to be paid if you aren't thinking critically enough. I started noticing it that my motorized PC desk costs less than purely static stuff that are much physically smaller or how people are discarding perfectly fine old furniture for really cheap or even free on used sales websites.

 

[BeeKay]

If only there were a way to test it....

Pure theory. As you certainly know this would require a technical measurement apparatus, that had to be more sensitive than the human ear. You must be kidding!

 

[jsrtheta]

I feel like my music is vibrating as we speak. Maybe the plate tectonics? Whatever it is, it's creepy

Dear god...

 

[jsrtheta]

Jeeps Rule! Sounds like you had one hell of a time with that workhorse.

My favorite was a plain Cherokee Sport, no Grand. It saved me from my own stupidity many times.

"Hey, I wonder where that trail goes..."

 

[Mart68]

There was a series of articles in HiFi+ many years ago that reached exactly that conclusion, so maybe you weren't so wrong after all
I've been intending to buy an old drinks trolley for my equipment (want castors because the components are sat in front of a bookcase) but I worry about it sounding like all the musicians have had one Martini too many...

Sinatra will sound better at least

Actually I was looking at some system pictures on another forum and someone was using a modified drinks trolley (or possibly hostess trolley) as a rack.

 

[Barry_Sound]

Where exactly are these vibrations coming from?
What could be the cause of them?

Old apartment building, wooden floor, street in front the house with buses and trucks passing by

 

[Mart68]

What anti-vibration precautions are taken with critical systems such as in aircraft?

If a truck passing near a house can create a vibration strong enough to effect the working of a DAC to the extent that the error is audible to someone using it to listen to music, how would this effect, say, the autopilot system?

Over a flight of several thousand miles, even a tiny error in the autopilot performance would lead to the aircraft being hundreds of miles off its destination at the end of the flight.

What is done on aircraft to combat this issue, if it is an issue? And if the answer is 'nothing' then how is vibration massively affecting a DAC, but not an autopilot system?

 

[BeeKay]

What anti-vibration precautions are taken with critical systems such as in aircraft?

More for the case some soldered joints might rattle loose over time or for the protection of mechanical gyroscopes, I guess. None of the mechanical stress is found in audio system unless an earthquake is happening nearby.

 

[Barry_Sound]

What anti-vibration precautions are taken with critical systems such as in aircraft?

If a truck passing near a house can create a vibration strong enough to effect the working of a DAC to the extent that the error is audible to someone using it to listen to music, how would this effect, say, the autopilot system?

Over a flight of several thousand miles, even a tiny error in the autopilot performance would lead to the aircraft being hundreds of miles off its destination at the end of the flight.

What is done on aircraft to combat this issue, if it is an issue? And if the answer is 'nothing' then how is vibration massively affecting a DAC, but not an autopilot system?

No idea, what components of an autopilot are piezoeletric? CPU, GPU, RAM or SSDs are not.

 

[Mart68]

No idea, what components of an autopilot are piezoeletric? CPU, GPU, RAM or SSDs are not.

I don't know, nor do I know if any precaution is taken in terms of vibrations. I'm hoping someone else reading this thread does!

Regardless, audiophile anti-vibration products are touted as improving all component performance including computers, amplifiers, power supplies and other devices with no piezo-electric components.

 

[Down South]

Most commercial racks are made to look 'good' WAF factor and cost.

I made my own about 15 years ago using - 2 Lidls TV/VCR racks (cost about €20 each). Discarded the shelves, bought veneered MDF cut to size. Had Norwegian Sound Care spikes welded onto the bottom chromed steel tubes. Used steel washers 4 x intersperced with bitumen sound deadening material. The top shelf had a 30mm polished slate slab for the Kenwood KD 990 deck on top of the MDF shelf. Also used a slate slab on top of the CDP. The steel tubing is full of lead shot. The floor is suspended soft wood, very springy.

If i didn't have a vinyl system most of this wouldn't be nec. The Kenwood deck was designed by Japanese engineers that started from ground zero - the feet have vibration deadening built in and the mains Tx is suspended on grommets.

Total cost was around €80.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

The most important home device to protect from vibration is your Internet router /sarcasm

 

[Roland68]

My amps are old school and are far too deep to fit in audio furniture. So I'm forced to modify/build my own. Having recently bought a new larger tv (that will not be wall-mounted) and with the intention of buying a larger center speaker, I intend to build a new entertainment rack out of 1-1/2" butcher block

In my audio system the source would be the speakers

Old apartment building, wooden floor, street in front the house with buses and trucks passing by

What anti-vibration precautions are taken with critical systems such as in aircraft?

If a truck passing near a house can create a vibration strong enough to effect the working of a DAC to the extent that the error is audible to someone using it to listen to music, how would this effect, say, the autopilot system?

Over a flight of several thousand miles, even a tiny error in the autopilot performance would lead to the aircraft being hundreds of miles off its destination at the end of the flight.

What is done on aircraft to combat this issue, if it is an issue? And if the answer is 'nothing' then how is vibration massively affecting a DAC, but not an autopilot system?

We are manufacturers for the aviation sector ourselves and our products are used in wing tips and tail units, among other things. I know all about that. But extreme measures are taken during development to eliminate the causes, otherwise the boxes would constantly fall apart, not just the electronics.
The same applies to subway construction, rail traffic planning and construction, high valley bridges, supports and pillar anchoring including ground ramming. Many measurements were taken to determine how far such vibrations extend, including the lower infrasound range, and also the effects of this, up to the dilapidation of buildings.

But something like that is very rare in normal houses and apartments, especially because most people are very sensitive to such things.
With the frequencies involved, you would also hear it very quickly on the drinking glasses and dishes in the kitchen cupboard.

The vibrations that can normally occur in living areas are all very low frequency, e.g. washing machines, refrigerator compressors, air conditioning systems, trucks, etc., higher frequencies are not transmitted at all.
And that's exactly what these types of coasters are not suitable for, unless the devices are extremely heavy.

 

[Mart68]

I got this unit new for £40 in a closing down sale at a small furniture shop.

No idea what the designer intended it for but the bottom part fits a Krell KSA50S perfectly. The drawer useful for storing CDs.

 

[Mart68]

But something like that is very rare in normal houses and apartments, especially because most people are very sensitive to such things.
With the frequencies involved, you would also hear it very quickly on the drinking glasses and dishes in the kitchen cupboard.

The vibrations that can normally occur in living areas are all very low frequency, e.g. washing machines, refrigerator compressors, air conditioning systems, trucks, etc., higher frequencies are not transmitted at all.
And that's exactly what these types of coasters are not suitable for, unless the devices are extremely heavy.

Very good point.

There was a video on Youtube, someone filmed a glass of water sat atop a speaker. Water did not move 'Jurassic Park style' even at high levels. I guess because it would need much lower frequency of vibration for that to happen.

 

[Down South]

Very good point.

There was a video on Youtube, someone filmed a glass of water sat atop a speaker. Water did not move 'Jurassic Park style' even at high levels. I guess because it would need much lower frequency of vibration for that to happen.

You havn't stated what the floor was, very important.

In the UK I used to live in a ground floor apartment. When the street door was slammed shut in the house next door even with using a deck on a wall shelf the stylus would jump.

 

[Mart68]

You havn't stated what the floor was, very important.

In the UK I used to live in a ground floor apartment. When the street door was slammed shut in the house next door even with using a deck on a wall shelf the stylus would jump.

Thing is, with a turntable we are talking about a device that is designed to pick up vibrations. Not true of any other hi-fi component.

I've also had that issue with bouncy floors, so I now have solid floor. Better for speakers too.