I just finished building a new rack. I wanted a rack that was sturdy, acoustically dead, inexpensive and large enough to add more components.
The finished rack’s shelves are made with Baltic plywood. They are hollow, the top shelf is sand filled, but it turned out so heavy the other two shelves were foam filled. The surface is Arborite, trimmed with one by two pine. With the components in place it is very heavy and solid. You can bang on the top shelf till your knuckles are red and smarting with no audible/visual affect.
The components pictured:
The turntable: You will not recognize because it is a hand built DIY project, my brother in law’s mechanical mind conceived. Some of the unique features, are an on the fly adjustable VTA, brass pedestal, two inch Teflon platter (with inverted bearing) and multiple arm fixtures. The arm is a slightly modified Rega 300, with an Ortofon Kontrapunkt ‘a’.
The electronics:
‘Graham Slee Reflex Era Gold’ phono stage, coupled with a ‘Bryston step up transformer.
Audio Research LS3 Preamplifier
Kenwood L-07 mono block amplifiers
The speakers:
I always loved the old latticed grill look, so I modified an old pair of Sansui speakers. The cabinets were lined with three ¾” MDF on all 6 sides. Cross bracing added. The drivers; an Usher 10” woofer (tuned to 33 hertz), crossed at 350 hertz to a 5” Vifa midrange, crossed at 2800 Hertz to an Usher 1” dome tweeter. The cross over was designed with a Harris Tech program, and then tuned by ear over a period of 2 years.
The finished rack’s shelves are made with Baltic plywood. They are hollow, the top shelf is sand filled, but it turned out so heavy the other two shelves were foam filled. The surface is Arborite, trimmed with one by two pine. With the components in place it is very heavy and solid. You can bang on the top shelf till your knuckles are red and smarting with no audible/visual affect.
The components pictured:
The turntable: You will not recognize because it is a hand built DIY project, my brother in law’s mechanical mind conceived. Some of the unique features, are an on the fly adjustable VTA, brass pedestal, two inch Teflon platter (with inverted bearing) and multiple arm fixtures. The arm is a slightly modified Rega 300, with an Ortofon Kontrapunkt ‘a’.
The electronics:
‘Graham Slee Reflex Era Gold’ phono stage, coupled with a ‘Bryston step up transformer.
Audio Research LS3 Preamplifier
Kenwood L-07 mono block amplifiers
The speakers:
I always loved the old latticed grill look, so I modified an old pair of Sansui speakers. The cabinets were lined with three ¾” MDF on all 6 sides. Cross bracing added. The drivers; an Usher 10” woofer (tuned to 33 hertz), crossed at 350 hertz to a 5” Vifa midrange, crossed at 2800 Hertz to an Usher 1” dome tweeter. The cross over was designed with a Harris Tech program, and then tuned by ear over a period of 2 years.
Are you lying on the floor as you listen to music? 
