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I'm not really a House Beautiful kind of guy. My basic decorating
technique consists of piling stuff on top of other stuff- you
can tell I've cleaned house when the piles are in some sort of
of order. And although I'm confessing to a violation of postal
codes here, I have to admit that I tend to make heavy use of
mail tubs, when available- it makes moving the piles around so
much easier.
But I do have some standards. I don't stack my stereo
on just any pile of books that's lying around. I prefer to place
it on a stereo rack, the better to route the cables so that signal-carrying
interconnects don't lie willy-nilly across power cords. Strange,
huh?
The problem is, most equipment racks come in one of two flavors:
rigid and inflexible, or massive and unstable. Oh yeah, and most
all of them are ugly.(If you're wondering why someone whose idea
of decor is "organized piling" even cares about how
ugly audio furniture is, I reiterate - I do have some
standards. And i don't want to live in a laboratory, thank you
very much.)
That's why I was happy to discover Archetype
Audio Racks by Salamander Designs. They have shelves in a variety
of wood finishes, including a lovely cherry. They're modular,
so you can reconfigure them as your system changes, which mine
does fairly regularly. And Salamander has raft-load of convenient
accessories, such as spikes, dual-wheel casters, desk-tops, and
my favorite:accessory drawers.
The basic design is familiar one by now. Each rack is constructed
around four 5/8" threaded rods. You connect shelves to these
legs by threading large nuts into position on them and then inserting
the rods into holes drilled into the shelves. Here's how it goes:
1) large nut; 2) metal fender-washer; 3) squishy Neoprene washer;
4) shelf; 5) squishy Neoprene washer; 6) metal fender-washer;
7) large nut. Level the shelf, tighten the nuts, repeat as necessary.
Of course, if you tighten the nut too much, you lose
some of the Neoprene washer's damping properties. But if you
don't cinch everything down pretty solid, the shelf goes all
wobbly on you. You need to decide which direction to compromise
in. I choose rigidity every time, but even then, the taller stands
tend to be a little rickety.
For perfect vibration control, you are better of with
a welded stand, but they have drawbacks too-the inductance of
all that steel can affect your signal-carrying cables if you
don't watch where you route them. And no matter how carefully
you plan for future, you know that there will be new equipment
that requires additional shelves. A DAD player, for example.
Or an outboard processor. Being an audiophile means you're bound
to need something else...
But with the Salamander racks? Buy a
new component, add another shelf. You upgrade that CD player
with an outboard power supply? Add another shelf. Or join two
racks together with horizontal video bridge. The possibilities
a staggering.
They really are. This whole convenience
idea isn't just limited to hi-fi. I've got Salamander racks masquerading
as real furniture. My big ol' desk uses a 28" Salamander
rack as the support for one corner-it gives me a place to put
my printer, uninterruptible power supply, paper files, and NAD
310 integrated amp I run my soundcard through. My credenza is
Salamander's desktop module. I'm going to order a couple of the
28"-tall Archetype 3.0 units as night tables, which ought
to eliminate about three piles' worth of books a magazines cluttering
my side of the bed. Tom Norton just got great price from
Damark on three laser-levels for himself, John Atkinson, and
me, so my audio toolkit continues to grow at an alarming pace.
Maybe I'll order another 3.0 outfitted with accessory drawers
to house it conveniently next to my system.
I even use 'em for purpose for which they were built. All
of my video gear is now off the floor and easy to get to, front
and back, thanks to a 36"-tall Archetype 5.0 five-shelf
unit. The 3 1/4" MegaSpikes penetrate the carpet and stabilize
the stand on the concrete slab beneath it.
Before that I used a CWD lowboy
on casters, and damned if I didn't get both a clearer and more
stable picture out of my LD player as a result of the change.
And since I'm an audiophile, I'm sure I noticed a difference
in the sound. Yeah! I must've- I changed something, it
had to make a difference. (Actually, I changed speakers
when I installed the rack, so it wasn't a rigorous
comparison; but the improvement
in laserdisc video quality sure wasn't subtle.)
You might think I'm being silly when I suggest all of these
uses for the Salamander Archetype stands. I'm not. I went out
last week to price some modular Elfa wire storage units, and
Ay yi yi!- found out what can make an audiophile who's
grown blase about cable prices blanch: furniture prices! Compared
to that, the prices Salamander is asking
seem pretty darn reasonable. So if you drop in on me, don't be
surprised to find I've furnished my house entirely with the stuff.
If only they'd make a comfy chair for my sweet spot...
Wes Phillips
Stereophile- Vol. 20 No. 9
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