Best Cheap hifi rack for less than £50?

[sheldon5]

Does anyone know of the best hi-fi rack to be had for less than £50? I've looked at Target racks on eBay but they have wooden shelves - has anyone found a sonic difference between a rack with wood or glass shelving? I dont really want to have to spend hundreds.. thought about making a Flexy which TNT Audio have as a DIY project but frankly dont have the time! Does anyone have the Target shelves or could think of a better alternative?

Thanks

Sheldon

 

[auralflea]

Bricks/ Breezeblocks and plywood 'lifted' off a building site will fit into that price category! The £50 could go on sandpaper, varnish and fixings.....

 

[sheldon5]

lol very funny.. I am only a student and having spent a lot of money on the rest of the system I'm looking for something reasonable but not expensive - so hence why I'm looking for a used stand!

 

[Injector]

I've got nice black metal stand, plenty of shelves too. I'd let it go for fifty quid but I'm in Bristol.

 

[Alex A]

Buy 3-4 Ikea Lack Coffee tables. Cut the legs to the height you want the shelves and stick them together. Spike the bottom too. DIY job for less than £50 all in, and supposedly excellent as hifi racks.

 

[Matt J]

or a corras depending how much kit you've got.

 

[JamPal]

Ikea - particle board seems to be very good at soaking up the vibrations, worked wonders for my old Rega turntable

 

[dudywoxer]

The Ikea Lack rack is here

http://www.zerogain.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10733

The shorten link trick seems to have gone

(using firefox on Ubutu that is

 

[sheldon5]

Hmm the Ikea rack sounds like an interesting idea. I've heard that glass shelving results in much better results though? Just a standard number of components really - TT, cd player, amp, tuner - all currently on awful shelving so really need to obtain a better solution soon.

Injector - what is your stand? If its a Target I may be interested if you could include Parcelforce in the price which I suppose would be around £15?

 

[JamPal]

by the way, Welcome to the Tent Sheldon.

James.

 

[dudywoxer]

The shelving sound is my my mind a bit of a myth, glass sounds clearer, oh pleease. If you fancy cheap with glass try Argos, TV Benches.

 

[JCL]

Build your own.

Ply's about as good as it gets IMO. Buy a sheet of ply, borrow a circular saw and make yourself some shelves. To seperate them I'd suggest more wood but that probably requires a bit more carpentry knowledge, probably best to use some mineral blocks of some sort from a garden centre.

 

[early]

I use a " Lack Rack " , whole lot including spikes cost £25 and took about an hour

to build , and it certainly sounds no worse than than the expensive racks I've owned ,

In fact the " Lack " princible is very similar to RA's Torlite .

Just a word of warning though , not all of the " Lacks " have solid legs , so when

cut to length you can't redrill them to take screws .

Mine are in black and the legs are hollow , I used a hot glue gun to fix them to the table tops .

I think the wooden finishes have solid legs .

 

[wolfgang]

From experience the rack and the toys on it could influence the sound waves of the loudspeakers but only if they are close enough or big enough within the room. The material might have some effect but not for the reasons suggested by most hifi journalists.

 

[The Hifi Gallery]

Sheldon the recco of breezeblocks and plywood is actuallly a good one, looks knda industrial, is flexible in that it can be reeconfigured for different sized kit, other than that, the above mentioned furniture (ikea, argos etc) or search for TNT flexy rack, and build one of those.

 

[Chumpy]

It is quite possible to make/buy lovely rack cheaply.

This very likely will appear to sound as good as overpriced tit-head Naim or Mana etc con.

 

[Borats Baby]

Bide your time....

Keep checking eBay for a rack you like at the right price......

I got this for £30 and collected it.....

That there is about £250's worth !

for £30 !

 

[JamesT]

Try a target stand.. I have one of the wooden welded ones "aquired" from my brother. Not as good looking as other stands like the Sounds Unique and Atacama range, but still a great rack for the money. Worth keepin a look out on eBay

 

[mhuk]

The TNT Flexy that you mentioned has to be one of the cheapest around:

http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/diyracks.html

I got a Sound Organisation 5 shelf stand from fleabay for £6