A top notch stereo setup is not complete without equipment shelves that provide a sturdy well damped base for your prized electronics. Prior to building this setup I was somewhat sceptical about the sonic benefits of quality equipment shelves. But thanks to the prompting and advice of a friend I decided to take the plunge and build some really good shelves. I was amazed at the large, positive sonic improvement that these shelves brought to my system. The bass tightened up and there were significant improvements in clarity and dynamics.
The design criteria for the shelves was high mass, rigid framework and lots of damping. The 1.25" x 3.5" solid cherry up-rights provide rigid support for the shelves. The up-rights are attached to each shelf with eight 1/4" bolts that thread into T-nuts embedded in the shelves. This results in a very rigid assembly. To add mass and damping the shelves are filled with sand. The shelf/sand-boxes have a floating top plate that rests on the sand and does not contact the sides of the box. The finished stands are very heavy. The amplifier stands weigh in at 90 lbs. and the 4 shelf equipments stand weighs more than 160 lbs.
Attaching 3/8" foam weather-stripping to the top plate of the shelf gives a finished look and retains acoustic isolation for the top plate.
I also built a stand for my Teres (my old Thorens table is pictured) turntable. The pillars are filled with concrete and have a 3/8" threaded rod running through the center for attaching the top and bottom plates. A 4" high sand-box sits on top of the stand. The resulting stand is heavy, well damped and rigid.
For all of my major projects I used Povray to create ray-traced images of the projects before they were built. Since I had already created ray-traced images of my equipment I had the luxury of including those definitions in the ray tracings used to help design the shelves. I was able to try a number of different configurations to refine the appearance of the shelves. Ray tracing takes a fair amount of extra effort but in my mind the ability to tune the design before building is well worth the effort.
