DIY equipment rack

Hi all,

I spent a most enjoyable weekend (in addition to a little record shopping) finally getting around to going to Home Depot and then building my own DIY equipment rack. There's an excellent how-to article on Soundstage.com (check the "Synergizing with Greg Weaver" column archives) that gave me all the tips and instructions I needed.

Check it out:



I used double slabs of Medite (glued together then painted satin black), which resulted in a series of dense, rigid shelves. The "legs" are 36-inch metal all-threads (to allow adjustability of the shelves); some nuts and washers completed the materials list.

I'm thrilled to finally have a half-decent rack now, for a reasonably small amount of $$ compared to buying one of comparable quality. It even has had a positive effect on my Rega turntable's performance; quality and quantity of bass seems to have been nudged up a bit, with a small but noticeable improvement in air and detail as well.

'Twas time well spent.

 

Nice, how much did it cost you? That looks like 3/4" threaded rod, or is it 5/8"? Is it pretty stable?

 

All the materials added up to a cost of about $60. You could do it for a bit less if you substitute MDF for Medite (as the guy in the Soundstage article did) ... I also bought way more nuts and washers than I needed, and two cans of spray paint instead of one (just in case ... one can do the job with four double-shelves if you're careful).

The rods are 5/8" ... with rubber "caps" on the feet. I drilled 3/4" holes in the shelves; the article recommended 11/16", but I couldn't find a drill bit of that size.

With the nuts properly tightened, it's VERY stable and remarkably rigid, very solid. Beats the heck out of the flimsy old particle-board thing it's replaced ...

 

I've been wanting to do this myself, exactly the same thing. Hey Jeff, is that Abbey Road on the Rega?

Yeah, anyone's better off building it yourself. On other sites, there's similar shelve units with 3-point joints instead of four.

The better you isolate the turntable (Rega) the better it will sound. Great to hear it Jeff!

 

How did you know?

I frequently play "Come Together," "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" to judge the effects of any changes I've made to my setup.

I did try further isolating the Rega by making a "sandwich" ... All I had around the house were some rubber door-stopper thingies, so I put them down on the top of the rack and put a slab of MDF on top of those, then the Rega on the MDF.

BLAAAH ... ruined the sound. John Lennon sounded like he was singing with hands cupped around his mouth down a tin can, and the bass completely disappeared.

So far, the Rega sounds best sitting right on top of the top Medite double-shelf. I may experiment a bit more though ...

 

I agree on the value of DIY, but for me it's a different issue. I do that kind of stuff for a living, so when I start planning a project it quickly escalates into a mouth-watering object on a grandiose scale. Out of laziness, the end result is often going to the store and dropping the bucks.

 

Nice job Jeff.

I can relate to what Pigmode said about grandiose scale, my equipment rack project escalated into a massive entertainment cabinet. It didn't look that big on paper...

 

Looks great. I have a flexy from Salamander and love it.


Check out their website, you might find some accessaries for future upgrades. For $10, I added an extension kit (4 sleeves for the 5/8 rod) which allowed me to add height, and one of their rollout draws.

http://www.salamanderdesigns.com/html/gen_news.jsp