So if I understand correctly a Mana rack with glass shelves will not sound as it should unless placed on one of the metal framed wooden base boards?
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It will sound as good as any rigid stand with glass shelves but you are right, if you want to hear the âMana effectâ it really needs a base board. Each base board effectively lowers the resonant frequency of the rack and equipment, which is why you tend to see pictures with multiple base boards being used. Donât get me wrong, even the standard rack with glass shelves will sound okay but it will have an exaggerated zing and dynamic signature. Adding the base boards keeps all of this but also brings an organic texture and extended bass. Each base just increases and intensifies this effect.
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Unsurprising perhaps, because if they are so great people would surely kerp them forever, alternatively if they are as awful as they look perhaps rheyâd want to dispose of discreetly via local scrap yard!
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Thanks. I think Iâve slightly misunderstood the Mana system. Iâve seen the pictures of base boards under racks but I thought this was just added isolation. It is of course, but it seems also that itâs an integral part of the Mana system and something I hadnât quite appreciated. I recall that way back they were sort of controversial and didnât really have wide acceptance in the same way as SO or Target racks. But their supporters championed them as bettering anything else for Linn and Naim. I donât think they were very widely available, and certainly not from any dealers local to me at the time. Target was what everyone seemed to stock and later the Sound Factory Tripods, which is what I bought as I thought they looked really cool! These were the early days of stands of course and nothing like the choice available today.
Anyway Iâve given up on the resurrected Mana. Seemed like a good idea but as additional information has come to light itâs put me off. Good that I started this thread though, and that those such as yourself with first hand experience have been kind enough to share your knowledge or I wouldnât have known. Long live the forum!
I think itâs a combination of the fact that they are so old now and also that there probably werenât actually that many sold. Also as you say that people who love them tend to hold on to them. Much the same with Linn Isobariks and Naim DBLâs. People who bought them tend not to part with them easily. Thereâs really nothing available today that does the same things in the same way. So it is with Mana.
Todayâs hi-fi world is largely full of âme tooâ type products and crowd pleasers. Gone are most of the products that dare to do things differently and are designed to appeal only to a small bunch of rabid fanatics.
So it seems to me anyway. Or perhaps Iâm just a cynical old codger still living in the (imagined?) glory days of hi-fi!
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It reminds me - somebody took some of the nice pictures away earlier on.
I like the pictures. So much easier than having to read all the big words.
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Kudos for the, errr, horn 
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I think this belongs in the âHifi mythâ section. Same as soft domes sound soft/nice and metal domes hard/metallic, silver cables bright and copper ones ⌠.
Itâs an âassociationâ thing many âumans tend to make.
My 2 ctâs.
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Me thinks someone did remove my AI generated (and marked as such) pic a few posts up. There was a time when I would have been notified of it for courtesy. Seems not anymore 
@70sPete If you donât like how it looks , then why did you buy it??
Itâs a generalisation. Just what I found when I messed around with these things a bit. Iâve just always felt since that compliant type isolation devices are something to be avoided if you want maximum immediacy, speed and dynamics. Spikes give you that, but at the expense sometimes perhaps of some other factors. Probably the best are ball bearing type isolators like Naim employ on Fraim or like in Cerapucks. These allow movement to dissipate energy without being compressible which tends to store energy.
But these are really all just generalisations and in practice you just evaluate everything on how it sounds. My Quadraspire rack doesnât really have any form of isolation at all. It works by managing the energy flow to and from the components. So they say. Anyway it sounds good however it works.
So i guess it hadnât happened for you in your entire life, be it shoes, lamps, fournituresâŚ.
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For itâs performance and convenience. I thought it didnât look too bad at first, but Iâve grown to strongly dislike it. Changing oneâs mind about things is allowed in my book. Nothing is set in stone.
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Iâm not sure thatâs true. At one point there was a six week waiting list. Investing in one was safer than gold at the time. You occasionally see them for sale on eBay but I suspect that if you own them now you wonât be letting them go. In my circle of hifi friends at least three of them own Mana racks whilst the other two have Fraim - three if I include myself!
Maybe youâre right - Iâm only guessing. I would think a six week waiting list more reflects the very slow speed of production than a huge demand though. Likewise with the new Mana stuff he was quoting six weeks delivery. I canât imagine heâs selling much of it. Didnât The Cornflake Shop once sell it ? I seem to remember that. Donât recall seeing it in the flesh anywhere though.
Whilst some certainly appear to be, i think most actually good products havenât been designed to appeal to only a small number of people, as that would be marketing lunacy, rather a) only a small proportion of people heard about them and liked them, or b) they had been very expensive so inevitably having only a small market, or c) something about them arising from their sonic design caused them to not appeal to many visually or to fit with domestic acceptability (e.g. size), or d) they were designed for the type of buyer easily hooked by hype and once hooked they were a ready market for similar. I think all four of these happen.
Iâm sure thatâs true these days. This is the difference between then and now I think. There were products back then that clearly were not designed to have broad appeal but rather to appeal to a niche market. Whether they were good or bad depends entirley on your personal taste. Linn and Naim speakers were a good example. They never had broad appeal they were just designed for âflat earthersâ. They always did badly in group test type reviews.
Decca cartridges are another example. They didnât track well and were notorious for causing excessive record wear. But they had a niche following from people who appreciated their startling immediacy, speed and dynamics.
I donât think these type of products are anywhere near as common today as they were back in the late 70âs/80âs. Itâs a great shame IMO. Perhaps it reflects changing tastes or the changing economy or both. Hi-fi as a hobby today is far more of a niche hobby in itself than it once was. How many people these days have any interest in owning decent audio equipment for the home? A look around the department stores makes it very obvious. When I was young I used to love looking at the hi-fi equipment and music centres in these stores and many other high street shops. Where is this stuff today? Only in specialist retailers that the majority of people have no interest in.
If you are after a new rack, a Fraim lite is actually very simple to install and requires little maintenance. I was surprised how it improved my set up, which includes a CD5si. They are available SH from time to time. I recently upgraded mine with the glass and balls, that was fiddly, but ultimately rewarding.
Wouldnât change it now, no good if you have kids or pets though!