New racks? How about the Hi Fi Racks Podium?

No, no, there’s a secret VIP room for SL2 owners.

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I think you’ll find those who constantly bang on about the merits of items they own (at the moment, because most seem to be stuck on a moving staircase of ‘upgrading’) have a deep rooted need for self-justification. I get people sharing that which they enjoy and has worked for them, but why can’t they let it rest there instead of seeking to rubbish everything else?

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Perhaps we all do it to some extent, for example you’re keen to suggest the Stillpoints. I was only speaking from experience of the Slimline rack, which was really bad in my setup, and expressing my view that the Isoblue, which I’ve also used, is far better. It would be a shame for the OP to buy something and find it’s worse. At the end of the day they read and consider the comments and take a view, hopefully having the chance to listen for themselves. In my box swapping years I got through lots of racks, some good, some ok and some not ok, so I have a reasonable grasp of what works well.

You’ll note that I did not recommend Fraim and was merely using it as an example of something that’s been around a while and is still good, just like Isoblue and Hutter.

In the cellar?
Behind locked a 5 tonne steel door perhaps?

I have very serious concerns about the claims made by Stillpoints; they just don’t stand up to analysis…

But how long do they take to ‘burn in’ :innocent:?

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About 5 minutes with some accelerant and decent air flow! :crazy_face:

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Quite a reasonable reply from @hifinutt in my opinion. Individual racks may ‘impose’ subtle differences in sound, but testing a number of different racks in any sort of meaningful way is nigh on impossible - my personal opinion of course, and some of the chunkier HiFi Racks Podium racks do look rather attractive.

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As long as the boxes are on Naim glass, cups and balls placed as for Fraim all is excellent with my 500 system.

Hil

It’s strange that you often have serious claim with components that you didn’t tested and that are also well acclaimed all over the audiophile world, like Stillpoints, Audioquest Diamond…
Stillpoints have received many many awards.

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Sorry Soundsfaber, my post was just a general reaction, not adressed to you specifically or anyone in particular. A global reaction vs what I often read.

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I agree, it’s difficult in practice to compare two or more racks. As a former employee of Naim stressed when I discussed this at a recent HiFi show, the only valid way to do it is to have two racks set up side by side with the same components on each, apart from one component which you’d then swap from one rack to the other to see if there’s any difference. There may be some dealers around who’d be willing and able to do this but I’m not sure there are many. As for a home demo…

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No worries mate. I could see that.:yum:

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The audiophile world is like heathcare (and religion). There is an awful lot of woo out there, that many get sucked into belief for no good reason. Awards and acclaim often mean nothing more than, well, just awards and acclaim.

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In all cases there is no better and solid thing than test at home. But banging something without trying is tiring in my point of view.

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Ditto for the opposite: promoting something as better without trying it personally, just because it has acclaim and awards.

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However I have tested the Stillpoints at a dealer place and have similar products ( finite elemente cerabases and cerapucks). Same for the Diamond.
But reviews and acclaimed products on different forums can give us some willing to test and are often a positive indication.
The isoacoustics Gaia are a good example. A lot are very satisfied with them , but they have tested them because they saw these components have a very good press comments.

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Yes, but people who recommend stuff they never tried, just because it has acclaim and/or awards is questionable. I might point something out that has a good reputation, without recommending or promoting it, but I don’t endorse anything I haven’t personally tried, or at least heard in a well-done dealer demo (and I qualify that).

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Globally we agree I feel.

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Hi-Fi Racks are great if set up properly (also sound wise). Furthermore their customer service is second to none, a real pleasure to do business with them.

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