I just bought a SH Quadraspire Q4 EVO 4 shelf rack with glass shelves and the narrow columns (I think 19mm dia).
I already also have a SH Quadraspire Q4 EVO 4 shelf rack with oak shelves and the thicker fluted columns (I think 32mm dia at the ends).
Is it best in terms of SQ to use the glass shelves for my Naim 272, 555DR and 150x with the thicker columns?
Presumably the oak shelves will flex and bend slightly as the Naim boxes vibrate, whereas the glass shelves will be far more rigid and inflexible.
They should also be flatter and less prone to warping due to changes in temperature.
So the glass shelves will provide a flatter, more stable and rigid base - which seems likely to give better SQ - though whether this is audible in the end will not be clear until after I’ve been through the hassle of deconstructing both racks and putting everything back together again.
The 2nd rack for ‘other stuff’ like switches would then have oak shelves with the thinner columns.
All the glass and oak shelves are the same size - does anyone know whether the 19mm and 32mm columns will fit both types of shelf?
And do the glass shelves normally have plastic washers to stop them from cracking if the columns are over-tightened?
Depends on the glass. In general, glass shelves are awful and tend to make things sound a but splashy.
The glass used in Fraim is not your run of the mill toughened glass. So manually emulating by purchasing shhets of glass with ball and cups isn’t the same thing.
My understanding of this is that the glass version has always been for style and that the standard wood sounds a lot better. The proof of the pudding is, as always, in the eating and as you have all the stuff there it’s surely a matter of trying it. If it was me and I had a 272/555 level setup I’d be getting rid of the Q4 and getting a bamboo SVT if sticking with Quadraspire. While you are experimenting, don’t forget that the curves in the shelves go at the front - I recall from one of your pictures that the stand is currently back to front.
Yes - thanks - I spotted that my oak rack is back to front a couple of months ago and have been waiting for the right moment to swop it round.
Will need levelling again so is not a trivial job.
I didn’t know that the Quadraspire glass shelves are (probably) just decorative, and that the wood is generally thought to sound better. That’s useful to know.
At some point I might try the experiment - but it’s not a priority job right now. And it would be double the effort if it sounded worse - or if I can get hold of Fraim or better other racks to swop them for.
My understanding of the Fraim glass is that it’s perfectly normal 10mm Dow-Corning toughened glass. The reason it sounds better than glass shelves is that it floats on a 3 point contact rather than being rigidly fixed to and constrained by the columns.