new rack

**stereogeek** · December 28, 2019, 02:54 PM

I moved my rig from the living room into a spare bedroom recently due to new grand kids . I ordered a new 5 shelf rack with 2" thick maple shelves , it looks really nice . Problem is that I have been chasing a slight rise in the upper midrange that drives me nuts since the move . I don't really critique the bass or the highs much but if the midrange sucks , it just sucks . Tried different kind of footers / tip toes , changed cables ( Cardas , Vansevers , Tara , Audioquest , Gabriel Gold , Zu , etc ) . The midrange glare was still there . Tried hanging blankets , treated first reflection points to no avail . Finally gave up for a while as I just couldn't stand to listen to it . I wound up getting an Adona 5 shelf rack based on the construction of their multi - layered shelves . It is like night and day . Same equipment , same speaker placement , etc . All the glare is now gone but was a little soft on the highs . Took out the Cardas and Vansevers and installed some Tara and some Nordost and bam , everything is now right in my world . I don't really want to start a war about cables and such but I have been using them for tone controls for a long time . I think it proves one again that everything matters . BTW.....System is PS Audio , Ayon , Cary , First Watt or Bottle Head 300B and Tekton . Cheers all .

**Mikado463** · December 28, 2019, 02:59 PM

obviously with a room change comes a sound change, that's a given. You have therefore re-established your system synergy !

**stereogeek** · December 30, 2019, 12:30 PM

Thanks for the feed back .Yes , the room always makes a difference and in my case when I moved to the smaller room it gave me more bass . I was trying to point out the huge difference a rack can make . My original setup in the living room was a TV unit with 3 glass shelves and a spine with a 55" tv mounted to it . The 3 glass shelves were replaced with 3 custom made oak plywood shelves which ( after some tweeking ) sounded as nice as could expected . The midrange was right with no obvious weaknesses elsewhere . I still cant get over the horrible upper midrange glare I got from the maple rack . Maybe it was from the threaded steel rods it used as support ? It was the first time I changed racks with no other changes , I was floored . The maple rack will probably sound great in some systems but I can say this , the Adona rack is glorious in mine . Cheers .

**Mikado463** · December 30, 2019, 03:47 PM

all well and good but the 'real' issue with sound differentiation and your rack is ......... where it is located in your room with regard to speaker and listening position.