Massif Audio Design racks incoming, and......

[Nathanu]

Agreed. Works for me as well.

 

[High Water Sound]

when you have as much gear as i have it's daunting to consider (the $$$'s for) beautiful high end audio racks. for over a decade i've been very satisfied with my cost effective and solid performing Adona Zero GXT racks; i have 4 of them. and this past year i added a used Finite Element Pagoda rack for my Ampex MR-70 tape preamps.

i'm excited to say i've found a rack builder in Canada who has completed and should ship to me in about a week, a set of three racks for me to replace all my current racks. while not exactly cheap, it's not too crazy after i sell my still current model Adona Zero GXT racks. i'm getting one four shelf single (22" x 19") rack for my MR-70 tape pre's, and twin three shelf double (42" x 19") racks for the rest of my source gear. these racks are solid hardwood and absolutely beautiful. i think in my all-hardwood maple paneled listening room the look should be stunning.

the racks are from Massif Audio Design in Ontario, Canada. i'm also auditioning one of their record weights, this one is solid Lignum. i've been using it now for over a month and love it everywhere i try it. more on that later.

the solid hardwood shelves are about 1.75 inches thick maple, and the 3" thick legs are solid Bubinga. all clear stained. footers will be Nordost Sort Fut w/Sort locks. 3 sets of 4 of these gems (not cheap...ouch!!!). with the (1) high mass and (2) solid build, along with (3) the Nordost footer system, i expect my rack performance to improve, and the aesthetics to be much more enjoyable to live with.

so far i only have pictures of the single rack assembled.......i choose the clear maple stain to allow my gear which is mostly dark or black to stand out on the shelves. right now with my black granite shelving the gear blends in and you hardly see some of it.

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Trevor does beautiful work. I'm a big believer!

 

[T Boost]

Lovely contrast of timbers there Mike , your electronics will look most cool on there , I actually contacted him a while back regarding a very similar project, however he wouldn’t entertain shipping outside of the continent

Hmmmm that seems like a miscommunication somewhere . Ive been shipping racks and weights to Europe, Australia and Asia since the first few racks I built. I felt I had to comment as other members have seen this and asked if its correct .

 

[Amir]

Massif Audio also have ebony wood for Rack

 

[dminches]

Mike, did the racks arrive and have you gotten any of them installed?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Mike, did the racks arrive and have you gotten any of them installed?

i'm on the home stretch of the change over. received the pieces on Monday.

the tape deck rack is built and installed, and tape repro's installed. i then built the new twin double wide racks, then disassembled the whole system, moved my Adona racks to my garage, and installed my new wider more solid rear wall mount shelf. added some trays below that shelf. the last couple of hours been slowly putting things back together, noodling thru some logistics. probably have digital hooked up tonight, but might run out of steam before i get all the tt's back up. no hurry.

 

[dminches]

Looking forward to the initial pictures.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

yes, listening to digital now.....pretty gassed. turntables tomorrow.

 

[Backo NYC/SF]

yes, listening to digital now.....pretty gassed. turntables tomorrow.

I’m a big fan of Trevor’s work myself.
I have two solid ash stands in black and his amp stand also in ash and stained black.
Have been using one of his first lignam vitae record weights as well and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

 

[Ron Resnick]

That swap must've been a lot of work, Mike!

 

[T Boost]

The lighting makes it look pretty dramatic. I can see the lignum weight there under a ray of light.

 

[Backo NYC/SF]

Jumping in here and putting in my own two cents (US) about the effect of Massif rack construction sonically. I bought two 4-shelf racks and an amp stand from Trevor with a different gear configuration than currently but with the plan to upgrade. The two 4-shelf and one amp stand have the sonic feet that Trevor puts on the standard rack (I requested the feet for the amp stand even though they aren’t stock).

Since then, I’ve added Taiko Daiza isolation bases as additional isolation for the Pilium pre amp, La Scala Aqua DAC and the Taiko Extreme. I’ve also added Stein Music Matrix footers into the mix as needed.
The upshoot is that I worked my way up from the foundation of the Massif racks and found that it was a good way to start and tune accordingly. Some changes were subtle, like putting the Daiza’s under the Pilium Alexander and dramatic such as when I put the Aqua on the Daiza platform with the Stein’s under the Aqua to get it off the really bizarre rubber feet that come stock.

Bottom line is that I found the racks to be a solid foundation to build from for my own purposes. Trevor also went above and beyond to make sure that assembly questions were promptly answered. He really builds his racks with the passion of a listener and it shows.

P.S. - Every Formula One car is an expensive piece of unique machinery. I’ve never heard of one that the driver didn’t tune the suspension to get it right for them.

 

[marty]

Mike, my back hurts just from reading the thread. Congrats on the new stands.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

i have too much gear. and some of it is very heavy.

my body hurts where i never knew i had something to hurt. i never worked this hard........at work. i'm not going to get into how it sounds for a little while, there is a lot to take in. probably need to get jazdoc over here for some therapy......and reality check. but i will say that at this point i feel good about it and hopefully all my aches and pains will go away. the easiest part of the whole process was assembly of the racks. easy peasy.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Wanted to show the Babinga sandwich ball bearing footers below the top turntable platforms. Seem to really work…so far.

 

[Elliot G.]

Dont envy you as we do this kind of stuff at every show we do . It looks great Mike, I know you must have busted your back doing that.
I hope that you are happy and I think it looks great.
Enjoy

 

[Salectric]

Very, very nice!

 

[gleeds]

Mike, I am a big fan of racks like this. Love how you beefed up the turntable support shelf. Congratulations

Dont envy you as we do this kind of stuff at every show we do . It looks great Mike, I know you must have busted your back doing that.
I hope that you are happy and I think it looks great.
Enjoy

Nice, Mike! Love these simple, well built foundational racks that make a solid platform for tuning if one so desires.

 

[Johan K]

Congratulations Mike!

Looks great! As I told you in our conversation the other day.. mixed feelings with big changes in the audioroom.. good in heart.. pain in muscles.. haha!!!

Well done !

Jk