Hifirack - impact on a small system

Hi there, is the famous Salisbury watchdog on the top shelf?

congratulations neat and goodsouunding preposition.black and white match fine this year ,winning combo .have a look at  juventus from Turin.

I rather like that in white...I'm also looking to get a dedicated rack and it's possible Quadraspire will get a repeat order now ...

 Its a watchdog alright, but if he is from Salisbury I dont know. He guards the Naimkit from the black cat in our home. We also have a german dachshund who looks like that besides that he is brown 

At first blush I wouldn't have been too sure about QS shelves in white but from your photos they work a treat.  Nice complement to the black boxes and surrounding decor.  As a QS fan myself I'm not at all surprised to hear that you think the performance of your system has improved. Nice one. 

I certainly didn't know Quadraspire offered a custom finish option. Congrats on the purchase - I think the black uprights / components and contrasting white shelves look superb! Interesting observations on sound quality improvement too, which of course is the main thing.

As an option before I built my own rack I was thinking of looking for an older set of Quadraspire shelves (any colour) and repainting them white. Sacrilege to the traditionalists granted, but it would have been an interesting exercise. I've seen photos of Isoblue units treated similarly and they looked very contemporary when refurbished in this way.

Yetizone posted:

I've seen photos of Isoblue units treated similarly and they looked very contemporary when refurbished in this way.

Verily, white Isoblue can look quite smart with the black boxes (ignoring the cable dressing and boxes on the floor).

@ Seaman - great looking Quadraspire.

The very units themselves - thanks Joerand! I think they look superb.

I've heard the Isoblue recently in a high-end Linn system and they looked and sounded great (in wood finish, though). A friend just bought some, so I'll report back what they sound like in a familiar system before/after, if you like?

Nice looking Isoblue, Joerand! It doesnt hurt if the rack makes the system sing better AND looking nice at the same time  I think its a little strange that manufacturers dont have white as a standard? I have seen Fraim in white and its quite nice i must say. Is the market for white hifiracks too small?

I guess there are lots of silver boxes out there from other brands and for my tastes the silver ones are much more limited as to what rack they coordinate with. Silver on white is kind of a washout. The black boxes look good on any wood finish and as we've seen they really pop on a white stand.

joerand posted:

Yetizone posted:

I've seen photos of Isoblue units treated similarly and they looked very contemporary when refurbished in this way.

Verily, white Isoblue can look quite smart with the black boxes (ignoring the cable dressing and boxes on the floor).

@ Seaman - great looking Quadraspire.

Hi, not sure if the your response is tongue in cheek or not, but to my eyes those white racks with the Naim boxes in looks appalling.

The white wouldn't be my choice either, but I can see how it can work in a very modern interior. I like the hifi to be as discreet as possible, which will never be achieved with black and white. But the current vogue doesn't seem to value discreetness (is that a word - discretion seems wrong in this context?): just witness the Focal Sopra and other such atrocities. 

Anyway, the point to take from Seaman's useful thread is the value of a decent rack to the sound of the system, regardless of its colour. 

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Hi, not sure if the your response is tongue in cheek or not, but to my eyes those white racks with the Naim boxes in looks appalling.

Simon,

Not tongue in cheek whatsoever. I think the white is a striking contrast in the right interior - modern as HH suggests. My Isoblue is cherry and it looks rather cherry with my cherry room furnishings. I'd never consider painting it unless I moved house. A black rack with black boxes seems too conservative and mundane to me.

Fair enough .. its funny how we look at things differently - to me the white painted wood furniture look is a throw back to the days of  cheap flatpack furniture  of the mid to late 80s.. and I have to confess we do have such a look in our bathroom - but it was not my choice....

Hungryhalibut posted:

The white wouldn't be my choice either, but I can see how it can work in a very modern interior. I like the hifi to be as discreet as possible, which will never be achieved with black and white. But the current vogue doesn't seem to value discreetness (is that a word - discretion seems wrong in this context?): just witness the Focal Sopra and other such atrocities. 

Anyway, the point to take from Seaman's useful thread is the value of a decent rack to the sound of the system, regardless of its colour. 

To my eyes the white Sopra 2s look better in the flesh that in pictures but if I had the choice I'd go for black. What I find really odd is the Sopras in orange.  Hard to think of the decor - modern or classic - that the orange would match.  

I've seen both wood and white work in different contexts. When I bought old Meridian DSP5000 speakers, the cherry cabinets were very old and tired. Decided to modernise and they were sent off to HQ Laquers and had a gorgeous gloss white piano lacquer which I think goes very well with the black drivers/fronts -

Excuse the messy wires, it's an old pic!

Also goes well with wood - what about a 'dual tone' isoblue rack, with white shelves and light wood uprights, or white base and wooden shelves, etc.??

My home has a pitch pine floor, furniture with wood veneer would not look nice there, so I went for a white hifi rack as well. Additional benefits are that white furniture do not look heavy and give a modern, friendly touch and goes well with the plinth of my turntable, at least for my eyes.

MDS posted:

Hungryhalibut posted:

The white wouldn't be my choice either, but I can see how it can work in a very modern interior. I like the hifi to be as discreet as possible, which will never be achieved with black and white. But the current vogue doesn't seem to value discreetness (is that a word - discretion seems wrong in this context?): just witness the Focal Sopra and other such atrocities. 

Anyway, the point to take from Seaman's useful thread is the value of a decent rack to the sound of the system, regardless of its colour. 

To my eyes the white Sopra 2s look better in the flesh that in pictures but if I had the choice I'd go for black. What I find really odd is the Sopras in orange.  Hard to think of the decor - modern or classic - that the orange would match.  

I'm surprised that I haven't seen more of the Sopra 2s in the wood finish in system pics, they look lovely.   

Speakers are like wife's,  everyone thinks theirs is the prityest!!!  

Personally I think the SBL's look awful,  but it's probably a question of which era one remembers most fondly....