Quadraspire in glass

This is only my opinion, but Quadraspire is the only stand that I can think of that actually worsens the sound.

I know that it is subjective but my wife told me she would take a hammer to it if ever I bought it, that is how bad it sounded.

Regards

Mick

Quadraspire is supposed to be made from wood or MDF. The glass shelves exist only for those who like the look of glass and care little about sound quality.

Glass must obviously be more expensive than wood. Why else would they charge more?

If you want superior sonic performance from Quadraspire then buy the Reference version that is not available in glass.



Regards,

Steve.

Hi there Bas,

I never auditioned the glass version but as you know I do have the MDF version.
I don't feel that my MDF Q4 makes the sonic performance of my system worse, but I can imagine that a Q4 with glass shelves will make the sound more forward.
(personally I think it looks pretty bad ik glass)

I found the price of a standard Q4 support (too) high already.

How about this Partingdon 4-tier equipment support Bas ?

Personally I find it looking much better than the glass Quadraspire, and it cost 50% less!

(only downside is, it's not modular, so you can't ad/removes single shelves.)

regards,
Alco

May I recommend SolidSteel, Bas - especially with a nice slab of Marmor underneath?

Herman

Gee Herm, I know you're right... I just want something smaller!

It was Richard who told me the same (Quadraspire sucks) and he told me about Solidsteel. It really does sound great at a good price. Perhaps I should just get another one :-(

Quadraspire are surely a serious rack maker who understand and engineer the sound. So why the hell would they produce a glass version if they know it sounds crap? Shouldn't they be above that?
Check out Apollo Aria. I've got one, it's modular, and it's dirt cheap 2nd hand. They have loads on hififorsale.com.
Anyone heard of Audiotech racks? Was there a Naim connection?

quote:

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So why the hell would they produce a glass version if they know it sounds crap? Shouldn't they be above that?

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Quadraspire are manufacturers of furniture. It looks nice and that's about it. Then those guys at Audioworks in Cheadle started playing around with the design and they modified it to make it sound much, much better. The hot-rodded Quadraspire Reference was born!

Quadraspire themselves manufacture the Reference version though not AW.

Then someone cuts holes in the shelves and it sounds better still, so all those people who had bought the Ref back in 2001 (including myself) were offered a retrospective upgrade at £10 per shelf - the difference in price between the holed nd non-hole versions.



Regards,

Steve.

The Quadraspire can be a tweakers delight, you can try all sorts of things on it to make them sound better. Definitely better than an old target stand, has higher WAF than a Mana or some of the other steel stands out there, and will make you lust that much more for a Fraim

Avoid the glass shelf option, as it is for high WAF only and not for sound.

The general impression that i have gotten from this thread is that A. People dont rate Quadraspire to much, and that B. Glass worsens the sound. If this is the case, how come the Fraim uses glass shelves for the equipment to sit on?? (just inquisitive).

Craig

Maybe this will help somewhat.

In general, if one wants to isolate and reduce the transmission of vibration (both mechanical and airborne [i.e. sound]) from one item to another then the use of disparate materials with different transmission properties is a prerequisite. In the case of the Fraim, this is accomplished through the use of wood shelf (mdf?), aluminium posts(?) and the ball bearing isolated thick glass shelf. Whether you "lock-in" the shelves on a Fraim or not is a matter of personal preference and probably discussed to exhaustion on other forum threads. Each of these materials will transmit vibration differently and at different frequencies. Combining the materials in a particular manner will result in a decrease in the vibration transmitted and therefore in the amount of isolation.

The Quadraspire Q4 stand (of which I own two and have my Naim electronics on) uses only two materials, aluminium posts and wood (mdf) shelves. Using glass in place of the wood shelf will result in a change in the vibration transmission characteristics of the stand of which the members of this forum have declared the glass to be sonically inferior to the standard Q4 (the question of the suitability of the Q4 as an audio stand is not important in this discussion).

Vibration modes within a stand can also be somewhat controlled by the shape of the stand and shelves employed. In the Q4 reference, the aluminium posts are not as rigidly attached to the shelves (hence the swaying of the stand, another way of dissipating vibrational energy) and the shelves have had a significant portion removed from the centre (again changing the vibration transmission characteristics).

Other manufacturers tackle this problem in different ways using different materials, but the goal is the same, to reduce vibration.

If you own a Q4 you can experiment with using other "sub-shelves" in a Fraim sort of way. There are several options from glass on ball-bearings to "acoustic metal" on ball bearings to spikes to cork etc. Each will have a different impact on vibration and hence the isolation of the electronics and finally the sound. In some ways it is like trying to chose an interconnect cable and people are just as passionate in their feelings.

In my case, the Q4 combined with additional third party "sub-shelves" fit within my budget and was a marked improvement over my older Target stands. Fraim or Mana or one of the others is currently outside of my budget plus there is the WAF to consider. Compromises, compromises, comprimises.

Cheers,

[This message was edited by Geofiz on TUESDAY 09 September 2003 at 19:02.]

If it sounds good to you then buy it. For me Mana support is the chosen one. There is only one (highlander movies) for my Naim: Mana Acoustics.

A friend of mine has his AV system on glass shelved QS and it does look pretty decent. His system sounds fine for an AV system but I've no idea what affect the racks are having on the sound.

Regards
Steve