Up - or sideways?

Posted by: living in lancs yearning for yorks on 13 February 2016

At the moment I have two quadraspire racks.  The left one (top to bottom) is lp12, 250, 555ps and supercap (classic). The right one is nd5xs, then 52 then nat03 and lingo 1. I also have sbl's. The unity serve is in the loft 

There is space to go to the left with an extra rack. But there is also space to go up. 

My next move is probably NDS (that's almost a dead cert), with possible additional changes to 552 / 300 and maybe new speakers (I have recently got back my acoustic energy ae1 speakers w matching stands that I had loaned to my brother, that I bought new in 1990).  If I go 552 and / or 300 I will need extra space - either by going up or sideways 

I like to upgrade infrequently and make really big jumps

anyway the question is, sideways or up? If up then I am restricted to quadraspire unless I do a replacement to fraim in one go - but if sideways would work then I could add fraim. With sideways is there any problem getting the cables to meet up? What would go on the third stack? Is there a big advantage sonically to a third stack over two taller ones? Do I need to consider anything else?

i think if I went up I would be able to do so before adding new components and put some more space in if that would help

If I did add 552 / 300 and new speakers I suppose I might then consider a second 555 for the NDS but that's a very long way off. The 552 would almost certainly be pre-loved, the 300 could be added soon ish if I saw a used one at a good price then add DR later

alternatively, I could get rid of the nat03 and create space that way...

Posted on: 13 February 2016 by Chris Dolan

As there is room to go up, is a wall shelf for the LP12 an option that could/should be added to the mix? 

Posted on: 13 February 2016 by living in lancs yearning for yorks

Maybe - a window sill gets a little in the way - the top shelf on each stack is actually a slightly different height but the slightly lower one is 54 cm lower than the window sill  the curtains hang down about 20cm though I suppose we could shorten them  

in an ideal world I think I would find a vertical storage system for my lps to go where the third stack could go, or put a record cleaning machine there

i should perhaps point out that my last thread here was two years ago about record cleaning machines. Sadly after a trip to Cymbiosis we decided it was a fair bit of my vinyl that sounded rubbish (with the value of my lp12 plus nd5xs I would have been close to an NDS anyway) - and for my 50th I bought myself a coffee machine instead. But I am not sure I want to get rid of my lp12 - had it over 20 years now - even if I have to start buying vinyl again

Posted on: 13 February 2016 by feeling_zen

Don't go higher than 6 shelves with the Quadraspire. The are a bit unstable after a certain height.

I found that with 140mm spacers 5 is really the practical maximum before they get a bit wonky no matter how much you tighten them. 6 is also fine as long as at least 3 spacers are 100mm. This is what I use now to put extra space between the power amp on the bottom shelf and preamp on the top (5th) shelf. The 6th being purely cosmetic with nothing on it.

Posted on: 13 February 2016 by living in lancs yearning for yorks

Six is the max levels I could get to without getting to the window sill level but five would be better (at five the lp12 lid would be neatly under the bottom of the curtains). I think I originally got to six before moving to two racks