Is there a way to make an audiophile rack invisible?

Huge posted:

ChrisSU posted:

...
If I had a suitable space, I would put the rack in a spare room, and just run speaker cable through to the listening room. This would also have the advantage of keeping humming PSUs out of earshot. (Did I read on here once that JV did this with his humming power amps?)

Ah, so that's what the 3.5m minimum is for!   

....or the 20m maximum warning?

Sorry if this has be suggested. But why not set your system up in another room and channel the speaker cables.... I know it s obvious,  just saying ...

I have some space on the balcony...

Years ago when I was a boy my mum said we're not having that lot on show. The units were in an alcove. Mum thought the Garrard 401 in an SME Plinth system 2000 looked nice on the top so didn't mind that showing, so below that dad simply fitted up a curtain track. Mum chose the curtains and domestic bliss resumed. Rich 

With regards putting the gear and table inside a cabinet, considering most here keep their gear powered 24/7, would there be a problem of overheating/ventilation ?

Just thinkin' aloud.

ChrisSU posted:

William posted:

ChrisSU posted:

The advantage of a streamer is that as long as it has a network connection, it can be located anywhere. If I had a suitable space, I would put the rack in a spare room, and just run speaker cable through to the listening room. This would also have the advantage of keeping humming PSUs out of earshot. (Did I read on here once that JV did this with his humming power amps?)

Well with the price of property in Munich I am lucky to have a place without a spare room. With this in mind, and the price of SL cables, it would be cheaper to buy a Klimax Exakt system than an additional room!

Yes, in a city apartment, I guess this is unlikely to work. I was thinking more of a house with a garage close to the listening room. Maybe active speakers and a one box source would be a better alternative.

Active ATC plus Hugo TT2, as an alternative to Linn?

Not with a curtain, bit of ventilation at bottom and top. Hot air rises dragging in cooler air from below . 

Timo posted:

ChrisSU posted:

William posted:

ChrisSU posted:

The advantage of a streamer is that as long as it has a network connection, it can be located anywhere. If I had a suitable space, I would put the rack in a spare room, and just run speaker cable through to the listening room. This would also have the advantage of keeping humming PSUs out of earshot. (Did I read on here once that JV did this with his humming power amps?)

Well with the price of property in Munich I am lucky to have a place without a spare room. With this in mind, and the price of SL cables, it would be cheaper to buy a Klimax Exakt system than an additional room!

Yes, in a city apartment, I guess this is unlikely to work. I was thinking more of a house with a garage close to the listening room. Maybe active speakers and a one box source would be a better alternative.

Active ATC plus Hugo TT2, as an alternative to Linn?

Yes, if you have a suitable source for the Hugo. A Naim streamer/preamp would be another option, such as a 272, although I think it would really want a separate PSU to be a good enough source. 

Wugged Woy posted:

With regards putting the gear and table inside a cabinet, considering most here keep their gear powered 24/7, would there be a problem of overheating/ventilation ?

Just thinkin' aloud.

There were a few posts last summer about overheating Naim boxes, and some of them turned out to have limited space around them for ventilation. You would certainly want a babinet with an open back and as much space around the boxes as possible. Maybe open the doors in warm weather or when the amps warm up in use. 

As suggested above, you can enclose it with either curtains or wood with enough clearance that the enclosure doesn’t touch the Fraim but leave a way to get to the cables by opening the curtains or removing a panel. Given the mix and match sources a top cover might be needed too, 2 feet should be enough depth. How’s you woodworking skill? Maybe an Ikea melltorp over the top, if you only have four shelves, with curtained sides or pannels if you can get anything to attach to it, I haven’t seen one in 3 dimensions.

ChrisSU posted:

Timo posted:

ChrisSU posted:

William posted:

ChrisSU posted:

The advantage of a streamer is that as long as it has a network connection, it can be located anywhere. If I had a suitable space, I would put the rack in a spare room, and just run speaker cable through to the listening room. This would also have the advantage of keeping humming PSUs out of earshot. (Did I read on here once that JV did this with his humming power amps?)

Well with the price of property in Munich I am lucky to have a place without a spare room. With this in mind, and the price of SL cables, it would be cheaper to buy a Klimax Exakt system than an additional room!

Yes, in a city apartment, I guess this is unlikely to work. I was thinking more of a house with a garage close to the listening room. Maybe active speakers and a one box source would be a better alternative.

Active ATC plus Hugo TT2, as an alternative to Linn?

Yes, if you have a suitable source for the Hugo. A Naim streamer/preamp would be another option, such as a 272, although I think it would really want a separate PSU to be a good enough source. 

A Micro or UltraRendu, an SOTM 200 or an Allo DigiOne wouldn’t take much space — if I had some 12K or so to spend, i would certainly audition a Hugo TT2 and ATC40A...

Timo posted:

ChrisSU posted:

William posted:

ChrisSU posted:

The advantage of a streamer is that as long as it has a network connection, it can be located anywhere. If I had a suitable space, I would put the rack in a spare room, and just run speaker cable through to the listening room. This would also have the advantage of keeping humming PSUs out of earshot. (Did I read on here once that JV did this with his humming power amps?)

Well with the price of property in Munich I am lucky to have a place without a spare room. With this in mind, and the price of SL cables, it would be cheaper to buy a Klimax Exakt system than an additional room!

Yes, in a city apartment, I guess this is unlikely to work. I was thinking more of a house with a garage close to the listening room. Maybe active speakers and a one box source would be a better alternative.

Active ATC plus Hugo TT2, as an alternative to Linn?

Too many ugly boxes again 

yeti42 posted:

As suggested above, you can enclose it with either curtains or wood with enough clearance that the enclosure doesn’t touch the Fraim but leave a way to get to the cables by opening the curtains or removing a panel. Given the mix and match sources a top cover might be needed too, 2 feet should be enough depth. How’s you woodworking skill? Maybe an Ikea melltorp over the top, if you only have four shelves, with curtained sides or pannels if you can get anything to attach to it, I haven’t seen one in 3 dimensions.

Woodworking skills? On a scale of 1–10? Zero.

Thanks for all these suggestions guys, although the cabinet idea is creative and I did give it sone consideration, however then it‘s just a fraim in anorher box and the idea was to make the boxes do a disappearing act.

Timo posted:

ChrisSU 

 

 

 

 

 

A Micro or UltraRendu, an SOTM 200 or an Allo DigiOne wouldn’t take much space — if I had some 12K or so to spend, i would certainly audition a Hugo TT2 and ATC40A...

Another nice suggestion but...

I had an Allo USBridge and replaced it with a Metrum Ambre. That enhanced the SQ enormously going into a good DAC going into...

I like the idea of one slim box and two active speakers. But will have to demo....

A pair of ATC 19As would seem to fit the bill. If you wanted to stick with Naim you could use a 272 without power supply. It’s still a black box, not silver, but it’s a very nice black box! At a much higher price level the Linn Akudorik active speakers might be worth looking at. 

hungryhalibut posted:

A pair of ATC 19As would seem to fit the bill. If you wanted to stick with Naim you could use a 272 without power supply. It’s still a black box, not silver, but it’s a very nice black box! At a much higher price level the Linn Akudorik active speakers might be worth looking at. 

Interesting... especially the Akudorik (say preloved) or even the Akubarik with a nice slim Katalyst box. Certainly curiosity is now killing my cat, which is thankfully better than anybody‘s goat being got 

I'm trying to "hide" my 56" TV. It's near the speakers and I'm thinking of killing 2 birds by covering it with bass trap material (Rockwool RW5 or similar) and covering this with a design.

With the question of what kind of design in mind, I came across a program with which you can make a "camo" style pattern - like the new pixellated style on U.S. forces clothing. The idea is to choose a set of colours (3 allowed by the program) from the surrounds of the t.v.

Not sure if I'll do it yet, may well make matters worse.

Link to program:

http://www.happyponyland.net/camogen.php

Just one word - 

LUCITE - may not be "invisible" but at least see- thru 

FWIW Quadraspire used to do front rack doors that clip on. IIRC (and not sure I do) it was one door per level with the shelves protruding in between. They never had them on the web site.

Might be worth enquiring whether they can still do them. 

Richard Dane posted:

Wow, that didn't take long.  Via the awesome power of the internet..!

My other half is quite forgiving of my hobby but I think she might just draw the line at that.

Bob the Builder posted:

Richard Dane posted:

Wow, that didn't take long.  Via the awesome power of the internet..!

My other half is quite forgiving of my hobby but I think she might just draw the line at that.

It is, quite hideous, isn't it? ????

Maybe the answer lies in the kitchen, a standard cabinet depth is around 2 feet. You’d probably need to allow for ventilation somehow but that shouldn’t be beyond the wit of man.Unless there’s a rule against it (It is in Germany after all), it should be possible to have the last unit full of hifi and have it look like part of the open plan kitchen.

yeti42 posted:

Maybe the answer lies in the kitchen, a standard cabinet depth is around 2 feet. You’d probably need to allow for ventilation somehow but that shouldn’t be beyond the wit of man.Unless there’s a rule against it (It is in Germany after all), it should be possible to have the last unit full of hifi and have it look like part of the open plan kitchen.

Nice idea yeti42, thanks for this. Downside would be the required length of SL cables. Also, limited space in the kitchen as we were planning to use such a cabinet for a 11 kg gas bottle and replacing the electric cooker with gas. Still, definitely worth a look.

[@mention:31133010784314286] You mentioned this is for an open plan room. Speaking from current experience of someone with 3 racks in an open plan room slightly larger than yours, I can tell you hiding the gear will be the least of your concerns soon. Finding 5 minutes to listen to music or watch a movie when the oven is not going, the dishwasher is not making a racket or someone is just puttering around in the kitchen will be a challenge. It certainly is for me and my wife.

After years of this, it has driven us both barmy. I can't find 5 mins to listen in peace and likewise, when she is watching a drama, during a tense moment, the dishwasher invariably kicks in with a noisy and long cycle wrecking the mood or making whispered dialogue impossible to hear. So much so, that we have given up on open plan and are moving. The point being, home entertainment gear is to a varying degree expected in a living room but less so in a kitchen or dining room. Open plan forces the hand there. My wife doesn't really mind the racks since they blend seamlessly with an all wood décor. But they are is still where they shouldn't be and in a year from now, people in the dining kitchen won't see them because they won't be there.

I digress a bit though. You mentioned that you yourself have similar tastes to your wife and have a similar problem with the appearance of the gear. Might I suggest you then go the other way entirely? If a rack is just so far from both your idea of acceptable, then don't go for any hifi rack. Maybe your thing is white carved driftwood or shocking pink cast iron shelves hanging from the ceiling. My point is, get something big enough to hold the hifi built and don't compromise on aesthetic. Just make sure whatever it is can be adjusted to be level and not rock on its legs (if it has them). Get it 100% how you want it to look in your home. Then get something like Quadraspire Interfaces. They do equipment feet that are apparently very good and looking at their prices, would come it at a similar cost to Fraim and add an inch to each unit's height. Look on their site for the QPlus range of feet. I actually use the QPlus Evo under my UQ2 in the office since there is no rack in this room.

[@mention:35920103255542881]: Not a digression at all, in fact I hadn‘t really thought about the different listening environment, probably because my previous flat was open plan. In those days I had a couple of small Naim boxes hidden in a built-in wall cupboard.

At the moment we live in a flat in a period house with a dedicated living/TV/stereo room, which is why I got the Fraim and 252/300. Now, through an unexpected turn of events, we have the opportunity to buy a modern city apartment. As is so often the case with modern architecture, it looks great until you put your Stuff in it.

Although the Fraim with black boxes was supposed to be a long-term upgrade, it pales in comparison to the property investment and because we are starting from scratch I am calling everything into question and am not afraid to change.

While I might be able to find some nice furniture, I doubt I will find space to put all the TV gear and black boxes into. So, following some advice from a certain fish who has been thinking out of the box, I will be interested to hear what a goodlooking/space-saving active system from the boys north of the border can accomplish in my living room with the possibility of relocating the SL2s to the bedroom.

Since we already listen to music on the Muso in the kitchen, I don‘t envisage a problem, on the contrary just the chance to listen more on the main system.

Cheers, William