Core Audio Racks arrive tomorrow

Posting here as there's no specific forum for audio racks, amp stands, speaker stands, etc.

Tomorrow my Core Audio racks will be delivered by Core Audio founder and craftsman, Arnold Marr.

Here's some info on these superb audio racks, crafted by hand:

PlyKraft Platform
The new plyKraft platform is composed of domestic high density FSC & CARB certified Apple-Ply. The massive 2” Apple-Ply stock consists of 34 layers of hardwood laminates.

The construction of Apple-Ply lends itself beautifully to be the perfect building blocks for our new shelves. The exposed Apple-Ply edge is nearly void free and offers a refreshing design element that can be integrated into nearly any décor. As with previous designs, the shelves are milled in the center to create two hollow chambers accessible from the underside of the platform by removing the two brushed aluminum composite Di-Bond®/ALUPANEL® panels. The chambers are preloaded with our unique blend of damping materials to create a high mass, low resonance core.

Photo of the damping chambers underneath each shelf; there are 2 chambers/shelf.


Uprights
Massive eight-quarter FAS solid hardwood stock is milled to perfection with precision CNC routers. Dado joinery and threaded metal inserts are used to couple the uprights to the platforms. The dense hardwood uprights create the perfect mechanical diode to drain unwanted vibrations from the shelves to the ground. The uprights are available in: Rift White Oak, Hard Maple, Natural Cherry, American Black Walnut, African Sapele, African Bubinga, and African Zebra. Other wood species are available upon request.

Finish
Each component is carefully prepared to maintain its natural beauty with two coats of sealer followed by three coats of clear lacquer. We use Mohawk® professional grade oil based catalyzed lacquer to provide a durable and transparent finish to bring out truly the best in wood by defining grain and depth. We use no stains, dyes or toners in our finishing process. Hand-rubbed oil finishes require occasional oiling. Our catalyzed lacquer is nearly maintenance-free. A simple micro-fiber towel or feather duster is all that’s required.

Here's a description of some key features of Core Audio Racks:

Features

• Solid hardwood uprights composed from premium FAS certified heartwood. Eight-quarter stock selected for even grain, density, and stability.
• 2” high-density domestic apple-ply shelves consisting of 34 layers of hardwood. FSC & CARB Certified.
• Milled center core provides hollow chamber for damping materials.
• Chambers preloaded with lead, clay, and silica. Materials sealed within dual 3 Mil poly bags
• Constrained layer damping provided by butyl resin, aluminum, PVC/NBR/CR closed cell foam.
• Di-Bond®/ALUPANEL® aluminum composite panels (brushed copper finish) used to conceal damping material.
• Available in Rift White Oak, Hard Maple, Natural Cherry, American Black Walnut, African Sapele, African Bubinga, and African Zebra.
• MOHAWK® Professional grade oil based catalyzed lacquer finish.
• Minimalist design showcasing the beauty and natural harmonics of solid hardwood.
• Open architecture allowing for maximum airflow and heat dissipation.
• Includes adjustable 5 piece v.3 deluxe 304 stainless steel spikes & coasters.

A pic of a 3L rack:


Mine will be 2L (2-level) racks in figured maple with walnut supports, which will nicely complement the tones of my 30.2 40th Anniversay Harbeths in eucalyptus on figured maple Resonant Woods stands.


I'll be installing the two 2L racks side-by-side for my system. Another nice thing will be I won't be needing any bamboo cutting boards, Stillpoints, HRS Nimbus couplers, EVPs, Herbie's Tenderfeet, blah, blah, blah. Just place the component on the rack shelf, and you're "good to go".

Will post some pics of the system on the new Core Audio racks once it's set up...

 

Whelp, my Core Audio racks arrived today, and they're even more beautiful that I thought they would be. Here's three shots at different perspectives.

These are crafted with figured maple shelves and walnut legs.



"1-point" view


Top view...


Man, these are gorgeous, the figured maple shelves are stunning.

Can't see it in these photos, but the two damping chambers underneath each shelf have Core Audio's latest blend of damping materials.

 

What kind of vacuum cleaner is that in the background on the right?

 

That's a Shunyata Research Everest power distributor. Used in conjunction with my Shunyata Sigma v2, Alpha v2 and QR-s power cables powering the components, it has the most significant, beneficial, and positive impact on on my system's performance, reduction of noise (zone to zone from 100 kHz – 30 MHz: > 60 dB reduction), overall audio quality, and ultimately, musical experience than any other "component" in the entire system. The next most signifcant are the Altaira ground-plane noise reduction hubs on top of the Inspiration integrated and the Lumin P1.

Oh, and BTW, you can watch a video about the benefits from using the Shunyata Everest power distributor and power cables for audio systems produced by Grammy-award winning record mastering engineer, Glenn Tabor, linked below. Glenn was so impressed with the Shunyata power products he installed at his GAT3 record mastering studios, that, at his own expense, he hired in a professional video production crew to make this video describing his experience using the Shunyata Research products for his professional record mastering work.

Have a nice day. Cheers.

 

How much you paid for the racks?

 

I think we should do a loaner with the "Everest"

 

1+1=2

 

Thanks, yes, the racks are really lovely. When I have more light tomorrow (it's about to really storm here in the Bay Area), I'll take a proper photo of the top surface of the rack shelves. They are beautiful as they are figured maple.

And, yes, you can easily see all 34 layers of the Apple-Ply from the side. I'll take a photo of that, too.

Cheers.

 

Each rack is $1999.

 

Holy f**k.

 

That's nothing compared to HRS or Artesania racks. The entry-level HRS rack, the RXR is...$9000 for a 4-shelf rack.

A "mid-tier" HRS rack, the SXR, is...$17,850 for a 4-shelf rack. Such is the "high-end" in high-end audio.

Cheers.

 

For that kind of money, I could have something hand crafted out of mahogany, and have enough money left over to buy a second hand Honda Civic.

 

That's exactly what I bought. My Core Audio racks are hand-crafted, out of 34 layers of Apple-Ply. Morever, the cut-outs under each shelf for mounting the metal chambers containing the damping materials, and for mounting the legs to the shelves are all CNC-machined, as well.

 

Yup! I completely agree. If you visited Arnold Marr of Core's workshop in Novato, CA (which I did, a couple weeks ago), you'd see first-hand the level of quality and skill with which these racks are crafted. You'd also see the CNC machine he uses to cut out with extreme precision the sections in the racks for mounting the legs, shelves and damping materials chambers.

Oh, and BTW, a British Quadraspire SV2T two-shelf rack in bamboo with just two "double-wide" shelves (as shown, comparable in shelf space to mine) is also $4K

 

Here's a "system view" with the new Core Audio racks. One of the nice things about the racks is their figured maple shelves and walnut legs nicely match and complement the tones/colors of my Harbeth 30.2 40th Anniversary speakers with Silver Eucalyptus cabinets resting on figured maple Resonant Woods speaker stands*.



*–Note: the smaller red speaker is one of my GR-Research X-LS Encores that I'm trying out as the L/R speakers for my Home Theatre set-up (which is off to the right, out of the photo). I sometimes swap out the Harbeths and put the X-LS Encores into the main system when I want to change things up a bit. They're superb speakers with NO iron-core inductors or cheap-*ss sandcast resistors in the crossover circuit. At their price point (about $900 all in, including the cabinets I had made up for them) they're unmatched in performance, in my personal experience.

 

I missed this post, the racks are beautiful, and the price is very fair. wonderful system Still happy with the Lumin? Ive wondered how the dac streamer compares to comparible priced separates, sure is nice space wise, cables etc.
best,
Josh

 

Hey Josh,
Yes, I am very, very happy with the Lumin P1, both to provide streamer functionality as well as functioning as my DAC. That I can run directly via LC/LC optical fiber directly into the back of the P1 is a big plus, and the dual-mono DAC built into the P1 is outstanding, too. Just to put this into perspective, I used to have a "standalone" LampiZator Baltic 3 DAC, and the DAC in the P1 is so good that I sold my Baltic 3. Specifically, in the P1 has implemented:

• New processor delivers native DSD512 & PCM384 playback
• Dual Mono design throughout maximizes channel separation
• Dual ES9028PRO SABRE DACs in mono mode
• A Femto-clock system with precision FPGA distribution

So, in my experience, the streamer, DAC, and...preamplifier functionality of the Lumin P1 is as good, or better than the "separates" I had in my system prior to getting the P1 (SOtM SMS-200 UltraNeo network bridge, Lampi B3 DAC, & my First Sound dual-mono preamp).
Love it, love it, love it.

And, the Core Audio racks have been wonderful, too. Not only are they superb for their application, they made the room look more attractive, too, with their beautiful materials and construction. Very happy with them.

Cheers,
-Stephen aka PC

 

Beautiful setup @Puma Cat ! I wish I knew about the Shunyata power supplies when I was buying them to try to solve my noise issues. I tried every other one I know of with no benefit. I couldn't spend 10k on a power supply but their Gemini looks great. If I have spare cash down the line I might get one to see if it lowers noise or has other benefits.