Soul to Sole EQ Equipment Rack

It’s okay to space out

By John Groom

November 2004

Soul to Sole EQ Equipment Rack, $549.

Having an equipment rack for your hi-fi is important for a variety of reasons. Many pieces of equipment need ventilation, amplifiers particularly. All electronic equipment generates an electromagnetic field around itself and should be separated. Disc spinners – vinyl, CD and DVD – should be perfectly level. Plus the equipment rack can influence the sound of your hi-fi equipment.

Soul to Sole’s EQ rack is more than generous in proportion. There are four shelves with a spacing of 150mm, 150mm and 250mm heights. The bottom shelf will handle a large amplifier. The shelves are also a generous 450mm deep and 495mm between the uprights. This is a good size for sliding equipment easily in and out. Custom sizes are available to order.

Take a firm stand

When reputable hi-fi equipment is manufactured it is ‘voiced’ before release, i.e. it is tuned to produce a particular type of sound. Some of the ‘voice’ of equipment depends on what it is sitting on. Sitting on glass the sound can be bright; with metal stands there is a subtle ‘ring’ to them; wooden stands can sound ‘boxy’ and even supporting equipment on a cushion of air can sound ‘floaty’. What we are talking here is damage control, ie least harmful alternatives.

With the EQ rack, Stephen Seque of Soul to Sole Manufacturing in Hawkes Bay took a conservative approach and made the shelves of a 28mm pine ply topped with attractive veneers in either Rimu or Fijian Kauri. The thick corner posts are chromed steel tubes. The logic here is to dampen any unwanted resonances, and that he has done well. Try the ‘knuckle test’ by tapping on one of the shelves and you will find it an inert, deep sound.

Keep an ear to the ground

The equipment on the stand for this review was an elderly Pioneer CD player and a Harmon Kardon integrated amplifier. The EQ was spiked through carpet onto a concrete floor. The room itself is approximately 5.5 meters by 6.0 meters and is not an easy room to ‘drive’. The main speakers are Royd Albions and a REL subwoofer is also used.

The EQ gave the music a solid and satisfying grounded sound. I liked the warmth it gave to Mozart’s violin works. The sound of the bass player on Patricia Barber’s Companion was almost tactile. The New Zealand recording Always and for Real by Adeaze has some complex baselines, these were surprisingly well articulated. In the midrange Katie Melua’s voice on Call off the Search was multi layered and expressive. With the Oscar Peterson Trio the brushwork was subtle and had plenty of texture. In ultimate terms the pine is probably doing some of the work of the sub-woofer and the chromed steel tube does give a slightly forward sound.

Putting it all together

Steve does not claim to be some sort of golden-eared nerd, who designs gear with abstract purist intentions. He thought the pine ply would give a solid sound and he didn’t have much choice about the chromed steel tube. He has, partly by accident and partly by design, come up with a rack that works and at a reasonable price of $549. It is not as lean a sound as the Mana, as busy as the Naim Fraim or as ‘fast’ as the local glass and steel constructions. There is however a satisfying quality to the way that this is ‘voiced’ that is probably close to how the original designer intended the equipment to be heard.

Guilding the lily

To finalise your purchase you just need to go to Soundline Audio or Sound Expression in Wellington or an Eastern Hi-Fi shop (in Auckland) and choose between the Kauri and the Rimu finish. The model I saw in the shop was displaying Musical Fidelity gear in the new silver/gray finish. The combination was quite stunning.

When you set the stand up, make sure that the connections are nice and tight, the top is level, you are using the spikes and that the stand is away from the wall or other furniture. For those who are truly committed, sand or lead pellets can be inserted into the stainless steel supports for extra tuning.

The question of the DAF (Domestic Acceptance Factor) is matter of personal taste, but certainly the stand is strong enough that if your ‘significant other’ insists on putting a pot plant on the top shelf, it won’t have a huge impact on the sound. That in itself can be a big contribution to domestic harmony.

If you are in the market for a stand, make this local and very capable all-rounder your first point of call. Highly recommended.