This thread started with the intention of sharing the experience of the Mutec and SOtM kit I was using with a Devialet. I think over time it has drifted a little towards being my system thread, which is something I have found very useful. If nothing else, I have found it interesting to refer back to this thread as it serves to document the changes to the system, past observations and the journey over time. There have been some good contributions from others too.
Anyway, it occurs to me that I have not posted anything of note here since January 2020. A bit like many things in the world, this thread kind of stopped in early 2020.
So did the tweaking of the system stop in 2020? Well, it did slow down, but there were some changes in 2020, and in 2021. So I plan to add one or two posts in order to fill in the gaps and get this thread up to date.
This takes us back to February 2020, when I actually went to visit the Bristol Hi-Fi show, yes a real show, with lots of real people there. The Bristol show is not too far from where I live, and I have visited many times, but looking back over the last year or so it seems very strange that I actually went to a hifi show in 2020. Of course, this was February, by March things were very different.
It is fun to visit the show and just have a look around and a listen to lots of systems. I was also keen the visit the GIK stand, I had a few questions I wanted to ask and I wanted to look at the various room treatment options that they had on display. I also wanted to look at hifi racks, knowing that there were a number of manufacturers displaying racks, as well as the various racks put into service in the demo rooms.
I think I have mentioned in earlier posts that I had made some changes to the layout of the room and the layout and position of my rack. I had come up with a rack layout that worked, but this was cobbled together using two old Optimum racks, cut down and placed side by side. The layout worked, but it was a messy and awkward looking end result. Looking at the various racks on display at the show, the one I liked best was made by Hifi Racks (imaginative name for a hifi rack company), specifically the Hifi Racks Podium XL. I had a quick chat with the staff and was given a brochure. One nice point about the Hifi Racks racks is that they can be custom made to order, with each and every dimension customer specified.
I also had a chat with the GIK guys, this was good. It was also great to actually look at the GIK products. I had looked at a few products on line, and selected one or two that I thought looked OK, but seeing the products for real they looed very different and I soon changed my mind about what I liked the look of. I guess many of us are getting used to buying almost everything on line, but sometimes there is no substitute for actually seeing something for real. If I had happened to buy something based purely on what I had seen on GIK's website it might have been a mistake, but looking at the products for real allows much better and more informed choices to be made.
One other aspect of the Bristol show is that there is a show "competition" as they call it, which is basically a free prize draw. This is organised by What Hi-Fi. Basically you fill in a little card, add your email address, stick the card in a box and hope for the best. I think What Hi-Fi do this as a way of harvesting email addresses, but as they first captured my email address maybe 12 years ago, each time I visit the show I am happy to fill in the little card and give it to them again.
So that was February 2020. Then came March, the world descended into chaos, everything changed in April, then in May I received an email. This email was from What Hi-Fi, I had won a prize in the Bristol Show competition! There were a whole range of individual prizes, speakers, headphone amps, sound bars, and so on. So what was my prize? It was a Hifi Racks Ommion 8 stand. Interesting, and what a coincidence, and slightly annoying. The stand I had won was from the company whose racks I liked very much, but it was completely the wrong model, size and design. Oh well... Anyway, I was given a contact at Hifi racks to ring up and arrange delivery of my prize. I asked them if the rack was actually built and if was there any chance of changing it to another model. A simple answer, the rack was not built, they custom build everything to customer specification, I could select and specify anything I wanted from their range, and simply pay any additional cost.
So I then looked at their website, carefully measured everything, thought about the various options and finishes etc etc. I specified my perfect rack and ordered. The funny thing here is that I had won a prize, but then ended up paying well over £1200 to the company offering the prize. Anyway, the rack turned up in August, I assembled the thing, and being the engineer that I am I started measuring it, was it exactly as I had specified? Yes it was, 100% perfect to the millimetre.
I am very pleased with the rack, the quality is good, it is very well built. The veneer is a little funky in places, some sections contrast to others, I suspect this might annoy some perfectionist types but I rather like it, I guess it stops it from looking like a generic mass produced item and makes it look more hand crafted, plus the overall finish is superb. That said, you hardly notice this one way or the other once it has lots of hifi kit on it. They were also a great company to deal with, good old fashioned personal service type stuff. Lets put it this way, if I ever need a hifi rack, TV stand or similar in the future, I would definitely do business with them again.
The rack I bought is a bit like this one, although I added some cut-outs for cables and a few other bits:
https://www.hifiracks.co.uk/collections/...odium-xl-v
Note per the link above that you can order any size of shelf you want, any height, any number of shelves and so on. The price does seem to creep up though, as you add everything you might desire.
So that takes me to August 2020, slowly catching up. More later!
Anyway, it occurs to me that I have not posted anything of note here since January 2020. A bit like many things in the world, this thread kind of stopped in early 2020.
So did the tweaking of the system stop in 2020? Well, it did slow down, but there were some changes in 2020, and in 2021. So I plan to add one or two posts in order to fill in the gaps and get this thread up to date.
This takes us back to February 2020, when I actually went to visit the Bristol Hi-Fi show, yes a real show, with lots of real people there. The Bristol show is not too far from where I live, and I have visited many times, but looking back over the last year or so it seems very strange that I actually went to a hifi show in 2020. Of course, this was February, by March things were very different.
It is fun to visit the show and just have a look around and a listen to lots of systems. I was also keen the visit the GIK stand, I had a few questions I wanted to ask and I wanted to look at the various room treatment options that they had on display. I also wanted to look at hifi racks, knowing that there were a number of manufacturers displaying racks, as well as the various racks put into service in the demo rooms.
I think I have mentioned in earlier posts that I had made some changes to the layout of the room and the layout and position of my rack. I had come up with a rack layout that worked, but this was cobbled together using two old Optimum racks, cut down and placed side by side. The layout worked, but it was a messy and awkward looking end result. Looking at the various racks on display at the show, the one I liked best was made by Hifi Racks (imaginative name for a hifi rack company), specifically the Hifi Racks Podium XL. I had a quick chat with the staff and was given a brochure. One nice point about the Hifi Racks racks is that they can be custom made to order, with each and every dimension customer specified.
I also had a chat with the GIK guys, this was good. It was also great to actually look at the GIK products. I had looked at a few products on line, and selected one or two that I thought looked OK, but seeing the products for real they looed very different and I soon changed my mind about what I liked the look of. I guess many of us are getting used to buying almost everything on line, but sometimes there is no substitute for actually seeing something for real. If I had happened to buy something based purely on what I had seen on GIK's website it might have been a mistake, but looking at the products for real allows much better and more informed choices to be made.
One other aspect of the Bristol show is that there is a show "competition" as they call it, which is basically a free prize draw. This is organised by What Hi-Fi. Basically you fill in a little card, add your email address, stick the card in a box and hope for the best. I think What Hi-Fi do this as a way of harvesting email addresses, but as they first captured my email address maybe 12 years ago, each time I visit the show I am happy to fill in the little card and give it to them again.
So that was February 2020. Then came March, the world descended into chaos, everything changed in April, then in May I received an email. This email was from What Hi-Fi, I had won a prize in the Bristol Show competition! There were a whole range of individual prizes, speakers, headphone amps, sound bars, and so on. So what was my prize? It was a Hifi Racks Ommion 8 stand. Interesting, and what a coincidence, and slightly annoying. The stand I had won was from the company whose racks I liked very much, but it was completely the wrong model, size and design. Oh well... Anyway, I was given a contact at Hifi racks to ring up and arrange delivery of my prize. I asked them if the rack was actually built and if was there any chance of changing it to another model. A simple answer, the rack was not built, they custom build everything to customer specification, I could select and specify anything I wanted from their range, and simply pay any additional cost.
So I then looked at their website, carefully measured everything, thought about the various options and finishes etc etc. I specified my perfect rack and ordered. The funny thing here is that I had won a prize, but then ended up paying well over £1200 to the company offering the prize. Anyway, the rack turned up in August, I assembled the thing, and being the engineer that I am I started measuring it, was it exactly as I had specified? Yes it was, 100% perfect to the millimetre.
I am very pleased with the rack, the quality is good, it is very well built. The veneer is a little funky in places, some sections contrast to others, I suspect this might annoy some perfectionist types but I rather like it, I guess it stops it from looking like a generic mass produced item and makes it look more hand crafted, plus the overall finish is superb. That said, you hardly notice this one way or the other once it has lots of hifi kit on it. They were also a great company to deal with, good old fashioned personal service type stuff. Lets put it this way, if I ever need a hifi rack, TV stand or similar in the future, I would definitely do business with them again.
The rack I bought is a bit like this one, although I added some cut-outs for cables and a few other bits:
https://www.hifiracks.co.uk/collections/...odium-xl-v
Note per the link above that you can order any size of shelf you want, any height, any number of shelves and so on. The price does seem to creep up though, as you add everything you might desire.
So that takes me to August 2020, slowly catching up. More later!
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
