First however, let’s look at the physical challenges. The R-shelf might look flat from above, but flip it over and you see a far more complex geography. The shelf is stiffened and damped by a broad lateral spine that sits in the gap between the rack’s front and rear support beams. On either side of the spine are located the three large squares of polymer material that interface with the supports beams. These polymer pads are shallower in height than the spine and, just to complicate things further, there’s a shallow lip on the inner vertical face of each of the support beams that fits in the narrow gap between the polymer pads and the spine. When it comes to creating an alternative shelf, even if you happened to have a slab of material the right depth to sit flush with the outer frame, a flat profile on the underside isn’t going to do it…
When I spoke to Music Works about the project, their solution was typically straightforward: a flat shelf 14mm thick, cut from their stock material, and a set of four spacing discs cut to height, so that the underside of the shelf cleared the inner lips on the rack’s support beams while the top surface sat flush with the upper edge of the supporting frame. They supplied a pair of shelves and matching spacers, allowing me to support more than one component in the rack, be that a CD player and pre-amp or a phono-stage and power supply. Having rung the changes I can report that the results are remarkably consistent, with two shelves supporting a system’s front-end components again demonstrating that consistency (in this case of support) counts.
AcouPlex is characterised by its open clarity, natural dynamics and tonal balance. Those qualities were immediately obvious in the context of this direct comparison. Substituting the AcouPlex shelf for the R-shelf in the RXR frame brought greater transparency, air and focus, more immediacy, greater dynamic range (and headroom) and greater tonal differentiation of instruments. Playing the opening to the Second Movement from Symphony 2 in the Rattle/Berliner Sibelius cycle (BPHR 150073 SACD) the muted drum roll and plucked bass passage that open proceedings is reproduced with a greater sense of acoustic space and instrumental colour, more texture to the drum skin and far more lucid pitch and pacing to the pizzicato bass. The musical presence and immediacy (along with the more explicit instrumental placement) heightened the sense of inclusion, of being in the same space as the musicians and their instruments. The more expressive dynamics and crisper, more fluid timing made for a more engaging performance and one that builds far more naturally through the stepped orchestration so indicative of the composer’s work. The towering crescendos that close out the final movement are more powerfully and weighty, building with greater intent yet still retaining better instrumental separation and a greater (and all important) sense of instrumental separation. In effect, the result is simply more – well – towering!
