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The following article written by Wayne Donelly was published in the Fall issue of The Ultimate Audio. The Arcici Suspense Rack: Floating your sound on air. The Arcici Suspense Rack offers an effective approach to isolating components from the mechanical vibration that can affect the sonic performance of fixed-shelf equipment racks. Moreover, its visual elegance provides an excellent showcase for your components. The concept is simple. A Shallow tray at the top of the structure contains three heavy-duty wheel-barrow inner tubes. My rack, which I received about a year ago, actually features four such bladders, but Arcici's Ray Shab advises deflating one of the four and relocating another to make a triangular configuration. This means that each bladder has more mass loading, which is sonically beneficial. Resting atop the bladders is a heavy steel plate with holes drilled at each corner. The threaded suspension rods for the four ¾-inch acrylic shelves are connected through those holes, and the notched shelves are simply slid in to rest on the threaded leveling nuts and Zorbex pads which support each shelf. Zorbex is similar to Sorbothane but is claimed by Arcici to provide even better isolation and prevent crosstalk migrating down the rods from shelf to shelf. The rods hang freely, and are connected only at the top steel plate. Resting on the steel platform is a polished acrylic plate, designed, as Ray Shab puts it, to change a ping to a thud. This makes the top shelf well suited to supporting a turntable or a digital transport. Thus, the single set of air bladders provides effective suspension for a total of five shelves. |
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The key to getting optimum results from this rack seems to lie in careful control of the degree of inflation. This is determined by eye; the lower edge of the top acrylic plate should be seen to float 1/16" to 1/8" above the wood frame. I found that the bladders needed adjustment occasionally, but the process is simple, and it was not a chore to keep them properly inflated using the hand pump supplied by Arcici. I used a combination of tubed and solid-state electronics, as well as various CD players and my Townshend turntable on the rack. My general conclusion is that all of these components benefited significantly from the air suspension, compared to other types of equipment support I previously used, including the Townshend Seismic Sinks and Signalguard high-mass isolation platforms. The sound of my system with the Arcici in use became purer and much finer-grained. I could detect inner details that had previously escaped my notice. This was particularly true in complex orchestral music, but the beneficial effects were discernible with solo, chamber, and vocal recordings as well. I experimented with adding the aforementioned isolation platforms to the Arcici, but did not like the results. The sound became somewhat "grey" and over-damped, lacking life and sparkle. I did, however, find that isolation cones, such as Black Diamond Racing and Polycrystal, added clarity and focus with some components, particularly my Thor preamplifiers. Because my VTL 750 monoblocks are so large, I could not put them onto the Suspense Rack, but Ray Shab volunteered to send me a pair of Air Heads, which use a similar three-bladder configuration, to put under the amplifiers. I found that combining Polycrystal amplifier stands, which I was already using, with the Air Heads yielded results similar to what the rack accomplished for my front-end components. My experience with this superb rack has thoroughly convinced me that air suspension is a superior way to get the best out of your components. The clarity and finesse achieved by using the Arcici accessories make them worthy of a strong recommendation. Air Power! - The Ultimate Audio, Fall, 1999 PO Box 272, New York, NY 10024 Phone: (631) 922-8479 |