At the beginning of 2015 I had an Ikea nightstand (about 20 inches x 20 inches x 15 inches deep) with a total of four shelves located in the center of the front wall filled with gear. The nightstand is heavily built, super cheap, and after mounting the caster posts left the wheels off to provide "spikes". After downsizing I'm left with small remote controlled DAC/pre and pair of mono-blocks. Room/near-field setup follows Cardas so speakers/chair are in a 68 inch equilateral triangle with the chair about 10 feet from the front wall in a 8 ft x 13 ft x 21 ft room. Six GIK 244 panels are located in front corners and at first front/side wall reflection points.
My tiny rack was looking stupidly bare. Note that I use an iMac via long/cheap optical cable from the office in the back of the room or a MacBook via 3 meter USB cable from the listening chair. Was reminded from my readings that bass energy builds up in room corners and intersections of walls to walls/floor/ceilings) and accordingly found a 44 inch length of shelving left over from our house build. Amateurishly added spikes and a few coats of finish (don't make me try to post an image) for a simple support of the DAC/pre-amp and mono-blocks that I pulled a couple of feet away from the wall/floor intersection. Thought about buying a "real" big boy audiophile approved 2 inch thick custom maple shelf but decided to try this "proof of concept" (cheap) solution first. Note that I've tried various tweaks over the years with results varying from no to nearly no improvements. If you call this a tweak, it's the best I've ever tried (not a tweak-alcoholic, but have tried a variety with almost zero effect).
The look now is more audiophile approved (wires all over the floor) but more importantly after 40 years in audio I've got my first "low rider" component setup (it'd been years since I'd seen purist/nuts lay all their gear across the floor and chuckled as I imaged them playing twister trying to get to each component). With this simple system wires aren't bunched up and are laid out (directly on the carpet - gasp) to minimize crossings and to do it at 90 degree angles. But the soundstage that frankly had been strangely/disappointingly small has blossomed to fill the space between speakers. I'm very pleasantly surprised the difference that moving from a tiny rack to no rack has made. Try it!
