Vibration Control For Music & Home Cinema Systems
We've helped countless customers upgrade their audio and home theater systems using our
Vibration Control System to mount individual components. Lots of customers install our air-dried
Maple Platforms to isolate their gear from the distorting resonances of flimsy MDF-and-hollow-metal-tubing equipment racks. But you'll get even better sound and improved picture quality with a massively solid, ultra-rigid rack designed from the ground up for resonance-free, maple-based vibration control. That's how we designed the SAMSON.
Beautiful—And Superb Sounding
Introduced in 2002, SAMSON vibration control equipment racks were designed to set a new standard for improving the sound and picture quality of music and home cinema systems. Despite the natural beauty of our handcrafted Ambrosian Maple shelves, the SAMSON is far more than just a good looking A/V stand. Fully height-adjustable, each 2" or 4" air-dried maple shelf is rigidly locked between custom machined, solid brass nuts that are threaded onto massive, 1 1/4" diameter solid steel uprights, then anchored to the floor via our threaded-on brass footers. This creates the most direct, rigid and resonance-free vibration draining path of any equipment rack available today. In head-to-head tests, our SAMSON Vibration Control System rack sounds better than the most exotic welded tubing, damped layer composite, or inlaid hardwood equipment stands, even those costing $6000 to $15,000 or more.
Adaptable To Almost Any Space And System
Not only are SAMSONs elegant eye and ear candy, their height-adjustable shelves also easily accommodate component changes. We offer four different stock heights to allow spacing generous enough to add a new shelf later or to install brass footers or Vibration Control Systems under each critical component, now or later.
Brass footers double the sonic upgrade you'll hear with just the SAMSON rack alone; adding complete
Vibration Control Systems goes even further.
The double-width versions of the SAMSON, combined with the half-width shelves we offer, allow for a remarkable range of customized configurations to fit almost any unusual space or system; see a gallery of our customers' innovative shelf arrangements here. We also offer custom heights and custom-sized shelves. Call 1-888-236-2753 for advice on these types of made-to-order options.
Finish Options to Suit Any Decor
Our SAMSON shelves are air-dried maple and our hardware is machined from an optimum-sounding brass alloy, simply because our tests show other shelf and hardware materials invariably degrade sound. Nevertheless, to suit a wide range of decors we offer a variety of handsome maple shelf and brass hardware finishes.
Our stock SAMSON shelves are hand finished with a clear satin lacquer that beautifully enhances the striking natural grain character of our air-dried maple. On a made-to-order basis we also offer three toned lacquer finishes:
Natural Cherry,
Deep Rosewood, and
Black Satin.
Our stock SAMSON hardware is handsomely hand polished brass. As made-to-order options, we also offer Satin Black, Semi-Gloss Black, Metallic Silver or other colored
powder coat finishes for our hardware.
Solid 2" and 4" Shelf Thicknesses, Fully Adjustable
The standard 3/4" shelf thickness of most racks is simply not rigid enough and therefore too resonant for first rate sound. Our 2" solid maple shelves are over 60 times as stiff as the 3/4" veneered MDF shelves of most audiophile racks. Because commercial kiln-drying significantly deadens the sound of any wood, we air dry the rough-sawn maple planks for every SAMSON shelf for 3 to 6 years in our large, purpose-built drying shed that holds 150,000 board feet of maple at any one time.
Users with turntables may want to consider the 4" shelf option for the top shelf; the improvement over the 2" is easy to hear. Ditto with first rate digital components including CD players, DACs, streamers or music servers. On the other hand, adding a 4" maple platform with Isoblocks onto a 2" shelf sounds even better than a 4" shelf alone—but it costs you an extra 6" in height.
Those seeking the absolute ultimate in sound quality will want 4" thick shelves from top to bottom with enough clearance to place a 4" Maple Platform with Isoblocks on every shelf. This all-out, ultra-massive version of the SAMSON is simply the best-sounding equipment rack in the world, bar none.
Optimized Footers For Best Sound On Any Floor Type
The SAMSONs' footers are crucial to good sound. They provide a clean, unbroken vibration path to the floor. We offer 2" Heavyfoot and 3" Megafoot options, each offered with four point styles optimized to offer the best sound quality for different types of surfaces and floor coverings.
• For best sound on uncarpeted floors, use Heavyfeet or, even better, Megafeet.
• To avoid leaving pock marks on polished hardwood or plastic tile floors, use Radiused Heavyfeet or Radiused Megafeet (with only a very slight compromise of sound quality). These sound far better than pointed feet degraded by floor-protecting discs or cups.
• For high pile carpet with padding (more than 1/2" deep), you need Thick Carpet Heavyfeet or Megafeet to penetrate the carpet and rest solidly on the floor underneath.
• For standard commercial wall-to-wall carpet (1/2" or less), the somewhat shorter points of the Thin Carpet Heavyfeet or Megafeet will sound slightly better than the Thick Carpet version.
Additional Info
• To hear the full potential of the SAMSON, we strongly encourage mounting each component to its maple shelf with three of our brass footers. Using Micropoint Heavyfeet or Megafeet to couple your components to the maple shelves will nearly double the sonic improvement you get with any SAMSON.
• Audiophiles seeking the ultimate in performance may want to consider adding a 2" or 4" thick Finished Maple Platform on Isoblocks under key components. Add-on platforms with Isoblocks help isolate each component from vibrations generated by gear on the other shelves. The sonic improvement is especially remarkable under turntables, digital gear and tubed equipment.
• Those seeking perfectionist sound quality will want to order the SAMSON with all 4" shelves plus a 4" maple platform on every shelf. This simply represents the finest sounding vibration control mounting approach anywhere in the world of high end audio, regardless of price. We have a sizable number of customers who have ordered this no-holds-barred configuration--and who report that installing the second layer of maple platforms onto the 4" shelves turned an already superb sounding rack into a breathtaking one.
• Every SAMSON shelf is hand-planed from rough-sawn 2½" and 4½" air-dried maple planks to remove saw marks and surface imperfections. We aim for a true 2" or 4" thickness—as opposed to the commercial lumber practice of undersizing. But, because of variations in the rough-cut timber, the exact thickness may vary by up to 3/16".
Specifications
• One SAMSON V.3 shelf
• Solid 2" and 4" thick air-dried maple shelves finished in clear lacquer.
• 2" shelves will support 300+ pounds; 4" will support over 900 pounds.
• Shelf dimensions are 52" wide x 21" deep with 23" width between front uprights.
