The first
office conference the two founders of finite elemente held was in their
local pub in their home town. And it was an alcohol-fuelled dispute that
caused the company to be established. The furniture designer Bernd Brockhoff
and the music-lover Luis Fernandes became increasingly involved in a fundamental
discussion about furniture, space, sound and fetish. The final result
was a company that has been calmly getting established on the hi-fi rack
market for some years.
The Brockhoff/Fernandes duo do not base their work on materials such as
sand or lead, but look at the static design. It is the construction that
makes the difference. This latest model, the HD-Master-Reference series
with "Resonator Technology", surpasses all of their previous
designs:
Thomas Borchert, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University
of Applied Sciences in Dortmund, helped to get an old finite elemente
idea off the ground. Sound-distorting resonances are not attenuated within
the rack, but dissipated into heat. As the original scientifically based
text states: "By integrating or adapting miniature components - the
resonators - vibration amplitudes caused by the walls in technical systems,
which can be excited by air-borne or solid-borne noise, can be clearly
reduced, where the natural frequency of the resonator is designed for
the excitation frequency or system natural frequency."
A new description of an old problem: If you have two guitarists and one
plays a note, then it causes the corresponding string of the second guitar
to vibrate. finite elemente's resonators mean that the energy is not compensated
by a separate tone, but "converted silently into heat". But
if this makes you think of some fantastic wondrous design, then you will
be brought back to earth when you actually see the Resonator.
The best way is to imagine them as knitting needles of various lengths
in a sleeve. The frequencies of 220, 486, 512, 550, 670 and 882 Hertz
are dissipated. Four of these are distributed in different combinations
in each level depending on the overall height of the rack and the number
of shelf levels.
With so much cutting edge technology you shouldn't forget the sound-optimised
basic design of the rack: component shelves in sandwich construction with
an absorbing silicon paper layer between the two MDF panels, a tensioning
frame with height-adjustable lateral spikes, as well as the finest solid
Canadian maple wood which has a damping effect thanks to its density,
which is one and a half times greater than German oak.
During the test the elegant balance of the Master Reference stood out.
Calm is not achieved at the price of dullness. Tempo does not turn into
aggression. The bass is impressive, but not imprecise. A clear gain in
sound quality, and to be recommended where the hi-fi chain is overtly
direct and sounds a bit aggressive. This is also a rack system that is
kind to both the eye and your hands. The finishing of this rack is the
most outstanding of all of the test candidates. But it is also the most
expensive.
Summary:
As Hamlet said to Horatio: "There are more things in heaven and earth
than are dreamt of in your philosophy". A surprising number of audio
furniture makers tend to agree as far as the perfect arrangement of high-end
electronics components is concerned. Our test candidates revealed a countertrend
however with technically well-based, even scientific approaches by the
manufacturers to this basic question. Furthermore, design is being increasingly
combined with audiophile values. The ranking of the test favourites is
clear, in accordance with the number of points obtained. But this is not
the full story, as a hi-fi rack itself has no sound. Each rack has its
own orientation. Damping is common, and all of the candidates had a calming
influence on the sound pattern, and the difficult remainder is the question
of timing. The overall winner is the Naim, artful and delicate. And if
you don't want to spend so much, then the low-price model in archaic design
from Phonosophie is the answer.
Good VibrationsLaboratory tests have shown that hi-fi rack systems, due to their design, have an influence on the electronics and the sound.
Every component in an auditory room that is exposed to air pressure is
to a greater or lesser extent stimulated to oscillate when music is played,
and this can be easily felt by hand as a slight vibration. And it is the
special task of the hi-fi racks to absorb or change the sound of these
vibrations in their spectral composition, whether these vibrations originate
from the hi-fi component, are received by airborne sound or in the form
of solid-borne sound from the vibrating floor (floating plaster or wooden
flooring). Using measuring equipment comprising a vibration exciter and
acceleration sensor it was possible for the stereoplay test laboratory
to determine clear changes in the spectral distribution of the jitter
components in the analogue output signal of a CD player. The diagram below
shows which vibrations the hi-fi racks could absorb, or possibly even
increase in comparison with a simple Ivar shelving unit from Ikea. |
Die Heimat der Resonatoren: In die Verstrebungen
der
tragenden Ebenen werden unterschiedlich lange Stahl-
nadeln eingelassen. Die entsprechenden Störfrequenzen
verpuffen in unauffälliger Wärme.
 |
