If you have a serious hi-fi or AV system, the likelihood is that you have also seriously thought about the racks, cabinets or shelves needed to place these products on. Not only are equipment racks necessary for stable support and neatly presenting your kit, but specialist racks are recommended if you care about getting the absolute best out of your sound system.
Some people don't believe racks make much of a difference to the performance of a sound system. We strongly disagree, as hi-fi and/or home cinema electronics need stable and level support and isolation from unwanted vibrations if they are to have the best chance of delivering their full potential.
In our experience with testing racks over the last 40+ years, the best hi-fi and AV racks can have a notable effect on the performance of an overall system, simply by minimising the effect of vibrations and mechanical energy on the equipment themselves.
How to choose the best hi-fi and AV racks
Why you can trust What Hi-Fi? Our expert team reviews products in dedicated test rooms, to help you make the best choice for your budget. Find out more about how we test.
For most products and systems, especially if on the budget side, any solid shelf, sideboard or cabinet (as long as it's level and rigid) is perfectly fine. But if the individual components in your system are priced at £1000/$1500 or higher, then we would recommend looking into specialist racks that are designed specifically for minimising the amount of unnecessary resonances and vibrations that could affect how your system performs.
A poor or unstable rack can negatively impact your kit's performance (especially in the case of turntables and CD players) meaning you'll have (potentially) spent all that money only for it to be impaired by something that could easily be fixed. Clever design elements such as spikes, damping gaskets and even the specific materials used in the racks help to eradicate or reduce vibration, allowing each hi-fi component to perform at its best
Most racks are modular, so you can select the number of shelves you need, the height or length of shelf required, and build your rack around your system. They're usually flat-pack but easy to assemble in around 15 minutes or so in our experience. You'll also want to pay attention to the type of wood used to make the shelves, or glass if you prefer, and choose a finish that suits your listening room's style.
We have tested all of the options below in our dedicated listening rooms, with the top-recommended racks offering the best combination of stability, build quality and design, as well as elevating a system's audio performance even further.
Best hi-fi rack overall
If you’re of the opinion all hi-fi racks are created more or less equal, the Evoque Eco 60-40 SE2 will make you rethink your position. It's as fine an equipment support as we’ve tried for the money – and it's the current winner of the Best Equipment Rack at the What Hi-Fi? Awards.
It's well engineered and the bamboo shelving is beautifully finished. Great care has been taken to control the flow of mechanical energy in the rack’s structure, with each leg decoupled from the shelf it's attached to.
Paying just short of £600 for a three-tier Evoque Eco SE2 is hardly a trivial sum, but if you really want to hear just how well your system can perform, this is a sound investment.
Read our full Atacama Evoque Eco 60-40 SE2 review
Best budget hi-fi rack
The Hi-Fi Racks Omnium8 is an incredibly versatile rack. There’s a choice of eight standard finish options and no less than four different types of uprights. Buyers can specify the number of shelves, their spacing and whether the uprights are bolted or spiked. You get the idea – this rack can be configured to accommodate just about any set-up.
And whatever the configuration, this solid oak rack support will add sonic weight and warmth to your kit. The Atacama Evoque Eco 60-40 SE2 (above) might offer a touch more agility and precision, but both set-ups render similar amounts of detail.
A superb, high-quality product. If its looks and flexibility float your boat, dive right in. You won’t be disappointed.
Read our full Hi-Fi Racks Omnium8 review
Best premium hi-fi rack
Atacama's newest and most premium range of racks is a brand new design from the Evoque SE2 (and £100 pricier per shelf), with the brand continuing its use of bamboo material throughout. The Elite Eco 24 features solid bamboo legs and is a more high-quality design that looks rather fetching too.
As ever, the design is modular and now includes cable management panels, which are now handily compatible with other models too. The grooves cut into the underside of each shelf direct vibrations and mechanical resonance away from the kit more efficiently in this model, and the overall effect on our system is one of an open, organised, more dynamic and precise sound. Bass sounds tauter and deeper than when using the same kit placed on the Evoque rack, and there's a sense of ease with more subtleties revealed that elevate the system's overall performance even further.
Yes, each shelf can add up to be rather pricey, but if you have a premium to high-end system, it's worth investing in this sturdy, great-looking specialist support rack that will let your system perform at its full potential.
Read our full Atacama Elite Eco 24 Reference review
Also consider
Blok Stax 2G: If you are after a more modern-looking shelf compared to the traditional designs above, the latest collection from Blok is worth considering. Assembly is a breeze, it's thoughtfully put together, and there are a variety of minimalist, lifestyle-friendly finishes. The Stax 2G is modular and you can buy a pre-set collection or additional shelves as needed as your system grows. There is a dedicated "LP" shelf for storage vinyl records, too.
How we test hi-fi and AV racks
We have state-of-the-art, acoustically treated testing facilities where our team of experienced, in-house reviewers test the majority of hi-fi and AV kit that passes through our door – including equipment racks.
What Hi-Fi? is all about comparative testing, so we build and compare every equipment rack we review against each other and the current leader in its field, to gauge how it compares to the best-in-class competition. We keep What Hi-Fi? Award winners – such as the long-standing Atacama Evoque Eco 60-40 SE2 – in our stockrooms so we can always pit new products against ones we know and love, and we do our best to review as many new models in as many markets as possible to ensure our contextual knowledge is the best it can be.
We are always impartial in our testing and ensure we take time to build and set up hi-fi and AV racks properly and securely. We use a variety of products – such as CD players, turntables and amplifiers – to place on the rack to see how well it copes with different sizes and types of products, as well as the impact the rack's materials and design have on the full system's overall performance.
All review verdicts are agreed upon by the team as a whole rather than an individual reviewer to eliminate any personal preference and to make sure we're being as thorough as possible. There's no input from PR companies or our sales team when it comes to the verdict, with What Hi-Fi? proud of having delivered honest, unbiased reviews for decades.
You can read more about how we test and review products on What Hi-Fi? here.
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