When the all-wood Hi-Fi Racks Podium arrived a couple of years ago, it ended the glass-shelved/metal-framed Atacama Equinox’s long-term domination of this sector, winning a couple of Awards along the way.
Atacama is hitting back, though, with two ranges of wood-baced supports. The Eris is the first we’ve seen.
MORE: Awards 2013
It’s a modular design (each layer costing £115) with 40mm thick bamboo shelves. Why bamboo? In tests Atacama preferred the results to traditional wood alternatives.
Trying a range of components including the likes of Marantz’s CD6004, Audiolab’s 8200CD and amplifiers such as Roksan Caspian M2 the results are uniformly good.
Racks don’t actively improve sound; they merely allow the system to perform better by controlling resonances and reducing vibrations fed into the electronics.
Whatever we placed on the Eris sounded more agile, detailed and dynamic than on any of the similarly-priced alternatives we tried.
The house-proud will be happy to know the frame comes in a variety of finishes, too. Add fine build and easy construction to the list of plus points and there’s much to admire here.
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