SGR reference Audio Rack 4 tier

Customisable, highly damped, brushed stainless steel uprights

Available in various sizes, allowing for different equipment heights.
100% sand filled to remove the adverse vibration effects of hollow cylinders.

Visco-elastic vibration isolators
Custom made Sorbothane isolators convert vibrations to heat.
Optimial damping properties with adjustable placement to account for off-set equipment center of gravity.

Edge wrapped real timber veneer platforms
Available in almost any timber veneer type
Satin or gloss laquer finish
Made of constrained layer damped marine grade plywod

Solid aluminium crossbrace construction
Precision machined aluminium crossbrace
Perfectly linished and anodised

Innovative levelling feet
Marine grade stainless steel
Internal ball brearings for friction free rotation and ease of adjustment
Very fine thread allowing minute level adjustment

No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings. Indeed. And in these times such self determination and autonomous ambitions may lead the intrepid and aspiring to great glory.

A local company that exemplifies these principles of independence and autonomy is SGR Audio from Melbourne, Australia. In a relatively short time this father-and-son company of principals Harry and Stuart Ralston has gone from producing extraordinarily well-engineered active loudspeakers now expanded to two lines to its own line of solid-state amplifiers, a proprietary custom software all-in-one plug’n’play media player about to be launched and finally a SOTA audio equipment support system, the latter the subject of today's report. 

In each of these product lines and categories most of the metal and chassis work, CNC machining, circuit board solder baths etc. have been brought in-house into a modern and immaculately maintained factory which the company is quickly and steadily expanding into and already nearing filling up. To this writer’s knowledge this level of in-house manufacturing, design control and quality of facilities is at present unique in our domestic audio industry. 

It is obvious that considerable capital investment was poured into the superb SGR facility, which I had the pleasure of visiting at an economic time when stakes are rather high. The risks however have paid off, with SGR Audio now enjoying a raised local profile, impending expansion into overseas markets and strong sales I’m told. This is the kind of market penetration and respect which normally takes many more years to achieve. All is backed up by products of extremely high quality which are built with pride and technical excellence. In fact talk to Harry Ralston at length and you become aware of his extensive audio industry experience. In turn talk to Stuart Ralston and you’ll likely walk away dazed and with a sore head, such is the profound knowledge of technical and engineering subjects—both mechanical and electrical—he is able to casually cover. These are ingredients for a successful audio formula indeed.

Although at its core SGR Audio remains an electronics engineering company, Harry and Stuart have cleverly capitalized on their factory’s CNC machining capabilities and jumped on the opportunity to expand their core product lines to include the manufacture of ancillary products. Thus was born the SGR Audio Signature rack.

The modular SGR Audio Signature racks arrives in separate boxes each housing all hardware required for a single shelf module. The hard foam protective inners with their snug-fitting individual template-molded cutouts will keep the contents in pristine condition whilst being freighted around. Only the most disastrous of accidents will have any chance of damaging the parts.

Stuart Ralston:

The overall design is as simple as it is clever. Beautifully machined and sand-filled brushed solid stainless steel posts of various lengths—90, 135, 180 and 225mm, larger lengths by requests—form the frame work with four per module. Solid anodized aluminium precision-machined cross braces (similar to the concept used by SolidTech in its Spider rack) join at a central large solid aluminum puck (the SGR logo is nicely etched into this puck). This elongated ‘x’ cross member now becomes the support for the Stuart Ralston-designed constrained-layer damped marine-grade plywood shelf. 

This platform is available in a number of wood finishes in satin or gloss lacquer and features edge-wrapped veneers on all sides. By the way, knuckle rap the platform and all you get is a duller-than-dull thud. The cross beams feature a number of threaded holes for the insertion of viscoelastic vibration isolators that look like a form of Sorbothane. The number of Sorbothane isolators depends on the weight of the component being supported. 

A choice of footers is available, with SGR recommending the flat base for timber-suspended flooring and the spike system for solid concrete floors. Both types are constructed from marine-grade stainless steel superbly finished and feature a ball-bearing floating scheme similar to the Finite Elemente family of Ceraball feet. Fine threading allows for small incremental adjustments for precise leveling. A very clever machined aluminum cable support system can be ordered as an option to keep clutter at bay. All components feel solid and unusually heavy and are extraordinarily well finished. From the packaging to the end product, the SGR rack oozes pure class.

Assembly is piss easy. From unpacking to final placement where my Finite Elemente Pagode Signatures used to live took just an hour and a half. And that was for two racks of three shelves each. I used the flat base feet as recommended for my wooden floors. Simply screw the feet to the first cross brace and then screw the four posts to the brace. Take care to position the cable management hooks on the grooved post (two posts per level feature the indented template for the hook system). 

Finally screw the viscoelastic vibration isolators (VEVI from now on) to their receptacles. Now you’re ready to place the platform on them, in my case done up in gorgeous black gloss grain finish. The platform has four small receptacles that allow metal grommets atop the VEVI to slip in for proper suspension without the platform slipping or moving horizontally. That’s it. Now you’re ready for the next level. Once you’ve assembled the last, solid aluminum pucks screw into the tops of the four lateral posts to finish off the construction. Done.

Beauty unaccompanied by virtue is as a flower without perfume. There’s no doubting the elegance and refinement of the SGR rack. There’s a fair bit of perfume to be whiffed here. Assemble such an exalted component-quality rack system of massive structural integrity and you’re not going to do your electronics’ sound potential any harm. Quite pleasingly in fact the SGR Signature racks displayed some subtle yet worthwhile sonic differences over the Finite Elemente racks I’d been using long term. I attribute these to the conceptual difference in design and execution. The FEs couple to multiple spiking points to address and drain vibrational issues whereas the SGR racks decouple and float the electronics via the VEVI system and the utterly resonance-dead platforms. 

Where the FE racks certainly improved over my previous very solid rack in terms of micro detail and bass tightness, the SGR racks over the FEs added a slight gain in dynamic contrast and further solidity and control to the deep bass. Ditto a slightly more focused imaging perspective with a marginally deeper soundstage and more precise lateral placement.  

These differences weren’t night and day but careful listening saw me comfortably reach these conclusions whilst bearing in mind the total impracticality of immediate back-to-back A/Bs (a couple of swaps took some minutes to perform). I’m confident however that my long-term use of the FE racks and profound familiarity with my system’s sound entitles me to these informed observations after careful extended listening sessions with the SGR Signatures and then back for some more with the FEs. Yes, I’d say that dynamic contrasts, image specificity and bass tightness were the attributes I took as being the most noticeable differences, subtle as they were. All else remained unchanged and unharmed from the sonic excellence of the FEs.

So how do the SGR racks fit in relative to the higher-profile competition from overseas suppliers? I’ll tell you where. These racks are as well built as the very best available from anywhere. I’d say they compete with the bees knees of audio rack systems, be it Finite Elemente, Grand Prix Audio—with whom they share principles and equally remarkable engineering— HRS, SolidTech, AudiAV etc. In the context of our local market here in Oz, what this rack system has over those imports is lack of customs duties and horrendous freight costs which large and heavy rack systems incur whenever transported to our beautiful but distant shores. Which, whilst playing in that field and at the price of $750 per module, rather makes the SGR Signature rack somewhat of a bargain.

No one should drive a hard bargain with an artist – Ludwig van Beethoven. The SGR Audio Signature rack is a truly superb design. Mostly machined and constructed in-house (only the veneer of the platforms is contracted out), the design is visually attractive and structurally rigid. There’s an imparting sense of rightness about the concept and its vibrational isolation. The quality of build and manufacturing precision inspires confidence in the Signature rack’s ability to allow the very best sonic performance to emerge from your electronics. 

After upgrading to an AMR CD-77.1 CD player which weighs in at a confounding 28kg; and noting that figure’s very close proximity to the FE top shelf’s weight and support limits... these events motivated a change in audio racking at the Kramer’s. The SGR’s much higher weight support capability relieved us of one nightmare where things take a middle-of-the-night crash into expensive self demolition. Our new racking reference this is. 

The SGR Signature audio rack features awesome build, solid engineering, great sonics and sharp local pricing. It’s also an extraordinary find for overseas buyers as SGR is set up for global freight. For us locals having a technical whiz such as Stuart Ralston available for advice on anything audio is simply that final tomato sauce on an already very tasty mushy-peas meat pie. Bonza! 
......... Edgar Kramer