Suggestions on a rack for an Aries II (and a short story)

Vinyl Asylum

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I recently acquired an Aries II and need a solid rack for it to replace an Ikea shelf system. The search has been driving me a bit crazy, frankly, trying to find good looks, quality construction and the right dimensions to handle the turntable.
I've checked out Billy Bags, Mapleshade, Finite Element, Timber Nation and, lastly, Noblesse (see my saga on that below). I'm sure I missed others. Ideally I wanted something made from wood, which had me initially leaning toward the Mapleshade, but their rack dimensions with those aluminum caps don't seem to have the specs to fit an Aries (though Mapleshade said they "think" it would work). The Finite Element seems to rest on the bottom shelf rather than feet and somehow didn't look like it would be stable on carpet.
I'd really appreciate any suggestions or experiences other Aries owners may have had. The "Adona" type construction does not appeal to me.
A short story on what I thought was the ideal rack -- something called the Noblesse. They make several models specifically to house various "audiophool" turntables, including one on-line described as made for the Aries Scout. When I emailed Mike at VPI he responded that he had heard an Aries on the Noblesse and it was exceptional, the best he'd ever heard the Aries. Wow, seemed like an awesome recommendation.
He suggested I contact Steve at VAS Audio in New Jersey who is importing the Noblesse line. VAS has a website offering Caylin amps and preamps and even though he is the Noblesse importer, it's not mentioned on the site. Anyway, for the next several weeks I emailed and spoke with Steve numerous times. I could simply not get clean answers from him whether the Noblesse could handle the Aries or only the Scout. He said he had one that could handle the Aries, but we needed to figure out the Aries weight since part of the system is that the TT sits on some sort of magnetic isolation base on the rack that is tuned or adjusted for weight.
Well, back and forth on that, with Steve saying he would talk with Mike, who I guess he knows. He sent me a bunch of nice photos of the rack, even gave me a price. The last I heard from Steve he was confirming the weight again with Mike and would be back to me in 2 hours.
That was the last I ever heard from Steve. No response now to numerous emails for over 10 days or so. Maybe he got run over by a truck or he's just the worst businessman I ever dealt with -- and I was REALLY trying to buy this thing, almost pleading with him to make sure it would work and money would be on the way.
So, now I'm back to square one. The Noblesse seemed ideal, complete with a cut-out for the motor like the rack VPI offers for the TNT (which VPI Mike did not mention for an Aries II possibility).
Maybe some of you can help me at least avoid any big mistake.
Thanks.
Stephen D.

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Topic - Suggestions on a rack for an Aries II (and a short story) - Stephen D 17:12:50 07/12/06 (3)

Mapleshade Sampson 2 works fine - The Groovy Guru 21:01:10 07/13/06 (0)

Re: Suggestions on a rack for an Aries II (and a short story) - bublitchki 20:04:03 07/12/06 (1)

Re: Suggestions on a rack for an Aries II (and a short story) - Stephen D 20:58:16 07/12/06 (0)

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