Summary:
The reason I upgraded my rack in the 1st place was to obtain an improvement in my set-up without going through the painful wallet-busting buying of a new component. Having exhausted most of the other bits like power supplies, cables and interconnects, I'd thought I'll try the much praised Seismic Sink racks.

After 2 small hitches, one involving the rack being sent without the base unit ( Max Townshend was extremely apologetic for this ) and myself setting it up the iron rods wrongly, I finally got it up and running. To put it simply, it looks absoloutely stunning. A short session with the included bicycle pump later, it was complete. It's not as difficult to set up as mentioned by many others, and for those who are fearing wobbliness, it's not that wobbly either, no fears of expensive bits falling off. Max Townshend's advice is to get it as wobbly as you can get it, but differences can already be heard with a minimum of air.

Before I comment on the sound, I'll begin with a brief description of the love of my life (apart from my new wife)
My system includes the Sony SCD1 (SACD is simply amazing, buy a hybrid disc, and have a listen), Croft Vitale Preamp (A cheap, amazingly minimalist valve British preamp), Arcam 10p power amps x 2(will be upgraded in future), a pair of gorgeous Chario Academy Millenium 2 (together with the gorgeous stands.. read the reviews elsewhere on this site.. they speak the truth). Other bits include Kimber power kords, Kimber Power Blocks, VDH the 1st and Argento Reference silver interconnects. Lastly, VDH the wind, and VDH revelation (on loan from my new brother in law) speaker cables

Right.. The improvements are simply unbelievable. My new wife (who like most woemn, hate and cannot understand all bits hifi) was my 1st test case. I performed the much read about inflate, play cd, deflate, play cd demo, and the difference was very much audible.. even she was impressed. To put it simply, everything is improved. The sound stage and ambience definitely improves, much more so that with speaker cables or with the improvements gained with my power supplies. The increase in depth and width has to be heard to be believed. Detail is also increased, together with bass extension. I've been impressed with various things before, like the SACD, my speakers ,etc. One would naturally expect to be impressed by those things, because they are expensive components. But for a simple rack to impress me is another thing.

In short, buy it. Your wife will understand.
If you figure out how it floats after setting it up, tell me.

Strengths:
Everything

Weaknesses:
Nothin.. maybe the price

Similar Products Used:
Previous soundstyle rack

Summary:
There is an incredible dem that can be done by listening to a lively well recorded track of music. Then let the air out of the seismic stand and listen again. The music sounds as though a cloud has settled on it. It becomes slow/plodding and the soundstage shrinks drastically. Any other stand I have tried has subtle effects at best, but this one really works big time. The stand has most effect on source components, but get everything loaded onto it and you will be rewarded with a huge increase in soundstage depth and width, increased bass extension and control, and superb rhythm and pace. I use 2 racks with tube gear (CJ Premier 12's)but I have (surprisingly) heard them used to even more dramatic effect on mid price solid state amps when the sounstage collapsed back into the speakers completely when the rack was deflated.This rack has a fundamental effect that I have not been able to achieve in any other way such as changing cables or actual equipment. My only caveat is that it is a swine to set up (allow a couple of hours)to get everything level and no knocking when you rock the shelves.

Strengths:
Achieves fundamental things to any system at any price which cannot be achieved any other way.

Weaknesses:
A pain to set up, not cheap

Similar Products Used:
Individual seismic sinks, target and other spiked stands