High End 2019 • TABlog
early two decades after the Monaco modular rack started the move towards high-quality equipment supports, Grand Prix Audio has launched an upgraded and re-engineered rack to sit below the Silverstone flagship model, with its sophisticated, individually suspended support levels. The new Monza rack learns lessons from the Silverstone, dispensing with the stackable construction of the older Monaco in favor of one-piece, polymer-damped uprights that allow the shelves to be adjusted on a 1 1/2” pitch. The Monza is also modular, extendable with taller uprights or extra levels as well as expandable laterally to create six or eight (or even more) multi-bay structures. The supporting levels employ GPA’s proven load-specific viscoelastic dampers between the structural support (derived from the company’s Formula 1 shelves) and the actually equipment support shelf itself. The supporting surfaces are available as standard in laminated bamboo (for optimum performance) or acrylic (for sleeker aesthetics) but can be upgraded to the composite Ground Effect shelves or the top-line Formula 1 models. The Monza frame is a four-leg design that allows for the rack’s extension, but also improves rigidity and stability as well as provides increased energy dissipation and improved access for cabling.
The Monza rack is supplied with Apex XL footers, levelers and bamboo couplers as standard and is available in four standard plus custom heights, with prices starting at $6350 for an amp stand and rising to $18,500 for a 42”, four-level rack. Prices for the modular elements (extra support levels or extension bays) are yet to be announced but will be fixed before product starts to ship at the end of June. There will also be a Monza Basic rack, which will use all-bamboo horizontal elements, combined with the same damped uprights, support brackets and interlayer viscoelastic dampers, along with Grand Prix’s tall, stainless-steel spikes. The Monza Basic amp stand will cost $3200 and a 42”, four-level rack will be $9550. Grand Prix’s Alvin Lloyd established a simple but compelling demonstration, based around a system consisting of a striking, red-painted Monaco v2.0 turntable ($37,500), Kuzma 4Point tonearm ($6675) and Fuuga cartridge ($8975) feeding an all CH Precision system -- P1 phono stage ($31,500), L1 preamp ($34,500) , X1 power supply ($20,500 with two DC outputs) and A1.5 amp ($39,500) -- driving a pair of the impressive Apertura Enigma Mk II floorstanding speakers (€24,900 per pair). Using the modestly priced but highly regarded Quadraspire SVT rack as a baseline, Lloyd played a track with the P1 positioned on the SVT’s top shelf and then simply repeated the track having shifted the phono stage to the top shelf of the Monza. More spacious, more detailed, more dynamic and way more naturally expressive, the sound was little short of shocking, leaving more than a few seasoned listeners with a mixed look of astonished awe and amusement on their faces; and that’s from moving just a single component from a well-respected but basic rack to the far more sophisticated Monza. The drop in the noise floor was particularly impressive, the soundstage on the Cowboy Junkies’ Trinity Sessions gaining volume, depth and clearly defined boundaries. Grain was eliminated, the background took on an inky blackness, and vocal and instrumental images gained focus, presence and dimensionality. Above all, the vocals became more natural, more articulate and far more affecting. Readers will be quick to point out the price difference between the two supports, but that’s rather the point. This wasn’t a first-past-the-post comparison, but a demonstration of just how important proper equipment support is. Given the cost of the system and the scale of the improvement, the price involved seemed to offer exceptional value when it comes to deliverable musical performance. To those who have already invested in high-quality equipment supports, this is hardly going to come as news, but it is remarkable how many listeners, many of them owning seriously expensive systems, continue to treat equipment support as an afterthought and racks as somewhere between furniture and accessories. Exposure to the Monza demonstration would have quickly punctured that complacency, raising the question as to just how much unrealized potential still rested in the systems they already own.
It looks like the glowing embers of the support wars are
just about to be fanned into new and vibrant life -- which can only be a good thing.
Equipment support (along with grounding) is still one of the easy wins left when it comes
to upgrading the vast majority of systems, and Grand Prix's new Monza racks look set to
establish the new benchmark when it comes to musical performance. Anything that encourages
more audiophiles to investigate their systems’ support -- or stirs competing
manufacturers to life -- is definitely to be welcomed. |
