Quadraspire Hi-Fi Rack Review: Q4, SVT, and X-Reference

Introduction: The Value of Quality Hi-Fi Shelving

Browsing our vast range of audio-enhancing merchandise, you will find some temptingly cost-effective while others are eye-rollingly extravagant. You are forgiven for thinking hi-fi shelves fall into the latter category. 

It is impossible to compare audible improvements in currency measures since the exchange rate between shelves against that of, say, power cables does not stack up. Nevertheless, placing your hi-fi components on a good stack of high-performance shelving materials can sonically refine your listening experience, especially with mechanical devices like CD players and turntables. That’s in addition to the appealing aesthetic and reliable construction of well-machined AV furniture.

Quadraspire Range Overview

Choosing a suitable model will be appropriate to your system – both the league it plays in and the type of components it comprises. Quadrapire’s creator, Eddie Spruit – a practical and grounded chap, came into our facility to present their three main models: The long-standing Q4, the performance-level SVT and the highly appointed X-Reference; all three lined up, ready to impress, with our Clearaudio Concept turntable sitting proud, and soon to be loud, on a top shelf. 

First Demo Attempt: Unexpected Setback

Unfortunately – or fortunately, rather – our demonstration was a disaster. The turntable intended for testing was discovered callously assaulted – its brand-new MC stylus’s needle, twisted sideways like the loser’s arm on the floor of a Jiu-Jitsu dojo. A rushed installation of a new one ensued (never rush a cartridge installation!). We went on to spin a rather expensive pressing of a Fritz Reiner-conducted Scheherazade and heard the opposite of what Mr Spruit (and Mr Reiner) would have hoped. No matter. Eddie was happy to leave all the units with us to test in our own sweet time (see below) and proceeded to brief us instead.

Design & Build: Craftsmanship Meets Performance

All models use the same five-layer, cross-laminated bamboo shelves, each capable of supporting 80 kg (these shelves are drop-tested with 25 kg paint tins). The columns are all solid machined aluminium – reducing electronic interference – available in six heights. 

You may notice Quadraspire’s aesthetic resourcefully designs out parallel edges on both shelves and columns. Despite the more expensive machining, this design dissipates energy (conventional parallels excite resonance).

The SVT model – probably the most balanced in price/performance – has slots machined into each shelf for better-still low resonance. Brass, a soft (but not too soft) material, is concealed for the supports to connect for – you guessed it – lower resonance. The bamboo finish is taken up a level using two layers of lacquer and an ultra-fine sanding process. 

The X-Ref model is a big step up both in price and performance. At five times the cost of a basic Q4, it is aimed at systems that actually benefit from shelving of such superlative quality. Unlike its underlings, the X-Ref’s shelves are isolated from the main framework on four immaculately machined bronze spike feet, seated in the bronze cups embedded on the x-shaped bases. Soft, resonance-absorbing bronze replaces the brass found on the SVT as a coupler (they could’ve used softer gold if you don’t mind your shelves looking like that tower in Northern Italy). Each x-shaped base is open-centred for – of course – resonances to escape. All this results in exceptional isolation ability. 

Bamboo Shelf finishes include Natural Bamboo, Cherry Bamboo, Dark Bamboo and Black Bamboo.

The Second Demo Attempt: Testing with Metallica and Orchestral Classics

With the three shelf units conveniently abandoned by Eddie, we had ourselves the unlikely chance to test extensively using our now competently set up Clearaudio Concept deck. 

Maybe it was the frustration from the earlier turntable debacle or just morbid curiosity, but Rimsky-Korsakov was switched out for Metallica, and so it began. Playing One from their And Justice For All LP – not a track where sound quality would have been appreciated back when the record came out – but hearing a track like that on a well-balanced system was a brand new experience, indeed. The album’s notoriously sunken bass guitar mix conveniently allows the scooped rhythm guitars to show quality in the midrange. 

Swapping our deck between the Q4 to the X-Ref models proved the effect of good isolation and resonance control on vinyl playback. Although the Q4 offers decent support for any hi-fi set, it’s when you have the chance to compare with the X-Ref that you get to hear the improvement from all the extra engineering. The X-Ref made the arid guitar sound wetter, richer and more deeply involved – the antidote to the production’s commonly berated dryness. Most excitingly, the heavy end of the track – the dark end – was where the high-performance hi-fi shelving showed what it could do. The gaps between rapid start-stop chords and double kick drums leave you trembling on a cliff edge before the next round of rapid-fire strumming guns you back. Kirk Hammet’s phenomenal solo sounds all the more exceptional.

The only antithesis to Metallica’s exciting but hard theme was returning to our reference copy of Scheherazade played by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Its famous string motif had more air to float in, and the dynamic sound of this magnificent recording’s orchestration was allowed to bounce rhythmically through all its passages. The imaginative piece, full of symphonic variation, took us on its narrative journey. Experiencing a suite of orchestral movements is better when one discerns the instrumental textures – on the Quadraspire X-Ref, we could. It was lush.

Comparing Models: Q4, SVT, and X-Reference

But how about the modest SVT model (It’s less than a third of the cost)? The SVT honestly does an incredible job and gets you a good way towards the X-Ref’s performance. It’s a very worthy upgrade on the basic Q4 model for a small premium. With its performance-related appointments, the Quadraspire SVT is aimed at owners of mid- to high-range setups who want the most from their hi-fi gear.

Conclusion: Quadraspire Racks as Essential AV Furniture

While AV furniture is too frequently an afterthought for many of us, the opportunity for scrupulous assessment proved – to us, at least – their worth. Aside from the surprisingly audible improvements, perched on a pedestal, the Quadraspire range’s use of bamboo offers an incredibly strong yet lightweight shelving solution for all levels of separate hi-fi components, in danger of detracting from the other aesthetic attractions in your space. While we confined our comparisons to moving the turntable (easiest to assess), the difference is clear once your entire system gets pride of place in your listening room.