A four-shelf wall-mounted hi-fi rack with steel frames and wooden shelves on spikes: it hangs the whole system on the wall, turntable included, and keeps it clear of floor-borne vibration.
WMI 5/4 Rack: the design
The WMI 5/4 Rack revives a product from the brand's early history, the Pro-Ject 5, which grew more than thirty years ago out of an idea of Heinz Lichtenegger's: a turntable sounds cleaner and more dynamic when vibration, whether from footsteps outside or from the stylus tracing the groove, has a large mass to drain into. That mass is the wall, brick or concrete, and the best route to it is a console that is light and stiff.
The structure was drawn up with Heinrich Prohaska, working from studies carried out at Vienna's technical university. Shape, section and angles of the steel frames are calculated to stop resonances spreading, and the rounded D profile sends whatever remains to the wall by the shortest path. The shelves are cut from a wood picked for stiffness and low mass, and rest on adjustable spikes so that every level can be trued up separately.
Each shelf gives 498 x 355 mm of support, with at most 167 mm of height between levels and a 50 mm gap at the back for cabling. The rack measures 530 x 1000 x 406 mm and weighs 12.6 kg. The quoted capacity is 50 kg a shelf, though it depends on the wall and the fixings: the mounting is the most delicate part of the installation, and Pro-Ject suggests taking advice from a specialist. It comes in more than one finish.
Specifications
- Type: wall-mounted hi-fi rack
- Shelves: 4, each on spikes of adjustable height
- Materials: steel frames, shelves in stiff low-mass wood
- Area of each shelf: 498 x 355 mm (width x depth)
- Greatest gap between levels: 167 mm
- Cable gap behind the shelf: 50 mm
- Capacity per shelf: up to 50 kg, subject to wall and fixings
- Overall size: 530 x 1000 x 406 mm (width x height x depth)
- Rack weight: 12.6 kg
- Suggested wall: brickwork or concrete
- Manufactured: Europe
- Finishes: black, white
