On the appointed winter day, the delivery truck arrived with the Spanish pallet of 60kg worth of art(esania). Being nicely tied up and spotting three garage doors of which one was clearly ours, the driver had zero intentions of cracking into the tough shrink wrap and shlepping stuff up to our 3rd-floor digs. No stereo here but purely mono i mano. Thankfully the big Krion platform was lighter than its glass equivalent already on my rack.

Packed to the hilt, there was plenty of protective bubble and shrink wrap to undo. As usual with this product, I had a choice of black Neoprene or hard white plastic inserts for the floor discs. Since I wanted to be able to slide the loaded racks across the sisal rug and avoid bench-pressing the mighty XA30.8, I opted for the slippery whites. With the significant mass of the platforms plus the amps on their tops, the receiver dimples for the floor spikes are plenty deep to avoid jumping track once everything is leveled perfectly. I was in happy slide (ruler) country.

Cayetano had thoughtfully included two different frames for the big platform. One was the height of the smaller stands which eliminates the extension shafts. I opted for the taller frame to create an Olympic podium effect.

Here we see the big Krion slab on the taller frame. If stacked on the Exoteryc rack, this creates sufficient clearance for the next tier to house a component of standard height. That's the exact assembly I now had on the floor for the Pass amp. The big discs simply protected our parquet floor beneath the sisal rug.


Voilà, the full setup with the XA30.8 bracketed by its FirstWatt cousins, a pair of single-stage SIT1 monos.


Here is just the big amp stand...

... and once more in closeup. Its foot print should really support all but the most behemothian amplifiers on the market. How our Spanish team are properly detail oriented is again shown by the horizontal bores through the frame spikes. Loosen the locking nut whilst using the included tool through the bore to rotate the spike to the desired length with no fuss, then retighten the nut for easy leveling. This works swell even fully loaded. Artesania even include a quality bubble level.

Some amps of course already come with their own such provisions to not warrant additional stands.


As the interspersed shots of other systems documented, Artesania have truly made inroads into the highest brand echelons of our industry. This must be a combined response to their racks' good looks, solid engineering and demonstrable performance. A truly successful aka living-room friendly combination of form and function with something as basically utilitarian as hifi equipment supports isn't as easy as it may seem.


Further on cosmetics, available by special order is gold plating for the platform's frame and floor discs. Countries like the Arabian Emirates and Russia have traditionally shown fondness for gilded details. With this option, Artesania Audio have them covered.


For the duration of my Spanish rack swaps, the Indian hardwood furniture they replaced stored in the garage. Ours is a living room first, not a messy mad scientist's lab. My first comparison thus was between glass and Krion shelves. I used the tall loaner frame and the one which usually tops my Exoteryc. Those I set up side by side. Leaving the heavy amp plugged in and powered up, I simply moved it from one platform to the other and back. Soon I felt like a carnival huckster performing the shuffling cups game. Where was the marble? Had I lost it?


This is as good a place as any to interject the obvious. Hifi is a hedonistic pursuit. Whatever makes you happy goes. Sweating over 'the sound' of different amp platforms is arguably not what the average user does or should do. For a common parallel, most of us buy a good used car with low mileage, then keep up with the scheduled tune-ups and oil changes. We don't fit it with aftermarket rims, a louder exhaust, performance tyres and go-faster engine mods. But as with any other hobby, some people take things further. What might be extreme to you and me is mere common sense and fun to them if it squeezes another half a percentage point of performance from a given recipe. Or perhaps they just like the looks.