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It is obvious that considerable capital investment was poured into the superb SGR facility, which I had the pleasure of visiting at an economic time when stakes are rather high. The risks however have paid off, with SGR Audio now enjoying a raised local profile, impending expansion into overseas markets and strong sales I’m told. This is the kind of market penetration and respect which normally takes many more years to achieve. All is backed up by products of extremely high quality which are built with pride and technical excellence. In fact talk to Harry Ralston at length and you become aware of his extensive audio industry experience. In turn talk to Stuart Ralston and you’ll likely walk away dazed and with a sore head, such is the profound knowledge of technical and engineering subjects—both mechanical and electrical—he is able to casually cover. These are ingredients for a successful audio formula indeed.
Although at its core SGR Audio remains an electronics engineering company, Harry and Stuart have cleverly capitalized on their factory’s CNC machining capabilities and jumped on the opportunity to expand their core product lines to include the manufacture of ancillary products. Thus was born the SGR Audio Signature rack.
The modular SGR Audio Signature racks arrives in separate boxes each housing all hardware required for a single shelf module. The hard foam protective inners with their snug-fitting individual template-molded cutouts will keep the contents in pristine condition whilst being freighted around. Only the most disastrous of accidents will have any chance of damaging the parts.
Stuart Ralston
The overall design is as simple as it is clever. Beautifully machined and sand-filled brushed solid stainless steel posts of various lengths—90, 135, 180 and 225mm, larger lengths by requests—form the frame work with four per module. Solid anodized aluminium precision-machined cross braces (similar to the concept used by SolidTech in its Spider rack) join at a central large solid aluminum puck (the SGR logo is nicely etched into this puck). This elongated ‘x’ cross member now becomes the support for the Stuart Ralston-designed constrained-layer damped marine-grade plywood shelf.
This platform is available in a number of wood finishes in satin or gloss lacquer and features edge-wrapped veneers on all sides. By the way, knuckle rap the platform and all you get is a duller-than-dull thud. The cross beams feature a number of threaded holes for the insertion of viscoelastic vibration isolators that look like a form of Sorbothane. The number of Sorbothane isolators depends on the weight of the component being supported.
