Normal Yggdrasil (& other Harmoni questions)

[tokenbrit]

On the harmonihyllan website, there's a page and photo of 'normal yggdrasil' alongside the full-breadth Harmoni rack: http://harmonihyllan.se/NY.html

Does anyone have any experience of 'normal yggdrasil', and how it sounds: better, same, or worse than full-breadth?

Also, is there consensus on impact on musicality from the 12cm vs 15cm risers?

Finally, what's the view on 4-shelf vs 5-shelf, and does this change at all based on shelves - Oden, Tor, Mimer - or weight of components?

Due to Monos, I'm interested in 5-shelf Yggdrasil, with the shorter, 12cm risers, but noticed that those here who have Harmoni racks tend to have the full-breadth version, and usually keep to 4-shelf, with 15cm risers... Does the NY give up much, or anything, compared against the full rack?

Btw, I know that Mimer is not available yet for Yggdrasil... I am most likely to start with Oden / Tor, so less/not concerned about Mimer at this time; just want to get the system some decent support.

Grateful for experiences & thoughts.

[Efraim roots]

Which shelf would give you the best installaion in your home? For example, If you feel that 12cm risers would look a lot better than 15cm I think you should go for 12cm. If you can get a even better arrangement (incl. stacking, cable dressing, power distribution) with 5 shelf than 4 I think you should go for 5. I guess his spruce shelfs is the way to go with Yggdrasil as they are very good for music. Anders who design the shelfs seems very fond of his new Yggdrasil model and I think he said something about it being close to Mimer K and also bit different. With a LP12 on top you change the aluminum top nuts with some standard ones and it will fit.

[Music Lover]

Feedback to your Q:
12cm risers vs 15cm: Mimer was designed for 15cm. Seems like Anders prefer to optimise Yggdrasil for 12cm, but I guess it's not fully decided yet.

4-shelf vs 5-shelf: 4-shelf on Mimer was a bit better. (I have 5shelves on my two racks). On Yggdrasil, let's see.

As Efraim roots suggests - pick the combination that best suits your environment.
Any eventually compromise is tiny compared to the massive gain using a good stand!


fyi
Anders has as a goal making Yggdrasil better than Mimer.

[lejonklou]

This is difficult, as there are so many parameters involved. It was a while since I did any thorough tests myself, but as I do sell these phenomenal racks I have some collected experience. And customers have done tests and reported their impressions. I think Erik is the one who's been most meticulous in his attempt at finding Harmoni heaven.

* From what I understand, Yggdrasil is not yet as good as the best full width Harmoni rack.

* The full width rack was developed with 15 cm risers and with those, the optimal amount of shelves is 4. Both 3 and 5 shelves is a little bit worse than 4.

* I am myself using 5 shelves and started with 15 cm risers and am experimenting with 12 cm. The designer mr Simonsson thinks 12 cm works well and he's right. I still have to find out which height is the best with 5 shelves (with 4 shelves I'm pretty certain it's 15 cm).

* I think the Reference bottom shelf is really crucial to full performance. Going from 4 to 5 shelves was certainly much less important than the bottom Reference shelf, as when I did both at once, the improvement was big.

* Although Mimer sounds very Wow!, I am very happy with the performance of the more mellow and "woody" Tor. It's a big step up from Oden and not crazy expensive. Spruce is the wood to go for - much better than the others.

[Erik]

I have tried a lot to get the best out of my Harmoni racks.
I think my observation echoes what has been observed by others.
Attention to details is as usual crucial, and makes it sometimes hard to know what you really compare as it's more or less impossible to assemble two racks identically.

I use two 5 shelves racks and they perform a little bit different depending on placement. When I first received the Mimer K shelves, I was really disappointed. Clinical and boring. The reference bottom shelf cured that.

/Erik

[tokenbrit]

Thanks for the replies. I had the sense that all those using Harmoni racks were using them in their optimum musical configuration, or aspiring to... Good to receive the advice that compromises are relatively minor in musical impact in comparison to the gains from using a Harmoni rack in whatever configuration suits best.