The APEX-50 is the base platform of the Forged Audio APEX racking system, the foundation on which the taller APEX-150, APEX-200, APEX-250 and APEX-315 modules stack. It is a vented 2-ply bamboo platform carried on four Ø38 mm solid steel standoffs, giving 80 mm of usable clearance beneath the shelf, with isolation spikes and floor discs fitted as standard. Use it on its own under an amplifier or turntable, or as the foundation tier of a full APEX rack.
A shelf designed to dissipate
Each shelf is a 620 × 400 × 36 mm board made from two bonded plies of bamboo. The bond line between the plies acts as a mechanical energy break, so vibrational energy has to cross a material boundary rather than travel through the shelf freely. Bamboo itself has no single dominant resonant pitch: its random internal fibre geometry distributes vibrational energy broadly instead of ringing at one frequency. With a Janka hardness of 1,410 to 1,610 lbf it is harder than European oak, and its modulus of elasticity of 18 to 20 GPa keeps the shelf stiff enough to push its resonance well above the audible band.
Solid steel, coupled to the floor
The standoffs are solid steel, not hollow tube and not aluminium. Solid steel has the mass to resist vibration at source and the rigidity to channel what does enter straight down into the floor through the included spikes, with floor discs to protect hard flooring.
The start of a modular rack
Every APEX module shares the same thread and base fitting, so upper tiers bolt straight onto the APEX-50 and can be added, removed and rearranged as your system changes. Stack two, three or four tiers, mixing heights to suit your components; for stability and safety Forged Audio recommend keeping the finished rack below 1.25 metres. Sizing is simple: each module quotes its usable clearance, and if your component stands shorter than that figure, it fits.
Practical details
The sculpted edge groove works either way round: run it to the rear as a cable channel for shallower units, or face it forward as a styling detail beneath your equipment's front panel. The four posts sit in from the edges of the shelf, leaving 500 mm of clear width across the front. And because the bamboo grain is unique to every shelf, no two APEX platforms look quite the same.
