Moreover, the dismantling and new set-up of an audio system, including the precise alignment of the individual levels, takes quite some time. You can't just switch from A to B and back to A again to verify supposed small differences in sound. If, as in my listening room, there is a lack of available space, one is more than willing to forego a test. Especially when the Finite Elemente website describes the Carbon Edition as "Simply The Best In The World" without any hint of understatement and one has experienced that Luis Fernandes is not prone to empty promises: You don't even want to be tempted after taking a look at the prices of the carbon racks. How fortunate that during a technical chat about power supplies for streaming components, the Finite Elemente developer incidentally mentioned that there is a newly designed listening room in the company's premises where the different generations and designs of Pagode racks can be compared without much effort. At the end of the conversation, a visit to the company was a done deal: This way, the capabilities of the carbon racks could be discovered without the danger of triggering an irresistible "have-to-have" impulse, as when trying them out in my own system.

Finite Elemente's production facilities are located on the first floor of a rear building on one of the main roads in Meschede, close to the town centre. A loading ramp and a goods lift facilitate delivery and dispatch. Generous skylights provide plenty of daylight on the first floor. Not far from the entrance, Werner Möhring and Luis Fernandes have a shared office. There is a lot of storage space for the products of the Cera family and also for equipment, cables and cartridges from the portfolio of the G8 & Friends distribution, whose management Werner Möhring also holds. The centrepiece is, no, not the listening room, but a large room with a centrally placed, electrically height-adjustable assembly table, on which the individual parts are assembled into a rack and finally packed. All racks are shipped fully assembled, as otherwise there would be no guarantee that the fine wood or carbon surfaces and polished aluminium pillars would not be damaged during assembly and that the sonic impact on the components would be exactly as the designer intended. Of course, the freight costs are much higher than if the racks were delivered flat-packed. But Luis Fernandes sets the highest standards for the quality of his products. Questions of cost are of secondary importance.

Incidentally, Finite Elemente has still been working with the same carpentry workshop and the same polisher since it was founded in 1997. Initially, the metal pillars were chrome-plated, but this was not visually convincing at critical points. So Luis Fernandes decided to offer only matt anodised and, for an extra charge, high-polished side pillars. Because of the great variety of versions - there exist seven colour variants alone, each with two finish versions of the metal parts - the racks are only built to order. Yvonne Burmann has been responsible for this for 16 years. Depending on the model, she needs between two and five hours for assembly. Cloths, foils and polystyrene sheets are used from time to time to protect the surfaces from scratches. Special, self-made gauges are also used, for example to screw the frames and the side pillars exactly at right angles together or to adjust the distances between the pillars precisely. Gloves are also mandatory for some operations.