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Home theater furniture - husband vs. wife

I'm sure this is a common source of friction for a lot of folks here. What kind of furniture do you use to hold your gear?

My situation: I need to hold a Parasound 2200 as well as my receiver and HTPC. I also have a big 200lb 36" tube HDTV. Currently I am using an ugly old pressboard entertainment center to hold the TV, receiver, HTPC, but it doesn't have the proper ventilation for the 2200. I was going to buy a nice looking rack to hold everything, but my wife says it is "too industrial" - and wants me to get something from Pottery Barn. They have a lot of nice wood furniture, but nothing that is designed for 19" rack mounted equipment.

Does anyone have a suggestion? She is actually quite reasonable about it... I am trying to collect some photos of what people have done to make things look nice so we can plan on what to do.

Thanks!
pyite

Showing 2 responses by kurt_tank

kurt_tank
1,189 posts
 
Oh yeah, I remember those conversations!

We compromised on this by getting some nice BDI racks.
(They are quality made racks, that have nice lines.)
They have both metal/glass and wood/glass racks. We went with the wood, as we both liked the cherry wood, as it was not too dark.

I went with the Ventura line for both racks that we have, which is no longer in production, but it is quite similar to the axis line. (They look nice, but do require a bit of regular dusting. I get quite a few compliments on them actually.)

BDI - Axis

My two cents worth anyway.
Good luck with the WAF!
kurt_tank
1,189 posts
 
Shaqspack (Interesting name, btw),

I really like my BDI racks.
They look great and have a very high WAF.

They are not movable (or at least mine are not - I have the now obsolete Ventura line), but they are pretty accesible for wires and such, as there are two supports at the two front corners, and only one in the center rear, which means the racks are faily open. This allows me to easily reach around the units to plug/unplug wires.

Mine have a 6 inch wooden support that runs down the center of the rear, which as allows for hiding wires, as there are large holes in the support for just that purpose.
(The Axis line has a much larger wooden support, which should easily hide all of your wires.)

The successor to my line is the Axis line, which allows the shelves to be moved vertically up and down, so you can narrow up that space for the DVD, and widen the space for your amp/turntable/etc.
(My Ventura line does not allow this unfortunately, although in terms of looks I prefer mine, as it is rather unique, in as that the glass sheelves are supported by "cuts" in the wood, rather than pins, which allows the glass shelves to actually stick out the front, which gives them a nice modern look, that my wife really likes.

The only thing about these shelves is that being open, they do let in dust, so you will have to dust them more often then you might normally. (However, you'll never have to worry about you amp having cooling issues either, as they are not in a confined space.)

Hope this helps!
Good Luck in your search.
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