Performance Racks

[rolexdaytona]

I like it. Simple and tidy.

[kennyt]

and amazingly sturdy too....

[kennyt]

I have been working on a piece for AVRev on audio racks and have done so much research on them over the last two years and since it's scary.

There truly is a solution for every home and price point. I have researched racks that can be had for <$200 to over $30,000 and everything in between. I personally bought AudiAV racks for my main rig, but there are so many cool ones it was a tough decision.

[davidboon]

Performance Racks is really nice

[Mitchell Erblich]

A AV rack is a look, feel, piece of furnature, and requires some thought as to how to solve a problem. Below is a summary of different racks that solved different problems that I had and I still own to this day.

Many years ago consumer racks were generally 3 to 4 feet in height had MDF walls and shelves and mostly feel into two camps : those that supported components that mounted on fixed height MDF shelves and those famous 19" racks that had 50% or more black metal. My first rack was the latter and a semi-pro unit and was made by Yamaha. IT currently is used reversed and is about 5' in height.

10 or so years ago, large CRTs weighing 100s of pounds were common and a rack to support a TV plus could be custom built by US company called Billy Bags. I had one built with 4" I-Beams as legs and welded metal shelves.

THe third and last bought rack was made by a company called Sound Anchors. THat stand again was custom and was designed to hold just extremely heavy amps below a screen. Yes, they also make speaker stands.

My last stand is a hybrid DIY and uses Salamander flat panel parts bolted to the top shelf via two uprights. The 24" wide shelves are solid 1 1/4" inch thick maple wood with four stainless steel 36" 1/2" inch roof threaded rods as legs. The shelves are bolted in place. The rods are rated at over 5k lbs each and can be bought at Home Depot. The rack holds over 500lbs of electronics. It was a overkill solution to allow the flat panel to be winged over 2 short subs. The closest Salamander Duo rack that supported a raised flat panel uses a single upright (limit size and weight of panel) and didn't/doesn't support 100 lb plus each amp and a total weight of 500 lbs.

So, IMO 1) You need to decide what type of equipment it is going to hold 2) whether wood / MDF or metal is what you want 3) whether it is to support a TV or a panel 4) Will you design it or just buy it and 5) Lastly the price....

Lastly, if any of your AV equipment is going to be HEAVY or HOT, my suggestion is to stay away from glass and acrylic as shelves. Yes. it looks good, but both have major drawbacks...

[Mitchell Erblich]

MY NEXT HIGH-END DIY RACK..

Oh, If I had a high-end turntable and I don't OR in the future am really concerned about vibration, I would do the PREVIOUS HYBRID rack with 1" thick (anything thicker would weigh over 100lb per shelf) black anodized aluminum shelves , ala KRELL. Reference Subs or LATs or ... , and would bump the threaded rods to 3/4" dia. and maybe 6 or 8 rods/legs. This would give me play as to the height of each shelf. O,, these rods can be bought up to 10 feet long each, but the stores only stock up to 5' lengths.