The new Rack with the stands!

[JohnnyCasaba]

Nice rack!

Sorry couldn't resist. Looks great.

[Gregisme]

looks alot better.

alot better = 1/2 part new rack + 1/2 clutter clean-up.

Just clean up them wires, and Architectual Digest will come calling. []

[J.A.P]

That looks great! Perfect rack for a nice new 60" Sammy DLP. I was wondering what that beige box on the bottom left was? It would be cool if we all posted pics of our set up's think we should start a new thread?

[Ben_Wood]

J.A.P I thought the beige box was Curtis' **** Wave stereo! []

[azanon]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Arial, Verdana, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">J.A.P I thought the beige box was Curtis' **** Wave stereo!<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Ouch!

[Quinn]

I'd guess the beige box is a power conditioner or battery back-up/surge protector.

[curtis]

LOL....about 5 years ago, before I knew any better, I bought my Parents one of those **** clock radios!

Quinn got it. The beige box is an old Tripplite Power Isolator. It has not really done anything for the sound of the system, but it did make a noticeable difference to the TV picture. I think I paid $40 on eBay for it.

The before picture is pretty bad and looks messier than my place is......well sometimes it is cleaner. A lot of the stuff on the stand, mainly the pictures, were on the bookshelves that I used to have the speakers on.

I intentianally got the stand as wide as it is so that it will accomodate a big screen when I decide to get one.

I was going to use the old stand in my bedroom, but it sags so much in the middle now it looks pretty bad. The power amp and HK525 together were about 120lbs., and the TV has to be pushing about 200lbs. It was just a cheap piece from Ikea.

As for posting pictures, we do not have the storage space for pictures here, so you are going to have to find a place to host them and then link to them.

-curtis

[ClutchBrake]

Very nice.

Just out of curiosity, how do you find people to do custom furniture. I know Brian Bunge at Rutledge did your speaker stands, who did your A/V rack?

[curtis]

Brian could also do the rack.

I actually got lucky. I had been wanting a new A/V rack for a while. I called a couple of custom furniture makers in my area and got some quotes....but they could not make something exactly like I wanted out of maple, or it would have been very expensive. I also talked to Brian about it as well, his pricing was more reasonable, but something that large would have still cost a lot to ship.

So one day I went out to a local furniture place....they only use Pine and Alder wood. I actually ran into the owner when I was there. A nice older Vietnamese man. I told him what I was looking for, and he took me around the shop and had to say twice "Tell me what you want and I will make it"....when it finally sunk in, I said "really?". Apparently he has a factory close by. So we sketched out what I was looking for and he gave me a ballpark price...and it was cheap! So I said I would get back to him with the final measurements. I did that a couple of days later, along with the size of a bookshelf I wanted(you can see a bit of it in the picture), he gave me a price, I gave him 50% deposit. 2 1/2 weeks later...it was done.

It was not exactly as I had pictured, but it still came out better than what I thought he would come up with. He is going to make a box like shelf for the left and right sides as well. That way I can put my HK on it and still have some storage space beneath it.

I have also been talking to Brian about making a maple board to put on top of my VTF-3 to make it match the decor more and use it as an end table. This morning he pointed me to a place on the net, http://timbernation.com/ , that might be able to do it more cost effectively.

I have the sound I want....so now I am working on making the livingroom nicer. As you can see....nothing wrong with the black finish of the Ascends in that room.

Anyways...the stands, rack, and bookshelf has turned out to be a nice Christmas present to myself. []

-curtis

[curtis]

Just an update:

I purchased some shorter cables from www.bluejeanscable.com and cleaned up the cable mess. So here is what it looks like now:

CLEAN



-curtis