Hello all! First off, thank you all for being so informative! I'm almost ready to start wiring up my living room, but before I do that I need to find a cabinet.

The basic idea here is that my flat panel TV (and LCR Fronts) will be mounted on one wall with all cabling being run through the wall. My A/V "rack" will be on the opposite side of the room in a well-ventilated (by the time I get done drilling big ventilation holes in it, anyway) *closed* (i.e. no glass doors, when the doors are closed, I don't want to be able to tell what's in there) cabinet.

To help add to the "mystery" of where the A/V "rack" running the TV is, I'm going to buy two identical cabinets and put one on each side of my wall-centered fireplace (which never gets used, BTW).

Anyway, I have some fairly signifcant dimensional requirements that are making finding the "right" cabinet extremely difficult. They are as follows:

MINIMUM Interior Dimensions: 32Hx34Wx16D

MAXIMUM Exterior Dimension: 57Hx38Wx19D

I need to be able to insert up to 3 adjustable shelves in there. I can fabricate the shelves myself if need be, but the interior needs to be "peg-holed".

Also, for purposes of WAF, it needs to be not ugly. She likes those slatted doors (kinda like shutters), and that's fine by me since it will help with ventilation.

Anyone have any suggestions on where I should look?

Thanks!

--Mav

Just looking at your dimensions, make the cabinets literally as deep as possible, as 19"D is FAR from "too deep". My parents had a bunch of custom cabinets made for them by two different local craft builders, and surprisingly, they weren't all that much more expensive than the (seemingly insanely expensive) stock cabinets with similar materials.

If your wife likes the slatted doors, fine, but you may be concerned with sound in the cabinet if you put things with spinning hard drives and fans (TiVos, HTPCs, etc) inside. If you're going for the total mystery look, account for the sound of the equipment not spoiling it. Sounds like you already have your head around needing ventilation, but if you're stuffing amps in there and running them hard, you should plan for active (fan) ventilation not just passive (slots and holes).

Thanks! If I can get a sufficiently tall cabinet, I shouldn't need to "actively" ventilate it -- the only really "hot" items will be my TiVo and my receiver which I plan to put 3 shelves away from one another on opposite sides. But, I will DEFINITELY be watching it and will add a fan if need be.

As for the "slatted" doors, I'm less worried about noise than I am about blinking lights, but I can deal with that if it will help with ventilation and satisfiy the wife.

as for the depth, I don't want it deeper than that because that's how deep our step up mantle is and I don't want it sticking out farther than that. 19" is plenty deep to handle the components and, even if that is an issue once I get cabling on there, as I suggeted above, I'm not above cutting a bunch of holes in the back of it.

We looked into having them built, but that's quite a bit more money than i wanted to spend. Keep in mind, I'm not really looking at E/A, PB, or any other similarly-priced stores. I'm thinking more along the lines of Target/Bush/Sauder/etc. (i.e. $200-$500 apiece).

Thanks!

--Mav

Anyone? Surely, some folks have had to find odd-sized A/V cabinets to keep their components in.

Thanks!

--Mav

Here is thread from siome time ago, it might be useful to you unless you have already seen it. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=788074&highlight=racks

Have you checked out Ikea?

www.racksandstands.com

Bud

Thanks all! Came up with squat at Ikea. I am currently wading through the options from racks and stands, but not having much success.

Oh well...

--Mav

I don't know the layout of you house, but there is always the option of putting the equipment in an adjacent room. It's easy to install an IR blaster to operate the equipment. The best way to reduce the noise and front panel lights is to put the equipment in a different room.

Randy

If I may ask why you need the width? Most equipment is not larger than 19" wide.

Laters,
Jeff

Most (but not all) consumer gear fits in a standard 19 inch rack, either bolted into tapped rails using optional rack "ears", or sitting loose on a shelf. Most "furniture" type A/V cabinets I've seen are single loading, i.e have shelve sections around 20 inches wide.

Semi-custom cabinets (or DIY carcass with store bought front panels) might be the best bet. Since the chassis itself is usually about 17" wide, if you can get the inside clear space a little more than 34", you'd have the possibility of placing two components side by side on the same shelf. How about a matching pair of deep "armoire" cabinets from a furniture liquidator? You could add/rearrange shelves inside to suit your gear, but have a finished look with the doors closed...

I love the idea of hiding the equipment in "plain sight"! Good luck with the project.

I just looked at Racks and Stands, they do have lots of cool ideas....
you should also check out bassett furniture, and Stanley web sites. they had some neat things.

It needs to be 34" interior width because, as Satori84 suggested, I need to go 2 wide. I have a total of 6 full-fledged components (AVR, DVD, PS3, CD, DVR, docking station for laptop) that need their own "space" and 4 or so quasi-components that can share a shelf (modem, router, am/fm antenna, remote charger, etc.). Fortunately, only two of my components are the stock 17", so with 34" internally, the "tightest" fit is [sidewall][1"][component 1][1/2"][component 2][1"]. I can live with that. The wife has ruled out "single width" (i.e. 19" internal) cabinets since I'll need to go at least 7 shelves high in that case with enough clearance for adequate ventilation. She thinks (probably accurately) that it will look like lockers, not furniture. That's probably a good observation. The external dimensions are forced by the depth of the fireplace (don't want the cabinets to stick out farther than the foot of the fireplace) and the distance between the sides of the fireplace and the walls. IOW, my dimensions are pretty much fixed/set-in-stone. The question is where do I get a decent looking cabinet that meets my dimensional needs -- and therein lies the problem.

Also, another room (or a closet) is not a realistic possibility with our layout, but thanks for the idea. Problem is that the closest possibility is the entry way closet which is just too far from the room where the TV will be located to be realistic. It would push the limits of my PS3 controllers and probably the range of my Harmony 890 RF as well. That's why we came up with the "hiding it in plain sight" plan. The cabinet on the left of the fireplace houses all of the AV equipment; the identical cabinet on the right houses the kid's toys, and while that's probably the first place you would guess when you looked at the room for where the A/V stuff is, the symmetry will "hide" it well enough.

Now, if I could only find the right cabinet....

Thanks for all the suggestions! Keep 'em comin'!!!

--Mav "Yes, I'm still looking" rickster2

FYI, just to wrap this up. I bought two of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MM49WG/002-5159903-4028043

--Mav