Show me your RACK - Page 6

I go the rack from Rockler on the link below. The equipment rack is recessed into a bump-out in the foundation under the fireplace. While I'm glad the electronics have a built in look, I wish that I had a closet or unfinished area adjacent to the theater. The rack works great but still isn't as convenient as walking behind the stuff.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=11184

Some have asked about dimensions. The rack is 18" deep and must be mounted in a cabinet 24" deep for the wires. The clearance when you rotate it is fine but the picture on the web site only shows a couple of wires hooked up. You can guess what a real install looks like.

I would agree, access to the back of the rack makes changes very easy and convenient. I'm amassed at how often I make changes or upgrade equipment.

Anyone using a SRSR Series in a modified base cabinet or custom cabinet similar to a base cabinet?

As opposed to a situation where the space was purpose built for a rack. More so making the rack work in the space given. Got a pic and some info? Would love to see it as thats what I am thinking of.

Here's the rack I built for my AV system. It was originally designed and dimensioned to fit in the linen closet behind the family room of my previous house but I really like it's functionality so I continue to use it in the theater room of the new house. It was designed to be as open as possible for maximum heat dissipation. The middle 4 shelves slide in/out on ball bearing rollers for easier access. It has heavy duty casters on the bottom so the whole rack can be pulled out for total access to the rear cabling. It's 12 years old now and still going strong even with the two 85 lbs Sherbourne amps weighing it down!

Just wondering if anyone has heard of or seen these racks. They look pretty nice...


http://www.thetwistergroup.com/produ...%20D30186.html

What did you make your shelves out of? I am about 1/2 way done with a built in wooded rack that is very similar to yours. I am in debate as to which is the best material for the shelves. Thinking either 1/2 birch plywood (with edge molding) or laminated pine. Thoughts? I'd really like to get my Onkyo TX-SR805 (60 pounds) up out of the range of my two year old .

The mount is a Sanus VS3

Sorry for the delay in the response. I was out of town and then I was working on my home automation stuff, then I was tweaking the new projector and getting ready for the Superbowl party (check my HT build link below.) Anyway...

The way I have my video set up is like this: Pioneer VSX-82TXS has 3 HDMI ins and one out. It also has a component out and some standard composite and S-video as well. I have the Comcast cable box going into the reciever by HDMI. I have the home automation PC (the touchscreen PC) running in using S-video. My main PC goes in the reciever by HDMI. Xbox is component.

The Pinoneer supports multi-room display. It works like this. Any signal form in can be displayed out the HDMI. For a secondary output to another display (component), it can either be cloned or you can switch to passthrough so component will come out component,
What I do is, my projector is supplied by HDMI and the monitor by the rack is supplied by comonent. That way I can have TV on the projcector then passthrough xbox so it is on the monitor.

Basically you have two options. Get a good video switching Reciever like the Pioneer. Then you will have cloned outputs. One you can use for local rack display, the other for the home theater. Also what you could do it, get a touchscreen PC like I have and put a TV tuner in it and be able to monitor everything through the PC.

Here's my rack. Not that nice the wife's is much better. I'm still in the planning stage of the new theater and left much at our old house 3 years ago. Just getting back into it. I suppose I'll be putting new things in this rack soon.

Damn! I hope she doesn't read AVS for your sake!

She would take it as a compliment for sure! I think only ONE person in a household should be spending all their time reading the forums at AVS. If there is one thing for certain it's there isn't a clear cut answer to ANYTHING, from screens, projectors, HTPC, the software to run on them, settings on the software, the hardware, and on and on and on..........................................

I will tiddy up the wires when I get a chance.
cheers

The rack in the McCabe Family Theater.

Another Canuck Rack

DIY rack and DIY RSH-style faceplates:






Total cost ~$90 to $100

More on the construction of said rack in this thread, from this post and a few down (if you're curious )

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...5#post13046275

About how many hours would you say it took you to make those faceplates?

BTW, very nice!

Some very inspiring racks 19 professional racks here.

I plan to install a Samson rack or something like rack framing that I can screw to the timbre and then assemble the audio equipment that has less transformer humming and keep the amplifiers racked up in different room, the bedroom which only needs a hole drilled in the lower part of the skirting board to pass nearly 300 feet of loudspeaker cable though it, yes that's a bundle.

So there is only one rack in the professional world and a lot of them in this thread that looked wonderful indeed I truly mean that. Empire has a fine rack system in the booth that will have most drooling over for a couple of days, me I haven't stopped drooling for nearly 18 years now.

I took these pictures at the Empire Leicester square cinema last year on Thursday July 26th 2007.


Has for mine, at the present time, this will all get racked up nice and tiredly as soon as I can afford to buy a few Samson SRK21 which is only £84.99 at digital village UK.


Plus I have a few more Alesis RA300 and RA500 and more DCX2496 and some new DEQ2496 from digital village UK

Here's one more for ya...
Still need to paint my blank panels black...

Tx!

All told, probably about ~ 1hr each with paint dry....maybe 6 or 7 hours over a couple of weekends? I could have done them faster, but I was 'puttering' and being fussy over fit and finish though

Cheers,

Is there a right or wrong way to stack your rack? I am guessing the heaviest component should go on the bottom like the tuner. I hear the PS3 puts out a lot of heat so I am wondering if that needs to be near the top of the rack closer to the fans.

thanks!

Middle Atlantic has some good heat management info on their site:

http://repnet.middleatlantic.com/COM...ent%203-04.pdf

I've heard it all costs an arm and leg for Middle Atlantic racks.

A few years back, some 10 years almost now there was this bank that had closed down and they where tossing lots of chairs tables you name it, into the skip and what the heck did I see in one room a nice ole professional rack with glass front door and key and lock. I asked the guy to hold it for one day and when me and my dad went around the next day to get more tables for the school so BUGGER had taken it, little BUGGER! Can't trust NO BUGGER today!!

Trust no BUGGER Mr. Mulder!

i was just thinking about equipment placement in the rack. not so much due to heat, but is there a typical protocall?

i designed my rack so the top two shelves are bigger/taller. i figured i would put the larger AVR and Belkin PF60 power conditioner up top. then my two DVD players.

i think for me i will put the AVR on top then the PF60. it just seems like the AVR should be first.

later.

For those of you who used rack rails, what'd you do on the rear of your space? How'd you do any cable management, and how stable was your equipment? I had originally thought that doing rails would be best for my situation, but I can get a slim5 into my space and not be concerned about the rear of the rack and stabiliy, and I get cable management there. I'm curious what you all think,

-Ryan

My rack is a combination of parts, The front of the rack is a Chatsworth open relay rack, the back is two rails and lacing bars are Middle Atlantic , The shelfs and patch panels are from Gruber.

So it comes down too what ever works for you. Most of the parts are interchangeable.

Mine is two rails only. Right now the wires are all slop. I am going to try to neaten it up over the coming days before the house has an open house (March 1). My plan is to cleat/tie against the wall, then feed them to the rack as organized as possible. I'll throw pics up.

For stability - its been no problem at all. I would guess I have about 100 lbs of gear all on rack ears or on shelves screwed in the front only. If you are adding really beefy amps, it might be an issue. I have 3 crown amps that are about 25 lbs each.

That's good info guys. I guess I wasn't sure how you'd use rear rails, but it sounds like you can just go with any old set of rear rails that attach to your shelves and the like. Is that right? I suppose you would need a shelf or otherwise at the top and bottom to ensure there's something to connect the rear rails to. That would probably cost less than the slim-5 in total.

My equipment list is fairly reasonable and not that heavy: Denon AVR3808Ci, DVD player (tbd), XBox 360, Motorola HD-DVR Cable Box, Belkin PF60 power conditioner and a buttkicker amp.

I do like the idea of getting things neat behind the rack for my own sanity. I still need to figure out the exact parts I want to do some real comparison.

-Ryan

Ryan

The rear rails are bolted to the wall and do not touch the floor or ceiling, The front relay rack is also bolted to the walls on both sides, the base sits on the floor.

Here is a photo:



Just below the patch panel, on the right you can see a small spacer between the rail and the wall.



On this photo you ca see the top of the right rail.

Got it. My equipment space is a small closet with the rough opening for the rack on the theater side and a safe-n-sound door on the back side (which is my furnace room.) The rack wouldn't be close to the closet walls - or at least not close enough to secure rear rails to the wall. I think this is helping me understand that if I really want something on the rear (and I do, for cable management at minimum), that pursuing something like the slim-5 is the way to go. I can take and post a picture later today if it will help confirm all this.

Thanks for all the insight,

-Ryan

Hello:

I have been running my HT room with my rack in a closet with no rear access (see pic).

I thought that having wheels on it would make it easier to move.

However, I am getting a little tired of having to move it around and I am really wanting a setup where I can have access to the rear of the rack without moving it. I am just not sure how to accomplish it with my room.

I would welcome any suggestions.

Splotto

that is some serious shelf space. what is your plan? later.