Rack for the Rig

GuitarheadCA

Hi all,
I'm about to buy a rack for my System, and was looking into the Modular Racks by VTI. Anyone have any experience w/ this brand? Also- Any other Reccomendations? - must be exatly 5 shelves for less than $300.

mantis

If you can muster some more cash together,I would look into the Salamander 40 ich audio rack.It's killer.Build quality is second to none.
I just bought a Tripple 20 in maple and silver for the livingroom.

I'm also buying a 40 and 30 for the theater.

Go check out there web site.You can build your own rack,take the part numbers over to Tweeter and have a rack that can be upgraded in the future.It's made to last forever........


http://www.salamanderdesigns.com/syn/gal_video.jsp

allday

ezc

For the budget you have have a look at the studio tech racks. We sell them here & they are built well. You could look into the PS, HF,or Alpha series. The prices are within your budget. The hf & alpha series are expandable. You can get the the HF-4 & add a shelf to make it a 5 shelf rack. & still be within your budget. We have sold quite a bit of these. The build quality is very good & thery are durable. check out thier website
www.studiotech.com

GuitarheadCA

Thanks Mantis and Ezc,
The Studio Tech HF-4 is almost perfect. It's in the running against the VTI BL404. The studio Tech is actaully $100 Cheaper (w/5th shelf) compared to the VTI, but I like the looks on the VTI better. Tough decision. Still open to more suggestions from anyone!

bsmith15

Don't have any specific suggestions to tell you, but you may want to look at the used stands for sale on audioGon.

http://buy.audiogon.com/cgia/fsb.pl?accsrack

A lot of different types and manufacturers to help decide which is best for you. There are usually quite a few sellers from Southern CA which would allow for a pick-up and no delivery problems.

TonyPTX

Well, if you're any good with tools and wood working, you can build your own. Check out this thread:

My new audio rack....TnT FleXy Style

or the URL

TonyPTX's TNT Audio - FleXy Rack

5 shelves for about $135 USD + your own manual labor of love.

GuitarheadCA

Tony,
I actually do have some skill in woodworking, and your rack looks awesome, my only problem is I have NO Powertools. I'm sure I could rent some shopt time at a woodworking place, but that would take from the affordability of the project. You did do a nice job on your rack however- it looks great.

TonyPTX

Originally posted by GuitarheadCA
Tony,
I actually do have some skill in woodworking, and your rack looks awesome, my only problem is I have NO Powertools. I'm sure I could rent some shopt time at a woodworking place, but that would take from the affordability of the project. You did do a nice job on your rack however- it looks great.

Thanks for the compliment. As for the powertools, well if you REALLLY wanna go on the cheap, but still have the rather Nice Rack...(HAH no pun intended) at a minimum, you'd need a drill. If you look hard enough in the closet/organization section at your home improvement store (I like Lowe's) you can find pre-laminated white shelve boards in 16" x 24" x 3/4" sizes for about $4-5 bux each. All you would have to do would be to put (3 or 4 holes in each board depending on the configuration you chose). I'm sure you could borrow a drill from a friend eh?

Ceruleance

I built a flexy last weekend, had to make two 20" cuts with a hand saw, not recommended. This was before someone told me that home depot would cut the wood for you... ugh. Anyways, you can buy two sheets of nice oak for 12 each, that will make you 6 shelves, which will fit even the most ungainly receivers, or MDF is like 5 bucks. 3 x 5/8 rods will run you $20 tops, and you can get the rest of the parts here: http://www.mcmaster.com/
(thanks to Aaron.)

You'll need a drill with a large bit (I would recommend going a step higher than the rod diameter, cause its a pain getting the shelves on..) And I found my power sander helpful, especially for 5 shelves, but it can definitely be done by hand.

Anyways, I would figure my total cost to be < $30 , but keep in mind I built a 2 foot rack with 3 shelves, and used leftover stain from another project.

I had trouble finding prefinished shelves that were large enough at my home depot.

Build a flexy, save the other $250 for something that's worth it, racks are more overpriced than Bose!

here's another flexy maker's post:

http://clubpolk.polkaudio.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=587&highlight=flexy

burdette

Just sort of lurking here.. but I had a couple of suggestions and questions....


As far as availability of power tools... don't forget the option of begging/borrowing, and ask around about people who have shops. Most people I know who are into wood working would gladly help you by loaning tools or letting you come into their shop for an evening, or, as I did last Christmas when I just could NOT accomplish one particular cut on my daughter's gift.. I marked it out and gave it to a woodworker friend with a better shop than I have, and he did the cut for me.

Also... some cities have tool libraries.. and you can always rent pretty cheap.

As for the Flexy racks in general... one thing I noticed is that it would be VERY easy to add a 'pipe' along the back for wire management. Tony's wires were pretty tidy, but I don't know what it looked like from the front. Anyway, I'd split a length of maybe 3" PVC pipe lengthwise, put the open side to the wall, curved side to the front to hide wires, with holes drilled to let the wires/cables in and out, and you'd have a slick and easy way to hide wires while still having complete access.

Only other thing.. where in the world did you see/find *OAK* for $12 a sheet?? Or maybe the better first question.. what do you mean by 'sheet'? That sounds way too cheap for either oak shelving or plywood.

Ceruleance

2' x 4' x 3/4" I believe it might have been $13.88, if my eclectic memory serves me correctly.

GuitarheadCA

Question For all:

Are Modular Racks Earthquake proof? How snug are those spikes in the caps on each shelf? I would have my heaviest component on the top shelf (7.1 reciever) and it would be my worst nightmare to have it topple over.

TonyPTX

My flexy does wobble a bit as it is not completely rigid. The shelves aren't going anywhere because they are clamped between two huge a$$ nuts and washers. Modes of failure would be either:

• a shelf breaking in half
• the whole thing flipping over

You can mitigate the risk of #1 by chosing quality construction materials (i.e. 3/4" MDF board would be more than fine). As for mitigation of the risk involved with #2, that's based off of conceptual design. Obviously you want to keep the weight as low as possible, however balancing the weight out would work just as good (i.e. AVR on top shelf, power amps on the bottom shelf) as long as the CoG doesn't extend beyond the planar edges of the shelf sides. You'll also want to space out the supporting columns as far out as possible and use common sense when considering the width to height ratio.

Ceruleance

my lugs are hand tightened, and I still think its probably more likely that my whole house comes off its foundation and flips over then my flexy going anywhere.

This is due to several reasons:
1: my rack is only 2 feet tall, and is almost that wide, so no real CoG issues
2: There's probably in excess of 100 pounds on it.
3: most of the weight is an inch off the ground, and all of it is below the halfway point, with the dvd player on the top shelf.

in regards to failure type 1, I may be worried about the shelf breaking in half lengthwise if there were only 2 rods and I suddenly dropped my receiver onto it from like 6 inches, but with 3 rods asymmetrically located, its a nonissue

The only forseeable problem is perhaps if you have a tall shelf and someone fell into it with their whole weight. If this is going to be an issue you can:
1: place the unit close enough to the wall that any equipment would not have an opportunity to slide off the shelf and tumble behind the rack
2: install a horizontal rod bracing the top shelf against the wall

GuitarheadCA

I think my question was misunderstood. I'm not questioning the stability of the Flexy racks, I know everythings clamped together there. I was referring to retail modular racks with each shelf only resting on the one below it.

Ceruleance

oh. well then..

not something i'd put anything I cared about on. Might as well build a shelf with legos.

who would buy a retail modular rack when they can make a flexy, anyways?

Hell, I'll make it for you and keep the $200 you'll save, if that will make you feel better

phoneisbusy

Originally posted by Ceruleance
oh. well then..

not something i'd put anything I cared about on. Might as well build a shelf with legos.

who would buy a retail modular rack when they can make a flexy, anyways?

Hell, I'll make it for you and keep the $200 you'll save, if that will make you feel better

Have you seen the price of lego these days?
I think it might be cheaper to buy the $300 rack...
Actually, I wouldn't be too surprised if someone built one already,
they do some peculiar things with lego these days...

regards

Dave