I am building built-in cabinets and shelving and need to know how deep the shelving should be for the 950/770. I am planning to put the 770 at the bottom (for obvious reasons - 70 lbs!).

Is 24 inches deep enough? It sure would make life a lot easier if that is OK.

Seems like I am going to have as much in the cost of wood as I am in a 950.

------------------
mj

24" is plenty. The 770 is 18" deep. I don't remember the 950's depth (I think I've seen it around here somewhere), but I know it's shallower than the 770 by several inches.

------------------
Gonk

Also, over 85 lbs, not 70.

Hope 3/4 in thick is enough. LOL.

I can't wait to fire that thing up. Glad I have a dedicated circuit. The only problem is that the outlet I put in the ceiling for a future projector is on the same circuit.

------------------
No matter where you go, there you are.

mj

jacket_fan,

I did my system as a built-in and love it. My shelves are 24" deep as well. The one thing I would do differently is to allow better rear access. Currently, I have to go under the cabinet and up around the back to work with wiring and I didn't allow a huge amount of room to work back there. To me, that's the biggest area for improvement.

You also might want to consider cooling. I made my shelves no less than 2" higher than the equipment. It seems fine for the receiver and amp, but my cable box (of all things) gets blisteringly hot.

Good luck.

S.

Have you seen the trend in new construction, with a tiny hall/wall across the back of the family room or in a study, (equivalent size of understair closets) built-ins, with either a hidden door (the cabinet swings open) or door on side. Then it doesn’t matter what the spaghetti does in there. If we raze and rebuild, it will be in my floorplan. Grumpy ought to try this, when he goes to projection, his new media room looks long enough to accommodate a wall for the screen, with built-ins to each side, going up across the end where his gear lives.
It’s nice to have great lighting and just walk in behind your ‘rack’.
jacket_fan, good luck with the wood bill! We nickel and dime ourselves to death around here on the DIY

Thanks for the info Mr. S and SML.

This whole project has been a DYI, especially to keep costs down.

I will design with 2 inches above the main components. Im am planning the 770 on the bottom and wiring coming out the base also.

How often do you need to "get behind the rack"? I assumed it would be a rare occasion after your system is set.

Is there a website which carries cable conduit? The way I am ending up, I will have a very open equipment rack, stair stepping alongside a storage built-in and the wires behind will be visible. Should help with ventilation also.

Suggestions at this stage are easy to implement.

<>

I LOVE to play. I play in my shop. I play in the kitchen. I also play behind the home theater. Its completely by choice, but I do the component switch out from time to time when either somebody wants to check out one of my components or I want to check out one of theirs.

I also have been rerunning some wires etc. Its an ongoing hobby for me and while a big part of the fun is kicking back to some tunes or a DVD, getting there is fun for me as well.

As far as conduit goes, I have seen some convoluted (I think that's what its called. . .) black plastic stuff for under hood use on a car. Probably a local parts store would have it, but there's some here and here . I'm not sure what else there is that would look spot on. I'm with SLL on this one. . . I prefer it to be totally out of site. But even then I try to keep it organized.

Best of luck.

S.

I recently moved all of my equipment into an unused kitchen cabinet. I went down to the local hardware store and bought some heavy-duty drawer rails (the industrial kind used for heavy drawers) the shelves are mounted to those rails. The rails telescope out past the cabinet face so I can still reach behind the gear to make changes. I can’t seem to stop tinkering, change some wire, try coax instead of optical, move stuff around. You know “routine maintenance”.

If you have a large CD changer 300 to 400 disc 24" may not be deep enough.