Building a Home Entertainment 'Unit'... ideas?

[DejaVu]

I have plenty of time on my hands and have decided to create some sort of Home Entertainment storage space in my living room.

The only problem is, my design ideas are diabolical.

Does anyone know of any websites/guides/examples I can look through to find something I'd like to attempt to build?

I have to exclose -

Acer Revo with 4 HDD's.
Denon AVR
PS3
XBox
Wii
Cable TV Box

My TV is on the wall, and chasing can be done. I'm really not sure what to do, but I dont really want too much on display. I'd prefer a unit built in the corner.

At first, I had the idea of floating shelves either side of my TV, but the boss has said she doesnt want that.

[theodotcom]

If you put everything in a unit that is closed you can always use an ir extender so you can control the devices without having to open the unit doors.

I'm currently in the process of building a rack for all my av stuff that will be in the garage and controlled via an ir extender.

[DejaVu]

I have an IR Extender, but all my gear looks pretty cool and I havent the option of a garage. My place is a End-of-terrace and every wall is concrete (even the ceilings!).

I just want some ideas of what I can make it look like. At the moment, they are all on a 50" TV Stand and looks REAL messy.

I've seen a few sites in the past discussing what they are creating, but I cant find any of tham at the moment. Google's being gay with me today (or more like I cant think of the wording to search for!)

[wadgey]

Have a look on avforums.com. They have a dedicated forum for DIY builds and general home theatre pics etc.

[{{909}}]

Ive been looking for some sort of wall mounted unit to put next to my plasma for ages but ive never seen anything like what I want, failing that, i want some sort of sideboard cupboard with space at the top for AV equipment, and that doesnt exist either by the looks of things, good luck

[Neo\nsc]

Depends on shape of your room i guess, but make sure you dont have it all to close together let them breath lol enough room behind and in front and you can make it look however you want

[DejaVu]

Here it is, in all it's splender!
Sorry pictures are a bit crap. Looks better in real life, flash ruined it!

Ignore the Ethernet's at each end and the bundle of wire behind the speakers (Surround not up yet and haven't channelled Ethernets)

From right to left we have -

Paramount Front Left Speaker
EuroVox HD7000+ (Now Freeview) Box!
4 Way Wii Controller charger - with controllers.
XBox360 Elite - (with Extra's)
4x WD 1TB Hard Drives
Denon AVR 1910 Amp
VM Modem
Netgear Wireless Router
Acer Revo
Black Wii (with Extra's)
PS3 (Soon to be with Extra's!)
Konnet PS3 & XBox Controller Pyramid Charger
Paramount Front Right Speaker!

And underneath - DF on my Philips 1080p HD Revo Monitor (TV)!

The whole thing is 3m long. All looks cool, apart from the nuts underneath the shelf.
I used stud to suspend it from the ceiling and covered the stud with a Chrome wardrobe pole cut to length.

Any idea's of anything I put over those unsightly nuts? We've been racking our brain and cant come up with anything.

Also looking to replace the speaker system - but havent got enough money for a new system atm. Any recommendations - preferably 5.1 upgradable to 7.1 in the future. Has to be an active sub...?

[theodotcom]

Good progress dude... A couple of suggestions for you, firstly why not have the shelf below the tv rather than up high?
Secondly if your gonna have the shelf high, the cables on sides (guessing speaker cables) an idea is to run them up to the coving so it runs neatly under the coving then run it down the corners of the wall and paint it the same dark brown.
Just a thought

[theodotcom]

Oh and regarding a speaker system the mordaunt short alumni are an excellent set of speakers, and can be upgraded to 7.1, the q acoustics are also supposed to be very good but are quiet large, haven't heard them myself but they always get good reviews. I use the alumni and am very pleased with them.

[DejaVu]

Good progress dude... A couple of suggestions for you, firstly why not have the shelf below the tv rather than up high?
Secondly if your gonna have the shelf high, the cables on sides (guessing speaker cables) an idea is to run them up to the coving so it runs neatly under the coving then run it down the corners of the wall and paint it the same dark brown.
Just a thought

1. The missus needed more 'floor space'... Hence height, but also, 3 kids wandering about!

2. Thought the same thing about the speaker wire. 2mora job!

3. Speakers. Do they come with an Active Sub? Are they available in black!
Gooooogle....

[theodotcom]

The mordaunt shorts come in black, called piano black, its a gloss black, and with an active sub, the white ones are £100 cheaper in richer sounds.
When I got mine and read reviews a lot of reviews said the sub underperformed, however I think it is more than sufficient, any deeper and I'm pretty sure the neighbours would have something to say.
If you go in a richer sounds and make out your interested in buying them, but you really want to hear them they'll probably set them up in a demo room for you. But I think it depends on their staff on the day because sometimes they can be pretty lazy.