Component Setup

So last year, I got a promotion. My wife and I decided to celebrate by upgrading our AV system.

We ended up getting a 52 inch Aquos LCD with 1080p, an Onkyo amp, and some speakers from Orb Audio. The cable company supplied a SA 8300 HD PVR. After a four hour wait in the parking lot of a Target on a cold morning in February, we also had a Wii. We wired up everything on the dining room table to test and tweak, then we started to install...

The TV just perfectly fits over the fireplace in our den. With about 1/4 inch on each side (if that) it is the perfect width. This is also nice, since we had an alcove over the fireplace, so all the wires can go behind the TV and it is pretty flush to the mantle. Also, with a mantle, there is no crazy wall mounting to do, it just sits there and the wires are all easily coiled behind. We put painted board in above and below to hide the void space behind, it looks pretty darn good IMHO.

We have a corner of the room that is near a window and walkway. The area is about 2x2 feet, so it is about perfect for components. We could not find suitable furniture to fit, so we decided to try a shelf for components. Also, this may keep the kids out of them a bit. After two iterations, we found a TV shelf on a swivel arm that would support 100 lbs. The problem was the metal shelf they provided was flimsy, but we propped the system on there anyway. I finally made a new shelf out of four layers of 1/4 inch MDF glued and bolted together. After routing, filling, priming and painting, the new shelf looks ok. The nice thing about this setup, the arm swings so I can get access to the back of the components pretty easily. We mounted the 17x17 inch shelf at an angle, so the wires are also hidden pretty well. You don't notice them from the front or either side. This should be great until the kids pile up something and pull down the stack of components.