Making a Hi-Fi Stand? Got wood?

[admin_exported]

Hey I was looking at the 5 star Podium Stand and all it looks like is 4 pieces of thick chopping board screwed with some legs.

Mind you its probably pretty solid and well made.

But I have a mate that is a DIY expert, so I thought to myself why Cant I make one.

I got a quote from podium to have a walnut one built and they told me it would be +40% on top of the already 500.00 price. [:O]

So my question is, were can you find a amp sized slab of walnut or plain wood to stain for cheap, and I am going to have a go at building one, with some guidance.......... It cant be that hard..................... Can it? [:S]

Cheers

 

[bretty]

Great idea, fella. The prices for stands can be ludicrous. My advise would be to work out the measurements of the wood that you require, then go to a timber merchant. As well as selling you the wood, they can do the cutting for you, for a small fee (I paid 50P per cut, a couple of years back).

 

[Anonymous]

bretty:Great idea, fella. The prices for stands can be ludicrous. My advise would be to work out the measurements of the wood that you require, then go to a timber merchant. As well as selling you the wood, they can do the cutting for you, for a small fee (I paid 50P per cut, a couple of years back). Bretty, it might be difficult to get a good grade timber in the thickness and width that is needed from a local timber merchant, ther are companies like worktop manufacturers who would have better blanks or if you want it to be mega-heavy then buy a solid door ie mahogany or oak and fashion the blanks from that, i used to make signs for churches that way, highly lacquered and guilded they looked stunning. Hmm, i could start another business making bespoke hi-fi furniture.

Got me thinking now.

 

[Anonymous]

You could try speaking to someone who makes nice kitchen work tops.

What you would want are the cutouts from sinks and hobs etc.

That should give you some nice bits of 2 inch thick solid Beech / Oak etc.

 

[Anonymous]

austinh7:

You could try speaking to someone who makes nice kitchen work tops.

What you would want are the cutouts from sinks and hobs etc.

That should give you some nice bits of 2 inch thick solid Beech / Oak etc.
Thats 2 of us that agree then austin

 

[Anonymous]

johnnyjazz:austinh7:
You could try speaking to someone who makes nice kitchen work tops.

What you would want are the cutouts from sinks and hobs etc.

That should give you some nice bits of 2 inch thick solid Beech / Oak etc.

Thats 2 of us that agree then austin

I was sort of hoping that if you fluttered your eyelashes a bit you might get them for free as they would probably be scrap.

You could try IKEA or some such for worktops to cut up or look on Ebay.

All my kitchen worktops came from a mad Bulgarian via Ebay at a very low price.

 

[Anonymous]

I am going to start searching around, for inch and half solid wood.

I am sure I can make an awsome hi-fi rack that looks the same as the podium, and will just screw in floor spikes on the legs.

Cost.... Maybe 100.00 hopefully

Will call kitchen fitters as well and see if they want to sell end cuts

 

[chudleighpaul]

I'm sure some bright spark with more money than sense will say your gear would "sound better" if it was mounted on the Podium stand!

 

[Anonymous]

I still dont understand how a rack can make your speakers or amp sound better. Glass is glass and wood is wood?

Has anyone acutally run this theory through audio tests, and seen that the sound waves have actually changed from rack to rack?

I think this will be a good hobby for myself for the next month, hunting down good wood pieces and then looking at something and say, hey I made that

 

[chudleighpaul]

canada16:

I still dont understand how a rack can make your speakers or amp sound better. Glass is glass and wood is wood?

Has anyone acutally run this theory through audio tests, and seen that the sound waves have actually changed from rack to rack?

I think this will be a good hobby for myself for the next month, hunting down good wood pieces and then looking at something and say, hey I made that

I agree with you.

One can see that stands which transmit a lot of vibration could affect the sound quality from a source such as CD, Vinyl or Tape (whats that?) But there are claims that certain stands improve pic quality from a TV and audio quality from an amp.

Large pinch of salt required!!!

Good luck to you with your DIY

 

[Anonymous]

canada16:

I still dont understand how a rack can make your speakers or amp sound better. Glass is glass and wood is wood?

Has anyone acutally run this theory through audio tests, and seen that the sound waves have actually changed from rack to rack?

I think this will be a good hobby for myself for the next month, hunting down good wood pieces and then looking at something and say, hey I made that

Totally agree Canada the superlatives used by reviewers of racks are ridiculous

Yes you need a good rack which is stable, level , isolates vibration and looks good but the podium ,£500.00 get real

I am in the same position of needing a good rack for my AV ( not a TV stand ) so if anyone has any suggestions ?

Or perhaps I should open a new thread , don't want to be a hijacker

 

[Anonymous]

How can you make a picture look better by a piece of wood or glass.. LOL

Will post some pics when its done.

Prob going to take some time as this wood is looking expensive and dont want to mess it up.

Thanks

 

[chudleighpaul]

When we moved here in 1997,I bought a Soundstyle stand for my AV. It was expensive then (about£350), but my motive for purchasing it was it looked very good and would take all of my gear without looking too crowded. It housed a 27" 4:3 Sony TV, AV amp, VCR, Sat receiver, FM tuner ansd centre speaker.

Since then the 27" Sony was swapped for a 32" Sony Digital CRT TV which was massive. Nowadays it houses rather less. 40" Sony LCD TV, Yamaha receiver, SKY HD box, Panasonic Bluray player and Centre speaker.

It still looks very good, but to claim that it does anything for the pic on the TV is ridiculous. It is just the overall impression that pleases.

 

[Anonymous]

Well I might have given up before I started.

I wanted a Blok Stax 500 but they are only on ebay at 350.00 so emailed them, asked if I phoned direct what could they do.

I dont think its a good price considering the 400 series is being sold for 239.00 with free delivery, so they asked me to call them and they will work something out.

So will have a chat with them tomorrow.

Fingers crossed they knock off 100.00 ...

 

[PJPro]

I like to think my DIY AV stand was the prototype for the Podium (see here). What do you think?

 

[Torres09]

PJPro:I like to think my DIY AV stand was the prototype for the Podium (see here). What do you think?

Very nice work PJPro, is there anything you can't do??????

 

[Anonymous]

Yup...

Bit above my pay grade, but really nice job, and bet it cost a fraction of store bought.

Dont think I am going to attempt it, as one piece of wood is like £50.00 for 40mm thick, and if I mess that up I wont be happy.

I know nothing about this type of stuff, and have never really built anything.

I have just gotten to grips with my dewalt hammer drill and wall mounting speakers.

 

[PJPro]

To make a nice job, you're gonna have to use a router. This is what kitchen fitters use to chop up your kitchen unit top. I suppose you might be able to get the supplier to cut the board for you.

 

[indyjase]

I have made several hi-fi racks and entertainment centers that house all equipment and each attempt gets better. I just moved into a new house last week and had to rehouse all my AV stuff as in my last house I built the rack flush the wall and didnt have the same option here, so what I did was take an old dresser that had 20 inch drawers and reshelved them to fit everything and gave it a coat of paint. Looks great, as though it was a purpose built custom unit, with the added bonus that all cabling (well most of it except speaker wire, cable input, and ethernet) are housed inside keeping everything nice and tidy. I wish I could post some pics on here to show you a few of my DIY projects and how they have evolved over the past few years. Started off buying a entertainment center that was missing a few bits from a big store and tweaking it. Then built an entire AV room with PJ from scratch on a budget of what I could find lying around the house and barn ect...To a purpose built AV rack to an entire structure in the living room. My fav was the built in wall rack, which I made the shelves from loverly old wood I found in the barn. All of my projects have been cost effective (i.e on a budget of next to nothing). For those of you out there who want to undertake this sort of project, it really is not as hard as you think just a bit of imagination as well as the key is to take your time and plan well..... If the mods would allow I can post links to several sites that show galleries to give you guys inspiration as well as links to my own projects, but I thought that I had better ask before plonking them down.....Thanks Jase

 

[Anonymous]

I got a kitchen top from Ikea and made a shelf for the cd player with what i had left after the kitchen job. Its heavy and stable enough. I havent got legs for it but you can get those too at Ikea in good quality. Look in their office section for legs.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes you can post links.

The dresser Idea is really good, and true with not wire, never thought of that.

It would be great to see your pieces of art ,

Nice 1

 

[indyjase]

If anyone knows how I can share pics on flicka then let me know so I can post a link or something. You might be able to go on flicka and do a search for indyjase.....that might work.nope just tried that...******...Not taken pics of the dresser yet as I just moved and the camera is charging, but I will do before the end of today....Thanks Jase

Here are a few links

http://gallery.avsforum.com/

http://forum.blu-ray.com/home-theater/

http://forums.highdefdigest.com/home-theater-gear/221-post-your-setup.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/indyjase/

If any of these links are not within the rules I apologize, but I thought they are a good place to start to look at other peoples setups and gain inspiration