Making a central electronics room for the house - my equipment rack pictures, too

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  • Chris D
    Moderator Emeritus
    • Dec 2000
    • 16877

    Making a central electronics room for the house - my equipment rack pictures, too

    Okay, so I FINALLY got my new equipment rack 99% set up in my new house, with thanks to help from the Parasound guys! (I couldn't find my HRA-4u Halo C1 rackmount ears after my move, for one thing) First, the pic of the equipment rack itself. Wish I could post larger, more high resolution pics.

    My new home has what I've always wanted--a small central electronics room for the entire house. You don't see to the side and behind the rack, I have wall panels that house security, phone, internet, audio, and video distribution panels. This equipment rack houses all gear that can be accessed from any room in the house, through Elan A/V distribution equipment and control panels. So, for example, if you're watching a movie in the living room and someone calls, it will mute the audio and ring the phone over the speakers. You pause the movie, pick up the phone, and talk. (you can also do stuff like put the person on hold and they'll listen to a radio station or CD that you select, or page somebody else in the house over the phone) After you're done talking, if you're tired, you can go into the bedroom, plop down on the bed, and resume the same movie you were just watching, right where it left off. Cool stuff. You don't have any A/V gear taking up room around the house, and everything is centrally located right in one place. No longer do I have to walk around the house, asking, "Who took the Toy Story DVD, and where is it?" Now it stays in the room, and can be watched from anywhere.



    Okay, on the left stack, starting at the top:
    - Cheap TV currently used as a monitor for the equipment room. (this will be improved)
    - Just to the right of the TV are two "THX Robot" dolls, not easily seen in the pic as some of my DVD shelves are peeking up from behind the rack.
    - Toshiba HD-A35 HD-DVD player. (I'll keep this one for a while)
    - Standard CD changer for home audio use
    - Standard SD-DVD changer for home video use
    - Parasound Halo D3 universal DVD player, mostly for critical audio listening of CD, SACD, and DVD-A
    - Behringer Feedback Destroyer, a parametric equalizer for subwoofers, used for the home theater room
    - Parasound Halo T3 radio tuner, also used for home audio distribution
    - Parasound Zhd HDMI switcher and Zbreeze cooling fan
    - Two satellite receivers (soon to be replaced with new satellite HD-DVR's) One for me, one for my wife, so we can record and watch TV on our own DVR's, then access them from anywhere in the house
    - Below that is the various Elan equipment for the home A/V distribution, communications control, and a cooling fan
    - TrippLite power conditioner and distribution


    On the right side is mostly the "power" and "control" of the systems:

    - Sitting on top of the rack is my PS3, for various reasons. You can't see it very well because of some of my DVD shelves are peeking up behind the rack. (note that in this kind of setup, you can play PS3 in any room in the house! Even play multiplayer from different rooms, although it's more fun being together)
    - Denon AVR-4802 receiver, used to power the living room surround setup on the upper floor
    - Denon 2808ci receiver with HDMI 1.3 audio decoding. I really only bought this to use as an outboard HDMI audio decoder for the theater. (more on this soon in the Club Parasound subforum)
    - Two Parasound Zbreeze cooling fans (gotta keep this stack ventilated!!!)
    - Parasound Halo C1 home theater pre/pro controller (powering the theater)
    - Parasound Halo A51, 5-channel amp (powering the theater)
    - Parasound Halo A21, 5-channel amp (powering the theater)
    - Old S-VHS VCR, kept around for the kids and as a clock.
    - Another Elan Zfan cooling fan
    - Another TrippLite power conditioner and distribution

    And hey, you know how I like the groovy pictures of equipment racks in the dark!!...

    CHRIS

    Well, we're safe for now. Thank goodness we're in a bowling alley.
    - Pleasantville
  • Chris D
    Moderator Emeritus
    • Dec 2000
    • 16877

    #2
    I have a few select other equipment pieces around the house for specialized purposes, (and some I can't show for secrecy sake) but by and large, don't need anything else other than everything centralized right into the equipment room.

    For those who are wondering, the slotted plates inbetween the Parasound gear on the right side are Parasound Halo vent panels, manufactured to match Halo gear.

    Note that the Parasound Zcustom equipment is actually half-rack size. So if you rackmount it, two units actually fit side-by-side. Those little things are awesome.

    Obviously, it looks a little off balance with some silver equipment in the left rack, some in the right. But doing some in-depth planning, I just couldn't figure out how to put all silver on the same side, have it fit right, and still have the rest organized in a way that makes sense. Now... if and when Parasound puts out a new Halo HDMI pre/pro controller, (HINT HINT HINT... I hope they're reading this!!!) I'll be able to make my Denon HDMI receiver the living room receiver and take the other, older, Denon out, making room for me to shift the C1 up, and move the other Parasound gear over to the right stack, making it nice and balanced. Just one more reason I want a Halo HDMI pre/pro NOW!

    If there's some interest in this thread, I may post more info and pics about my equipment room, and home A/V setups.
    CHRIS

    Well, we're safe for now. Thank goodness we're in a bowling alley.
    - Pleasantville

    Comment

    • Kevin D
      Ultra Senior Member
      • Oct 2002
      • 4601

      #3
      You've downloaded Racktools right?



      Invaluable tool to plan out racks.

      Racks look awesome! Gotta love a clean rack. If you run out of room (you will run out of room!), you can easily add a smaller rack on top of the left one. Even put a small rack mount preview monitor in there too.

      How do those zbreeze fans work? Looks like three fans blowing up, but there right under shelves. Or does it pull from the back and blow down? My rack is just rails mounted in the studs, so there is no sides or back. Well, the whole coat closet is the rack I suppose and I have two high speed fans blowing into the laundry room that are speed controlled by the volume level of my pre-amp.

      How do you like the Elan stuff? We do Niles and Speakercraft systems mostly, always interested in other options.

      Kevin D.

      Comment

      • John Holmes
        Moderator Emeritus
        • Aug 2000
        • 2703

        #4
        Nicely done, Chris! Looks great!
        "I have come here, to chew bubblegum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubblegum!!!"

        Comment

        • Chris D
          Moderator Emeritus
          • Dec 2000
          • 16877

          #5
          Thanks, Kevin and John! Yeah, I got a copy of racktools from Middle Atlantic at CEDIA this year, and I absolutely used that to plan out locations of all the gear. I'd actually like to order some more Middle Atlantic gear to compliment the rack.

          Good thought, I've already considered whether I should buy a rack extension to put on top of the left rack... spread out the components in the rack below a bit, get some more cooling going, etc. Yeah, a rackmount monitor would be sweet, too.

          The Zbreeze fans work pretty good in general, but I'm not sure about my racks specifically. On the left, I'd like to get more space. On the right, the shelf immediately above them is slotted, which should allow for direct cooling airflor through the components. The fans suck from below, "blow" up.

          (Spaceballs: Sir... It's MegaMaid! She's gone from Suck To Blow!)

          I do like the Elan stuff. It came with the house, so I didn't get a choice or anything. I'm noticing that different companies do capabilities and such differently. I'd like to get to know Russound, AMX, and Crestron better. But I've been impressed with Elan's professionalism so far as a company, and desire to make their products highly robust and reliable. No real complaints so far.
          CHRIS

          Well, we're safe for now. Thank goodness we're in a bowling alley.
          - Pleasantville

          Comment

          • David Meek
            Moderator Emeritus
            • Aug 2000
            • 8938

            #6
            Wow.


            Wow.


            Did I say wow yet? That's impressive Chris. ;x(
            .

            David - Trigger-happy HTGuide Admin

            Comment

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