Good stuff, BMXTRIX. I have thought of some of those things and some are not doable with this furniture builder. The comment about ventilation requirements I don't understand so maybe you could follow up on that.
Middle Atlantic goes through a lot of this stuff pretty extensively... Here is a link to their white paper on thermal management...
http://repnet.middleatlantic.com/COMPANY/MarketingFiles/TempInsideRacks/Thermal Management 3-04.pdf
What ends up happenning (easy explanation) is that air actually travels the path of least resistance. Like with weather patterns, the equipment inside the rack can create warm fronts - when the cool air from outside the rack encounters these 'fronts' they spin away from them and instead of fresh air being drawn into the rack, the hot air is actually trapped within.
Fans can help with this when properly placed, but the idea is that you want to draw out an air flow diagram and avoid air intakes being placed to close to air outflows. You want to draw cool air into the rack, in adequate supply, then have all the hot gear feed that cool air flow, and then have that air expelled from the rack, without creating any pockets of spinning hot air that recirculates right back into equipment.
The base has adjustable leveler feet but no option for casters. This is just another one of their restrictions, just like I can only get clear glass for doors because their supplier doesn't offer smoked glass.
Always an issue when dealing with others. It kind of suprises me that they can't get almost anything you want though.
I will inquire about that option. It would be ideal but I'm sure there will be some reason why they don't offer that option. They use 3/16" thick backing like you see on the back of bookcases, except that it is actually thin plywood and not cardboard.
Most don't offer that option because as soon as you remove the casters, then the rack becomes 'fixed' in one location. Yet, Salamander designs, who isn't exactly the best or worst at this stuff does deliver on removable rear panels - and has the openings for those panels at the edges. Also, they use a screw mounting system - bolts are put into the rack itself, and then the rear panel slides onto those bolts, then you use nuts to tighten over the rear panel to hold it in place. I think they use plastic for the back instead of wood though.
In the original design for the last one I had built we did specify that the vertical stiles should be short 1.5" but then they informed me that there would be no place to tack on the back if we did it that way. If a removeable back panel is doable then maybe that restriction would go away.
The vertical stiles can still go all the way back. You just want to have holes large enough to pass wiring back and forth and up and down the rack - while still maintaining proper airflow throughout the rack. Actually separating the sections allows you to separate some of the hotter gear from each other. If you have two hot pieces of gear you can put them in different sections of the rack to help keep one section from overheating.
The elliptical cutouts on the back were for running wires out of the cabinet to the speaker wall plates and I figured also double as ventilation.
If the back isn't removable, then it doesn't matter where the holes are for running wire. But, if the holes don't properly help with ventilation, then you may want to move them, make them bigger, etc.
If the back is removable, you do NOT want holes in the center of the removable panel for running wires. On my rack at home I made this mistake, and at the end I actually drilled large holes in the bottom of my rack. Three 2" holes to run all the cabling into and out of. It is now incredibly easy to put the back on/off my rack.
That I do not understand. Why would the air enter at the bottom only and rise to combine with the hot air? Without a fan directing air in a particular direction it will enter everywhere there is an opening.
If the front of the stand is open, air can flow in from the front and will combine with the hot air rising from the top of the components. The elliptical cutouts provide a rather large opening for the air to escape. It seems to me that this is exactly a 'flue' - circulating air from the front and sides of the component has an exit path at the rear and it is no different than other stands from makers like Salamander and StudioTech except that there is one vertical opening instead of multiple horizontal openings.
My prior stand had no doors and only the standard 2" diameter wire holes at the rear and the receiver barely got warm.
If you have enough space around gear in a rack, and it is open enough, then you don't have issues. Close in on the sides, close in the back, put doors on it, then heat must be considered far more critically. If the front is open and you aren't stacking half your gear, then typically you won't have heat issues as gear IS designed to cool through convection.
At the end of the day, it's the gear that you pay $$$ for that is being put inside an oven. How hot that oven gets depends entirely on the design. Cabinetmakers can be phenomenal, but still not have a clue about how A/V affects their design methodology. Unfortunately, this is almost always the case.
One of the best piece of woodworking I ever saw was a 6' diagonal opening cut into a built-in. The opening then had a box put into it, from behind, the contained a plasma. The box was custom built for the plasma with framing that actually covered the frame of the plasma, and you set the box on the ground to mount and cable the plasma up. When it was all cabled and mounted, it slid into the opening from behind, then was bolted in place. Since it was a box within the cabinet, if there was a product failure, then a new box could be made to fit the new display perfectly and frame it as it should be. Yet, the box itself was properly vented and had the correct airflow to keep the plasma running cool at all times. From both performance AND looks, it was a 5 star product design. Yet was one of a 'few and far between' design level I have seen for A/V products.
