A/V Furniture, HD Radio clarification
Week 43, 2006
Q: I found an entertainment center that I think would be a good fit for the television I am going to purchase soon- a 42″ LCD or plasma set. It is from Broyhill and I found it at a local furniture store. Is there any advice you can give to someone shopping for entertainment furniture and TV stands?
-Mark Bielecki, Pittsburgh, PA
A: It is hard from the web link you sent me to make a specific judgement on the piece you are considering, but in general I can advise you that mainstream, full-line furniture companies generally don’t do a very good job desiging furniture that is meant to be used with electronics. This has been my own experience as well as that of friends and family members, as well as members of the public who have hired me to help them with their systems.
There are several design flaws I consistently see. The biggest issue tends to be with connecting the components when they are placed in the furniture. The manufacturers provide a solid fiberboard tiny holes or slots that can be punched out that leave little room to pass multiple wires and power cords. God help you if the store sold you some of those overpriced fat cables!
The second is the width of the shelves. They seem to be almost the exact width of a DVD player or receiver. How in the world are you supposed to reach around the component blindly and connect the cables, all while passing the wires through those tiny little holes? You better get it right the first time!
Last, they tend to have glass doors, which combined with the solid backing, contain heat. If your components operate in a high temperature environment, they are not likely to last as long.
My first entertainment system furniture was made by a full-line furniture manufacturer and purchased from a quality furniture store, and it had all of these traits. Sadly, I have seen little change in the designs since then.
A proper piece of A/V furniture should have an open or semi-open back to vent heat and make connecting cables easy. Shelves should be wide to support components of various widths while leaving some space to each side.
Where does one get proper A/V furniture? The best place is at your local, independently-owned specialty audio/video retailer, which is the best place to get your TV and electronics, too. Look for brands such as Premier (www.premier-av-furniture.com) and Salamander Designs (www.salamanderdesigns.com).
The best furniture will make owning and using your equipment much more pleasurable, and it will be much more manageable when adding new components, too.
Thanks to Gil Chorbajian of Ogilvy Public Relations for the following clarificaation. He represents iBiquity Digital, the developers of HD Radio.
“I read the below Q&A in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and I wanted to clarify one point. In your response to Tom Fink, you wrote about HD Radio: “… if you get it, you will get pristine sound, if you do not get it, you won’t get anything at all.” That’s not quite true. One of the features of the system is that if you lose the digital signal on the main channel, it automatically blends back to the analog signal. While it may not be as “pristine” a signal, you won’t lose the station altogether. That said, if you are listening to an HD2 or HD3 multicast channel and you lose the signal, there is no such backup, since these channels only exist in digital.”
