Hi fi rack in a "closet?"

Bart001

Bart001

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We’re having a new home built. Both my wife and the builder want the hi fi boxes inside of a ‘closet’ that he’s happy to custom build. Location would be not far from the Personally, I would be happy to recover the floor space lost to 2 racks. (I use Naim Fraim; 4 shelves on each.) Turntable (Rega P10) sits on top of one of the racks, and it's happy there.

As in our current home, there will be a fireplace on an outer wall and the natural place for the speakers will be on either side. But if I don’t have to take up so much space IN the room with 2 racks next to one of the speakers…fine with me!

Any of you with this type of arrangement? Any photos? Any pro's or con's? If the builder can find the space, which I think he can, he can build whatever we want. Can have nice doors (that won’t jar and thus skip an LP), nice lighting, and we can run conduit for speaker cables. And run ethernet in.

I'm Googling for stuff like this, but dont see much online, on Pinterest, etc.
 
Bart001 said:
We’re having a new home built. Both my wife and the builder want the hi fi boxes inside of a ‘closet’ ...
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I would not do that.
If sound is more important than aesthetics, I would give the best ventilation possible to the gear.

No closed cabinets.
 
Spock said:
I would not do that.
If sound is more important than aesthetics, I would give the best ventilation possible to the gear.

No closed cabinets.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input! Can build in some ventilation, passive at the very least. Fortunately Naim gear doesn't run very hot...but yes it's a consideration to consider.
 
If you must keep the equipment in an enclosed area, do a google search for temperature-controlled rooms for computer servers for ideas.
 
Ventilation is #1 consideration. (If you're going to power vent this I recomend putting the fan outside. I put mine in the soffits outside very close to the exhaust.)
#2 access to the back of your componets. Good light to the components is easy to do now.
 
As long as you have good ventilation, like a AC duct in the closet plus dedicated power to that closet. I had a audio closet up in SC for house all our HT equipment , of course it was 6x6x10 with AC duct including a return, dedicated 20amp service and cable runways to the speakers and HT speakers and TV and projector.
 
I have most of my equipment in the closet of an adjoining bedroom and it is working out better than I expected. I have my turntable, amplifier and preamp in the listening room with the DAC, power supply for preamp, phono stage, streamer in the closet. It leaves a very clean look in the listening room and keeps all of the clutter contained in the closet. I have a good audiophile friend who has all of his equipment except for his amplifiers in a custom built closet similar to what you are proposing and it works well for him. Close the door and everything is tucked away!
 
I see media build outs done in a closet all the time. Take your time on framing and bracing. You can mount shelves to the walls if you back properly. Glue and screw the studs. Maybe back with LVL beam material between studs. Be sure to leave a good chase up the back for cables and air flow. On high heat gear consider routing air flow channels in the shelving. Hot gear on top. Bring 4 or 6 circuits to the closet. Use 2 to 3 conduit. 2 circuits per 3/4" pipe.
 
I had my equipment in closets in our last two houses, and even started out that way in our current home. Key is good access to the cabling. Two houses ago, we had a wall between the living room and master bedroom, and made that wall thicker to accommodate the gear. We then had doors on the MB side for cable access.

In our last house we had the equipment closet under the stairs, with easy rear access from the storage area under the stairs. In our current house, I originally kept the gear in a closet but outgrew it (too much hardware). And cable access was a PITA. So I bought a Box Furniture Co rack and put HAL gliders under it so I can slide it out from the wall when I need to. I currently keep my server w/ LPSU, Enet switch w/ LPSU, cable TV box, DVD's and misc audio stuff in the closet.

Since we built the house, I put an AC duct and lighting in there. At the time I had a tube preamp and tube DAC, and had no overheating issues.
 
Rear or side access is key. Especially with AV and all the cables. Many times the utility demarcation ends up in there too with a patch panel for structured media.
 
I would be very careful if you decide to build shelves in the closet and put the turntable on it. It can really smear the sound. Personal experience here. Good luck.
 
unless today's world of Naim is radically different to all of the olive and chrome bumper pieces ive owned, they all ran lukewarm. that said, an AV closet is not difficult to keep well ventilated as Bobk pointed out. you may also consider an equipment alcove hidden behind louvered accordion doors allowing ambient ventilation.
 
stereogeek said:
I would be very careful if you decide to build shelves in the closet and put the turntable on it. It can really smear the sound. Personal experience here. Good luck.
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What do you think went wrong. People seem to advocate wall mounted TT brackets. I could easily see reflections and noise in a closet impacting vinyl. I have personally never seen vinyl in a closet. Its servers, dac, preamp, data utility etc.

I would personally shoot for keeping the amp/s at the speakers too. I have a single ended interconnect in my system that is 32 feet long and it does not seem to have issues. The resistance is a little higher than a standard 3 to 10 foot. I would not want long speaker cables.
 
This is going way back in time. I was 18 and bought my first real system, I think I spent about $850. It consisted of a Yamaha integrated, PE turntable ( like a Dual turntable ) and large Advent speakers. I had just moved into my 1st place after moving out of my parents house. I mounted 2 shelves utilizing the studs so they were secure. My system sounded really bad. I went nuts over about 2 days until a buddy banged a chair into the wall by accident and I heard a weird sound through the speakers. I banged on the wall with my hand and instantly verified the wall had to be resonating through the shelf and then into the turntable. I did some research and wound up using 4 small chains and 4 springs and re-hung the turntable from the ceiling. The difference was amazing and sent me down the audiophile yellow brick road. To further tweak my turntable I made a 3"x3"x2" high metal pan, filled it with oil and connected a small arm to the tonearm with a 1/2"x1/2" paddle on the end to reside in the oil, instant arm damping...lol. The year was 1973.
 
Vibration transmission is a tricky issue. I had to pack a ceiling fan in a laundry room on the second floor between 2 joists. Tight spacing due to the pull down stairs. Anyway, when that fan comes on it resonates through the whole house.. I have to turn it off when playing the stereo on the first floor. Otherwise I hear it.

I built my current house and at the time was looking for the best building materials. I Beam floor joist was and still is the rage for flat stable floors. Problem is, they are so stiff they transmit vibrations quite well. Much more so than solid wood joist. I would do them again, but under my audio area I would pack the webs with plywood glued and screwed. I would also add additional blocking.

The 2 example I gave are reasons why aftermarket racks are so important in audio. A house built.to meet IBC is not built to optimize audio. They are code minimum standards to protect life, property and meet energy standards. Hence I noted glue and screw studs as well as LVL backer as its very dense and it's multiply structure is pretty good at damping vibrations.

To your point, I remember years ago images of audio gear hanging from ceiling supported baskets. I think some people even used those rope type plant hangers to hold their stereo from the ceiling. Crazy days.
 
Kingrex.....Your comment regarding aftermarket racks is spot on. When I moved into my present listening room I bought a rack with one kind of wood and metal threaded rods. The upper midrange glare from that rack drove me nuts. My current rack has shelves that are sandwiched with different types of materials. It is much better sounding. My room is upstairs with standard wood floors and standard drywall. If I crank it up too much it resonates through the whole house, the wife will usually go outside and sit on the balcony. It has a dormer for the front window, a vaulted ceiling and has a very odd shape. It sounds great as the bass is very even. If I had my choice I would build a room very similar to yours but life has dictated a bit of a direction change. I also remember the rope plant hangers, funny stuff.
 
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