Salamander Designs Archetype Audio/Video Shelf, 5.0 (Cherry)

Once I got the hang of how to turn the nuts down the threaded rods (I would say about 30-40 minutes), and balance the shelves so they were level (the packaging comes with a level - the smallest one I’ve ever seen, maybe about an inch, but it does the job), it was actually fun to assemble it. I liked the challenge once I knew how to do it. The rack is solid and it looks great. I mean, really great. Minimalist and functional, can’t beat it. Aesthetically it frames the equipment like a picture frame, so in that sense the rack disappears and you get the pleasure of enjoying the look of your gear, and then you can switch your attention to the rack itself, because it is exceptionally stunning. Standard bookshelf racks just look like heavy and big blocks of wood that take up space. The Archetype is open and airy to let heat escape, yet it is obvious from the material and hardware - metal rods, nuts, and hardwood shelves - that the wind is not going to blow it away! It’s the only piece of furniture that I have ever assembled that is rock solid. And there is no doubt that the Archetype is indeed, as I think they must mean by the name, architectural. The structure itself, with the nuts, threaded rods, and the shelves, accentuate the strength of the rack, and no doubt about it, it is strong, and it is heavy. And with the equipment on it, it is virtually impossible to lift if your equipment is heavy, and the rubber feet on the bottom make it difficult to slide. But these are plusses, they speak to the stability of it. I haven’t done it, but I suspect that if you are in need of sliding it (maybe to plug in cables to the back of the equipment), then I suggest you try tilting it slightly so someone can slide a rag or something like that under the feet so that it will slide easier and not scratch the floor. This should work with wood floors, not sure about carpet. I guess you could try those felt round pads that have adhesive on one side to stick under sofa, bookshelves, etc., to protect the floor. That would work on floor, but I doubt on carpet.Anyway, this thing works great, makes your equipment look great, and it looks great on its own. You can’t possibly go wrong.

This Salamander is my third. It is intended to be minimalistic yet functional, and it fulfills both. It's not overly expensive and can hold my components as well as the center channel speaker. Plus, changing shelf heights when I want to add to or reorder the components is easy. It is a pain, however, to screw the nuts down the long shafts. Fortunately, the shafts and nuts come oiled, so they spin pretty easily most of the time.

The stand arrived in a timely manner and was well packaged. The quality of the stand is very high - both the wooden shelves and the metal parts are all well built. It seems easy to assemble from looking at it, but it does take a long time. Each shelf has 8 nuts and 8 rubber washers that need to be threaded onto the support rods. This takes a long time - about two hours to assemble. Also, be careful with the support rods - if you bang them together the threads will be damaged and getting the nuts on will be a bear. All-in-all, the time to assemble and the cost is well worth it - I have a solid, beautiful, and modern (but not trendy) audio stand. It will house many audio systems over the years.

After way too many years, I finally got tired of my stereo system looking like it belonged in a college dorm room. Unfortunately, our family room isn’t very big which limited my choices for furniture to house my A/V receiver, my CD carousel and my big ol’ KEF subwoofer. I even went so far as to order a $3,500 cabinet but the manufacturer later told me that getting the product delivered was unlikely. Searching Amazon one more time, I found the Salamander Archetype (I even liked the name), took measurements again and hoped everything would fit. The order arrived a day early. My wife and I had no trouble assembling the unit (we had hoped the subwoofer would fit on a shelf but it didn’t). I think because we weren’t able to fit the bottom shelf in, it makes the whole shelf system a little wobbly but we had no choice.What irritated me is that I paid over $700 for less than $200 of materials that I easily could have put together myself. I hate it when I do that. Not the manufacturer’s or Amazon’s fault - they can charge whatever they want. I would just hope that I’m a little more careful.

I got this stand in Cherry color from Amazon for $225 and I think it is a very good deal. Waited for the following weekend, as I knew it would take some time to assemble it. It did take about 1 hour to get it assembled and leveled. But once assembled and setup correctly you are rewarded with a increase in resolution and imaging. I wanted a decent component stand and did not expect the sound to change - for good. The images were placed more precisely and the holography of my system did increase a bit. The music seems more focused now compared to the make shift TV stand my components were placed on. This could be because of the Mega Spikes I installed on this stand, which gives it more stability and looks better. For the price I paid, I certainly will recommend fellow audio enthusiasts. I got a deal on the Megaspikes - $25. This is the lowest I have seen on them anywhere!! Highly recommended :-)

I bought the "Cherry wood finish" version from Amazon. Received it in two working days with normal shipping. Opened the box - very well packed, and to my surprise, what I found was butcher block colored wood instead of the cherry. The box was marked Cherry so there may have been a mix-up in the factory.Two of the wood shelves had slight blemishes on them, knot holes that were rough to the touch. Not too big a deal as I just turned them over so when the rack was set up, the blems would faced down.

I needed a solid A/V shelving unit that could support my heavy equipment and give the clearance needed (heat dissipation) for my setup. Given this, there are limited options (especially affordable ones) out there and I decided to purchase the Salamander. Below are just some thoughts:Pros:- very modular with lots of configuration options.- able to support the weight of my equipment (amp is 27 kg)- aesthetically looks beautiful when fully assembled...needed some finesse with cable management thoughCons:- the cherry finish is not quite cherry...not even close to the cherry finish of my speakers- some of the shelves look like the "cherry stain" was barely applied (see image)...how did that pass QA???- 2 of the steel rods have signs of corrosion on them (out of the box). One is significant and difficult to hide- lack of cable management.In the end, all the "cons" are aesthetics (excluding cable management which is a design consideration) and can be remedied during the construction of the shelves and rods. For the price that is being charged, a little more attention can be used. However, if you are looking for a unit with allows for flexible shelving configuration and need to support heavy A/V equipment, the Salamander will work