Anyone know where I can find a wall unit/entertainment center that will accomodate my new 36" Sony Vega and six components? I haven't found any that the TV compartment is wide enough for this TV (38"). Any suggestions would be appreciated.

You'll find furniture manufacturers are about 10 years behind the actual components. I still see units designed with top-loading VCRs and record players in mind!

There are some VERY expensive glass & metal stands, but personally I find them too harsh, cold and exposed for my decor. Sony sells a basic wooden stand for the set, and you can get a matching tall equipment rack from Sony as well.

If you're looking for a classic stained wood finish you may need to custom order.

Check out the Nov 99 issue of Handyman magazine. It has an article about making an entertainment center from high end kitchen cabinets and the one they featured looked big enough to fit your tv. It was a nice piece of furniture too!

I had a Custom cabinet built to hold a 36" Toshiba, all coponets out of childrens reach and 3 pullout storage draws, plus sliding doors for the TV. This was done by a custom kitchen builder all in oak to match some end tables, he only charged me $850.00 (Canadian). The part I really liked was that they would make each shelve drawer or center channel location to my exact specs. The pieces I looked at in the stores were the same, to small for the TV., not enough room for componets $2500.00 and not built very well to take the weight of everything inside while you move it in and out every week to upgrade or change the toys. I originally thought custom would be much more but to my suprize it was much cheaper and to my specs. I am now having 2 side pieces made to hold the equipment stack on top of the original, allways leave a little or a lot of extra space. When you think of a complete Oak kitchen for $8000.00 installed $1000.00 for 1 piece or the equivalent of a large pantery is resonable and they have no installation.
I also looked at prefab kitchen cabinets for my kitchen and stereo cabinet but found them costing more money and not my specs. The kitchen guy wanted to charge for fillers to fill the spaces between the prefab cabinets that wouldn't fit exactly.

One more thing the one in the handyman mag. is fastened to the wall so it would probably have to stay if you move (so long nice piece of furniture and how do you connect enerything if you can't move it?) It does look nice but I don't think they are real "HOME THEATER NUTS" that know you have to change things quite often.

A company called Laurier carries a unit that supports a 39.5" wide TV. Height is only 33", but you can remove the 'VCR shelf' and it looks and works great. Pricing is about $1100 CDN / 800 US

Marc

Phil,
Bell O'Getti makes beautiful pieces of furniture designed to accomodate larger television sets. The most popular piece that I have in stock is the BVS series that comes in a very nice bell cherry finish. It is made of solid wood and has tempered glass shelves. It also has a cable management system to keep those cables from view. If you are interested email me and i can send a fax of the units to you.

John

Hey Gang,
Thanks for all the replies!
Marc, I would like to know if there's any websites or retail stores where I could see what the Laurier unit looks like. If you know I'd appreciate the info.
I have looked at the Bell'oggeti products but am looking for more of a wall unit piece of furniture. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Thank you all again, Phil.

Phil,
If you are interested in more of a wall unit type piece, i have a specially designed wall unit system that was crafted for our company. The unit company is called JSP, a extremely fine furniture company based up in Canada. The units all come with solid wood fronts, superior quality hinges, adjustable shelves, sliding shelves and adjustable holders (dvds, vcr tapes, cds). The bridge is made of solid wood, the doors and fronts of the base is also solid. The sides have 2mm thick wood veneers on top of pressed particle. The JSP units come in either mahogany or cashmere finish. They have optional glass frames and lights instead of acoustic speaker grill covers. If this sounds like a piece that you would like to see.. email me and i'll send you some brochures.

John

hey I had the same problem as you...I found a entertainment center that would accomodate a 40 inch tv...I looks really cool..lots of glass and oak...it only cost $999..I found it at Wicks funiture in Minneapolis Minnesota

Phil,
Sorry, not aware of a site. Try calling them direct or two of their distributors are
East Hamilton Radio in Hamilton, Ontario
or
2001 Furnishings in Mississauga, Ontario

Marc