BDI Vector 9522 Home Theater AV Furniture Review

BDI Vector AV Rack Full Review

I reached a point in my home theater hobby that afforded me the luxury of assembling a secondary two channel audio system. While building this system, I came to the realization of just how nice it would be to enjoy both music and movies in the comforts of my own bedroom. I later decided it may be advantageous to integrate home theater with it for those lazy late night movie watching extravaganzas. As my equipment stacked up for this would-be two-channel audio system gone home theater, I came to a quick realization that I was running out of shelf space faster then the assembly of my equipment. With that, I went out on a quest to find the best A/V furniture within a reasonable price class that met my following requirements.

• Excellent build quality (i.e. having the capability to hold receivers and amplifiers up to 50lbs).
• At least six 17" wide shelves.
• Nice wood finish, preferably in a black to match my bedroom speakers .
• Adequate ventilation.
• Space to route cabling.
• Limited width ( < 32" wide) to fit the tight spacing requirements of my room.

The typical pitfalls I ran into with other companies involved furniture that was either too wide, lacking in shelf space, or positioned too low to accommodate a display at eye level from the seated position. Other difficulties included finding the qualities I was searching for: strong high capacity top and bottom shelves. Given the good experience Clint had with the BDI Axis, I figured I would give them a shot for my particular application.

Set-Up and Assembly

When the big flat box arrived at my home, I was a bit concerned that this furniture wouldn't fit in my desired location.

My concerns were soon alleviated when I realized that the exceptionally good packing and arrangement were mostly responsible for the larger than expected size.

Despite the numerous parts that comprised the Vector 9522, assembly was a breeze with a single supplied Allen wrench tool. The hardest part was aligning and screwing in the front wood panels towards the end of the installation. In fact this was the biggest gripe I had with the unit since it committed you to fixed shelving locations.

I recommend you know exactly how you would like your shelves spaced out before completing the final step. Otherwise you may find yourself as I did removing the front panels to make last minute adjustments.

The back view of the Vector 9522 was quite an impressive sight. It had unusually wide opening provisions to accommodate all of your favorite exotic cabling. While this illustrated pic demonstrates one can route their cables in a very neat and orderly fashion, I did not have this success level in my install mostly due to laziness and continuous gear changes under review.

The glass shelves (about 1/4" thick) are tempered and tapered at the back for a sleek, unobtrusive sense of style. It was a bit tricky finagling them into the unit. I emphasize exercising great care here, and recommend working from top to bottom.

What really impressed me about this A/V furniture piece was its no nonsense design. The metal support bar on the top shelf put my mind at ease for when I eventually acquire an LCD Display. The sturdiness of the shelving evoked confidence that I could comfortably place reasonably heavy audio/video gear on them with no fear of breaking or bowing. Aside from my gripe about the difficulty of rearranging shelf space upon assembly completion, I was a bit disappointed this unit did not come supplied with wheels. However do note that there are holes provided for such an addition that involves nothing more than a quick trip to your local hardware supply store. Remember that without wheels, once loaded with gear, you may be hard pressed in moving it, especially on carpeted floors. This probably wont affect most users who don't swap out their equipment on a regular basis like I tend to do.

As you can see here each shelf is a generous sized vertical opening to route cabling through.

The BDI Vector 9522 had no trouble holding a Yamaha RX-V2400 A/V Receiver, Denon DVD-2900 Universal DVD Player, Sony SCD-CD775 SACD Changer, and some very impressive Rotel gear.

Conclusion

The BDI Vector 9522 makes for an excellent center piece to contain all of your A/V equipment while accommodating up to a 30" flat panel display without a problem. Whether you are setting up an entry level home theater system tight on space and budget, or an auxiliary bedroom system, the Vector 9522 fits the bill quite nicely.

BDI Vector Home Theater Furniture Review

Becker Designed, Inc.
14101 A Parke Long Court
Chantilly, Virginia 20151
800-428-2881
703-803-6900
Fax 703-803-6903

About BDI
BDI's goal has always been to create innovative well-designed home furnishings with distinctive style that is within the budgetary reach of most A/V enthusiasts. Their team of designers share a passion for creating timeless designs that are well made and of course functional. Even their packaging is thoughtfully designed to ensure that things get to you in the absolute best condition. All this is done with one thing in mind. Designs that work, push the envelope, and challenge. And most importantly designs customers will enjoy for many years to come.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Build Quality
Ergonomics & Usability
Ease of Setup/Programming/Integration
Features
Performance
Value