Featured AV Furniture Reviews

The Sanus SF26 speaker stands sit just below Sanus' top of the line Ultimate Series, and strike a great balance among price, aesthetics, and stability. At 26" tall (they also have 18", 22", 30", and 34" options) the SF26 can handle medium to large bookshelf speakers up to 35lbs, which means they will work for all but the largest bookshelf speakers on the market. As the name suggests, the stands are made entirely of black textured steel, with the exception of plastic feet. They do have to be assembled, but assembly is quick and painless requiring only a single phillips screwdriver. Once put together, the SF26 are extremely stable and blend into the decor. For $169, SF26 are a great option for anyone looking for a a set of affordable universal speaker stands.

Sanus often shows of new TV wall mounts at trade shows, but this year they focused on new iPad mounts, iPad mini mounts, and furniture. They revealed 4 different iPad mounts, the VTM1, VTM5, VTM6, and VTM7, and two iPad mini mounts, the VTM11 and VTM16. Each mount comes with a slim polycarbonate case (available in black or clear) that has a magnet secured on the back. The magnet is used to attach and detach the iPad from the mount, no messing with clips or other securing mechanisms. Sanus also showcased their Alabaster furniture collection with the release of the ACV53 ($999.99), ACV73 ($1399.99), and announcement of the ACA42 ($TBA). And finally they debuted the BFV353 ($299.99) and BFV357 ($329.99) A/V stands in their Basic Series.

If the idea of a soundbar is too much clutter for you or seeing any piece of home theater equipment other than a TV will ruin your décor, then the NYNE SMC-1000 might just be your dream product. The SMC-1000 is a media cabinet that has compartments to hide your equipment out of sight and a built-in 2.1 stereo system to provide "audiophile" sound. It has an impressive array of connections like HDMI, 3.5mm, and USB, as well as AirPlay and Bluetooth connectivity. NYNE's goal with their new Smart Media Center line, of which the SMC-1000 is the first product to be announced, was to design a modern piece of furniture that would allow consumers to do away with stacks of equipment and jumbles of wire. Keep a lookout at CES 2013 for more information on the entire line of Smart Media Centers.

The Omnimount DESK65 Lift Desk caught my eye at CEDIA. Now, I know it looks just like a regular desk, but when you press the lever it lifts vertically. In fact it has a full 20" of vertical lift... the entire desk. The Omnimount DESK65 can support up to 65 pounds. You can put a computer on it and stay productive. You now those times when you're sitting down and drifting off to sleep but you really need to get more done… That's when a desk that lifts for standing is an excellent idea. It can make you productive and energetic and help you keep working. It's available in Birch or Cherry and will be available later this year for $700. If you didn't know this already, I'm not just the anchor of these videos, I'm also the editor and in fact I spend way too much time at a desk - I'd rather be out exploring.

Will the Auralex SubDude-HT reduce all vibrations? No. And don't think you can place one under your sub and not have to worry about your neighbors. But it will stop the transmission of vibrations through the connection of the sub to the floor. While pricing hasn't been announced, we expect it to be in the same $60 range as the original Auralex SubDudes. Many home theater enthusiasts swear by their SubDudes. With the Auralex SubDude-HTs larger platform (17x22 inches) and lower profile (1.75 inches tall), there is little reason not to invest in one. For the potential gains, the cost is slight.

For any of you who watch our video reviews, you may have noticed a TV in the background. That's been made possible by Omnimount. Well, we decided to stop by their booth at the 2012 CEDIA Expo in Indianapolis and see what they were up to. It turns out they have a lot of great products this year - ways to mount your TV, ways to mount your iPad… but one of the more impressive products we saw was the new Lift40 Mount. It handles TVs between 30" and 55" - basically anything up to 40 pounds in weight. It's got a really low profile and fits flat against the wall. In fact, this is the very mount that Omnimount showed us last year in their upstairs demo area, but swore us to secrecy since it was still in development.

We're always on some crusade to get our friends to wall-mount their flat-panel televisions. But we often wondered about the newer 80" screens... how on earth do you mount those? The answer: carefully. But aside from that, you need a mount that can handle the weight. And then, if you want maneuverability of the display, you need something that doesn't really exist - or at least it didn't exist until this week. Premier Mounts debuted an addition to its family of articulating flat-panel mounts specifically geared towards displays over 65" in size: the AM500 Mega Mount - a mount capable of supporting displays up to 500 pounds (226.8 kg). If Superman were a display mount, he'd be this one.

The new Atdec Levitate L-PB and L-PW mount is a departure from what we're used to. It's attractive, yet functional. It's flexible, but sturdy - it's made of aluminum and stainless steel and can hold a display weighing nearly 20 pounds. That's a 27" display or more. Most mounts top out at 10 pounds, or a 24" display. On top of that, the Levitate lets you move the monitor around with ease, tilt it throughout a 110 degree range, and even rotate it to portrait view when needed. Also, instead of half-baked cable management schemes, this one actually works. You can route your display cable through the outer part of the arm, securing it with the provided clips. Once everything is in place, you cover the arm with the black or white color-accented covers and your Levitate is still free to bend and move in any direction while cleaning up your workspace.

One of the things we haven't really talked about is the OmniMount Pro CF Cart. This is The name is kinda weird, but it stands for Professional Constant Force Cart, OmniMount's new design for mounting a TV that can be moved around from room to room. The Pro CF Cart features 20" of vertical adjustment that literally takes just a touch. There are no knobs or levers - everything just... works. You can also rotate your display between portrait or landscape at-will by releasing the rear lock and twisting the mount 90 degrees. The cart is super-easy to roll thanks to oversized wheels that lock and we found it to do well over channel drops and cable covers and other small obstacles.