It's pretty amazing what you can do with eCab. Everything was designed in eCab. This is a prototype design of a A/V furniture unit with integral sound system that I would like to build some day. I really like the idea of no external speakers with wire and decor matching problems. Probably have high WAF (wife acceptance factor) rating It's designed as RTA and meant to have casters underneath to easily move unit away from wall and back for wiring/a/v component access. I had a audio engineer friend help me with speaker selection and sub port cab design. Basically you have left, center and right front channel speakers with two down firing subwoofers. Each of the subwoofers have their own individual amps. There is a double fan unit that would draw fresh air through the bottom vents and push out the back. Back panels are drilled for quick turn release connectors and have plentiful wire access. Door design needs work. Intent was to have wood case and solid color gloss lacquer fronts. The color of lacquer would be chosen to get a match with speaker cloth of the L,C,R speakers so everything blends together and the speakers don't punch out visually. Touch latch doors and touch latch tape/disc drawer under the center speaker. False fronts under L&R speakers because those are the subwoofer enclosures. Spent a considerable time laying out the design as per what's required to handle adequate a/v components and then drafting in eCab. Market probably slim for this type of furniture. Would still like to build it someday, at least just to hear how the quality of sound pans out.
Attachments
AV Lowboy with doors 72_2.jpg (65.08 KiB) Viewed 18809 times
AV Lowboy with no doors-sml.jpg (86.79 KiB) Viewed 18813 times
AV Lowboy no doors back view-sml.jpg (91.81 KiB) Viewed 18806 times
Wow, dude...a modern version of the old stereo consoles of my youth!
Personally I think there could be a market for items of that nature just because of the "high WAF." Guys want to show off the equipment but wives want to hide "that ugly mess." I'll bet you could probably place a prototype in your local audio dealer's showroom and get some orders out of it (provided its the sort of place a guy would take his wife ).
Yeah definitely a retro concept. You might be right about possible future sales but I just don't have the slack (time and money) right now to get over the threshold of actually building it. I do have a store nearby in mind and I see some of the wives in there, so I guess that passes that test! Thanks for the input
Thanks. When I sat down to design this I did think there could be a market for it, small but maybe enough to make a few bucks. Being an observer of the A/V marketplace it seemed that loudspeaker manufacturers were spending a lot of money on their enclosure designs to differentiate themselves in the marketplace and competitors. But if you take the premiss that there is a segment of the consumer who doesn't want to see the speakers at all, whether it's fancy chrome and Rosewood, then those consumers are getting low value. Why not sink the enclosure money into better quality speaker drivers. Plus I like being able to have an excuse to get back in touch with the customer with the possibility of swapping out the speakers sold to them in the Lowboy and offer them a couple of upgrade options with differing levels of driver quality. Installers go in, pop the L,C,R speaker kits out and plug in the new ones! Everyone is happy. Customer gets upgraded sound quality without dealing with decor changes. I'm happy to sell them upgrades and have a chance to ask them if they need anything else while I'm there. Of course there is the issue of servicing the speakers and amps if they malfunction...
Hay great cabinet. We make a lot of this style cabinet here in perth western australia, but usualy put speakers behind doors with speaker cloth panels. Please tell how you show actual speakers and equipment mounted into the cabinet in an ecabs image.
Thanks John.
Thanks. I'd love to see one of your cabinets that you say sells. Maybe you could post a picture of one. For those who do purchase these from you, is this a high end purchaser? What do you think are the key reasons that your customers buy this from you?
All the components (speakers, amps, speaker hook up posts and fan grilles) were sculpted from display cubes in the eCab parts editor. The speakers were the most difficult. Profile tools needed to be created in order to get the end result of the speaker design that was closest to the actual speaker drivers I wanted to use. A lot of trial and error but when I finally got the right tool and result, very satisfying I don't know how to use real CAD and am still amazed what can be accomplished with eCab.
That is some beautiful work using the eCabinets Software. Some of the best detailing I have seen.
Thanks for posting this, we need to see more work of this caliber.
Thanks for the kudos. Coming from senior master members like yourselves make your comments especially sweet!
If anyone could use any of 3D files for speakers (tweeter, midrange, woofer), amplifier unit, speaker post, fan grille or a flat screen TV wall mount bracket (not shown) let me know.
It's designed as RTA and meant to have casters underneath to easily move unit away from wall and back for wiring/a/v component access. I had a audio engineer friend help me with speaker selection and sub port cab design. Basically you have left, center and right front channel speakers with two down firing subwoofers. Each of the subwoofers have their own individual amps. There is a double fan unit that would draw fresh air through the bottom vents and push out the back. Back panels are drilled for quick turn release connectors and have plentiful wire access. Door design needs work. Intent was to have wood case and solid color gloss lacquer fronts. The color of lacquer would be chosen to get a match with speaker cloth of the L,C,R speakers so everything blends together and the speakers don't punch out visually. Touch latch doors and touch latch tape/disc drawer under the center speaker. False fronts under L&R speakers because those are the subwoofer enclosures. Spent a considerable time laying out the design as per what's required to handle adequate a/v components and then drafting in eCab. 
Market probably slim for this type of furniture. Would still like to build it someday, at least just to hear how the quality of sound pans out.
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