My last three gadget reviews have been for things you can add to your home theater. This week, I’m going to talk about what you put all those components into.

A couple months ago, I started shopping for a simple A/V cabinet with glass doors on it, mostly so my young daughter wouldn’t play with all the shiny buttons. After several days of research I was surprised to find few options. There are small cheap ($200 or so) cabinets at discount places, fairly expensive ($900+) cabinets at places like Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn (that look nice but don’t perform well), and then pro-level home theater cabinets in the $1000-3000 range (that are very functional but usually ugly). I didn’t want to spend a thousand dollars on something that looked nice but didn’t suit my needs but I didn’t want an ugly audiophile rack in my living room. Eventually I found a happy medium in BDI’s Avion line of cabinets. Retail prices range from about $1200-2200 each, depending on the model.

My TV is wall-mounted above the fireplace with all my components down below off to one side of the fireplace. For my needs the Avion 8528 worked perfectly and I took delivery on it a couple weeks ago. The unit is very solid, mine weighed about 230 pounds and it was obvious this wasn’t some veneered MDF you’d get at a home lifestyle store, it was solid wood from top to bottom.

A lot of forethought went into the design: it looks like a piece of nice furniture but it functions like a pro A/V rack. The adjustable shelves have ample room on all sides of my components and the shelves have huge vents for airflow (including the bottom of the cabinet). The back panels are also vented, slide easily side to side, and you can remove them in a snap to make adjustments. Cable organization is built-in as well. Each side of the cabinet features large holes at the bottom for running cable out of the unit (like power) and you can keep all wiring between components hidden inside the back panels. As a nice touch, they throw in half a dozen velcro wire wraps (I added a dozen zip-ties of my own to completely organize my cables). The unit’s top drawer can double as a center channel speaker location and even contains pre-drilled holes and guides to run the cables while keeping the drawer functional.

Overall, I couldn’t be happier with the unit and my purchase. My components are finally organized, well-ventilated, and protected behind doors my toddler can’t open. The unit is clean and modern, matching my other dark-stained furniture pieces, and gives me enough storage for remotes, movies, and video games. If you’re looking for something to store your receiver, dvd player, tivo, and a couple video game systems, check out BDI’s offerings. They successfully walk the fine line between working great and looking good.