BDI Axis Home Theater Furniture Review

Company & First Impressions

I spent a good deal of time looking for decent furniture to meet my home theater needs. For those of you familiar with my prior articles, you'll know I'm fond of lists. Well, here's a list of some of the things I was looking for in a home theater furniture system:

• Excellent build quality (i.e. having the capability to hold my 115 lb Sherbourn 7/2100 amplifier without any difficulties.)
• Nice wood finish, preferably in a cherry to match my speakers
• Adequate ventilation (sorry, Ethan Allen doesn't cut it in this department)
• Some kind of cable routing system
• Variable shelf height
• Options! I want to be able to order different sizes (heights and widths) down the road should I decide to make a change to my system configuration. In our world, this sometimes happens faster than normal.

The typical dead ends I ran into with other companies involved furniture that was too narrowly defined, allowing for only a particular configuration. Other difficulties involved finding the quality I was looking for: strong shelves, real wood facing, high capacity top and bottom shelves. Finally, after searching the net up and down and coming to the verge of constructing my own solution, I located a company that was right under my nose: BDI .

The Company

BDI's goal has always been to create innovative home furnishings that offer something more. Well designed pieces with a distinctive style that are within reach. Their team of designers shares 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. Design. Designs that work, push the envelope, and challenge. And most importantly designs customers will enjoy for many years to come.

What Makes BDI Different?

In a word: LOTS. For one, I finally had the choices I had been so desperately lacking. The AXIS line in particular is composed of six (6) pieces, each of varying width and height to accommodate just about any need, from 27" televisions to some of the largest tabletop HDTVs. I especially appreciated the two tower choices: the 8022 which is 48.5" tall and the 8026 which comes in at just over 57". The Axis line, which I fell in love with, comes in three colors: Cherry Stained, Cognac & Black. The Cognac matches my Axiom Audio Epic 80 speakers very well and creates a seamless look for the living area.

First Impressions

At first I was surprised to find that I had to assemble the BDI furniture, not because I am an elitist snob or thought the furniture should have come assembled, but because it looks too good to have to be assembled. I wasn't aware furniture like this could look so good and yet break down into flat boxes for shipment from the factory. In fact, this is exactly the case. Each piece of BDI furniture is composed of two pieces of wood (the curved front face and back plate), and two C-shaped steel (yes, steel) support structures. The glass shelves are tempered and each are about 1/4" thick.

Build Quality, Assembly and Conclusion

There's nothing like real wood to make your home theater system look like as good as it sounds. The curved front face of the BDI Axis furniture holds the Cognac stain beautifully and my samples came without any noticeable flaws whatsoever. One of the units is pictured here at the right, and I hate to say it, but it actually makes my Axiom speaker's finish look pale in comparison.

The solid curved front is not only a nice design element, but it also provides excellent stability for the unit as a whole and allows several units to achieve a nice unified appearance when placed side by side as I did in my home theater room. Because of the required positioning of my Axiom M80ti speakers, the curved front of the Axis 8022 also works well by providing a smooth, curved edge against which the speaker is firing, allowing for greater dispersion of sound versus something more square or angular in design.

The Shelf System

Having four (4) adjustable shelves is a real blessing as you will be able to customize your rack to meet the varying needs of your system. As an added bonus, the shelf screws can be repositioned at will, allowing you to reconfigure whenever you add or remove essential gear (again, we probably do this more than most, but it's a nice feature.) As each of the four (4) adjustable shelves are capable of supporting 75 pounds each, you'll note that the load bearing screws only need to support about 19 lbs each. I personally think the shelves can hold quite a bit more, but fortunately didn't have to test that theory - yet. Both the bottom shelf and the top shelf can hold up to 150 lbs, due to the fact that they rest not on cushioned screws, but the actual steel frame itself. You won't find many audio components weighing more than 150 pounds, so unless you're putting in a Henry Radio amplifier or a Moon Titan, this weight limit should satisfy all but the most demanding people.

The Assembly

Assembly is a snap. Each unit comes in two main boxes. The first contains the wood front and back plus the steel frame pieces, the other contains the glass. Both boxes are exceptionally well-packaged and come double boxed to prevent even the clumsiest carriers from damaging the furniture.

Only an allen wrench (supplied) is needed to assemble the furniture. The process is simple: connect the four attachment plates to the steel frame, and bolt it to the wood front and back. You'll want to make sure you attach the front loosely, so that you have some flexibility when aligning the steel supports to the back wood piece. Once all the screws are started, tighten away! I found that it took about 20 minutes to assemble each piece. When I completed the assembly for each piece, I found that BDI had included an extra screw of each type. This kind of thoughtful thinking can save you an incredible amount of headache when assembling furniture. Anyone who has done a cheap particle board desk or shelf can probably relate to the all-too-common missing screw or anchor dilemma.

I assembled each piece fully before moving on to the next piece. After attaching the frame to the wood front and back, you'll want to place the furniture upright and install the glass. I'd recommend cleaning the glass first with Windex - you won't get another chance to do so this easily. Make sure the bottom glass shelf is inserted correctly, it should rest directly on the steel frame and may be a bit tighter to put into place than the other shelves. There are two padded guides at the rear of the unit, make sure the glass is resting in front of not on top of these guides. The top glass shelf rests directly on the top of the furniture and should extend approximately 1/2" over the front of the unit. The back of the glass will be flush with the back of the steel frame. The final shelves deliver about 19" of useable space for your components. This is adequate and the open design of the furniture allows you to position gear slightly forward so as to not crowd the rear of your devices. This is how I chose to position my setup, rather than cramming my processor and amplifier to the very back of the shelf and possibly damaging or disconnecting cables in the process.

It's Got Wheels!

Probably one of the handiest things to appear on the BDI Axis line of furniture are the rear wheels which allow the units to be rolled in and out of their positions for those times when you need to get behind them and change out some gear or cables. As a person who is frequently engaged in such activities, this feature is worth its weight in gold.

The wheels themselves are made of a durable nylon-like material and have so far been successful at moving over 175 pounds of gear over berber carpet. The trick is pushing up on the front of the unit to tilt it back, then grabbing underneath the unit and pulling it forward the distance you require to access the rear of the shelves. If you have a lighter load you will most likely be able to pull the unit forward from a standing position.

Cable Routing

Once I had everything together I took a look at the provided cable routing accessories. The BDI Axis series provides tie wraps that can be screwed to the rear frame of each unit. This would probably be enough for most users as equipment is not switched out all too often (extra tie wraps are provided for future changes/upgrades). For someone who does a lot of equipment swapping, I opted to enhance the BDI system. Taking simple split loom (Home Depot, Radio Shack, online) I drilled two holes at the back of the plastic housing and anchored the loom using the supplied BDI tie wraps. What I ended up with were two split loom runs down each of the vertical steel frame pieces. I ran my power down the right, and all of my audio cables down the left. This results in a super clean look, while also allowing you the flexibility to remove and re-insert cables as needed. Smaller tie wraps will also come in handy as you bundle up any extra cable lengths that could get in the way. The picture above shows a close-up of this design - what you don't see are the more than 10 cables located inside the two pieces of split loom!

Lasting Impressions

I was pleased with the assembly, flexibility, look and functionality of the Axis furniture. I always try to pick out one thing that a vendor or manufacturer can improve upon, but there's not much to criticize here, other than to complain that I had never heard of BDI before! This is quite simply the finest home theater furniture I have ever utilized. As BDI has 5 additional lines of furniture designs besides the Axis, including their just released Icon Collection, I am confident nearly anyone is going to be able to find something that will work for their tastes and home theater needs. Considering that street prices on the BDI furniture may range from $100 - $150 off list price depending upon where you shop, you are looking at a bargain for quality furniture that is as elegant as it is functional.

Other Styles in the BDI Line of Home Theater Furniture

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
Features
Performance
Value