Sanus System CFA56 AV Cabinet Review

Sanus CFA56 First Impressions

Audio Video furniture is something that most people don't think about until it is too late. They've amassed enough gear that is stacked (sometimes haphazardly) around their display and they just don't know what to do. There are a lot of manufacturers out there that offer furniture that may or may not actually have holding AV gear in mind. The next thing you know, you've bought something that the wife likes but that you'll have to take a drill to in order to run cables. While enthusiast-specific gear is available, sometimes their look just doesn't pass the WAF (wife acceptance factor) test. Why doesn't someone actually build good looking furniture that is AV friendly? Why indeed.

Sanus Systems is probably one of the biggest names in home theater and AV furniture. They were one of the first manufacturers I came across when I went out looking. Their name is synonymous with quality and functionality. I was thrilled when I discovered I would be receiving a piece for review.

First Impressions

The CFA56 showed up in a very long thin box that was plastic wrapped to a double-wide wood pallet. Like most pieces of furniture (and some speakers) it was delivered by a full sized tractor trailer. While it is possible (I know because I've seen it done) to get such a truck down my street, only the gutsiest drivers will do it. I've had polite and rude drivers; I've had some that have asked nicely for me to meet them someplace and some that have demanded I do so. I've had some that have been a big help and some that have just pointed at the cargo and stood by while I struggled. This driver was unique.

He called. I told him it was possible to get his truck down the street. He told me he'd be there in 15 minutes. Eighteen minutes later I walked outside looking for him and saw him dragging a hand cart down the street. He had parked at the end of the street and just walked it 2.5 blocks to my house! I couldn't believe it! He didn't even complain - said it was good exercise. Now I know that Sanus didn't have any direct control over the action of the delivery driver, but it did set the tone for the review.

The first thing you'll notice is that the box you receive is heavy - very heavy. You're probably not going to want to move it from where they deliver it, so make sure you have it covered (I had them drop it off in the garage) if you are expecting rain. After I cracked open the big box, I found four smaller boxes inside. Two contained the shelves and top cap, one had the side walls, door and back wall, and one had all the hardware. The big box is too heavy and unwieldy to move by yourself. All the boxes inside are fairly easy to move except for the one with the side walls. That one was pretty heavy and might require a little help.

At this point, you'll want to move the interior boxes to the room where the AV cabinet will live. If you don't want to take my word for it, the weight of the boxes should convince you. This is no lightweight piece of furniture that you're going to be able to just move around willy-nilly. The pallet that the large box was connected to goes a long way towards protecting the contents, but the packaging definitely helps. There is very little wasted space in any of the boxes and styrofoam protects all the corners. Each of the pieces is also wrapped in a soft foam fabric to protect from scratches. The various shelves and sides are taped together to keep things from sliding around. Most importantly there is a piece of styrofoam right under the seam so that when you cut through it with a knife you won't scar any of the pieces. This is uncommon and a very useful feature.

The only things you'll need to provide for assembly are a hammer and a Philips head screwdriver. The rest of the hardware is packaged separately and labeled. This is a welcome feature as it eliminates the hunting and pecking you often have to do when assembling such furniture. A couple of "L" allen wrenches are included as well. When I first unpacked the sidewalls, I wiped them down because they were a bit dusty. It turns out that wasn't good enough. Each of the pre-drilled holes seemed to be full of dust. I ended up having to vacuum them out.

Sanus Assembly and Build Quality

Anyone older than 25 probably has put together their fair share of furniture. They all include the same sorts of hardware and you'll recognize them all. The difference was the fit and finish. Whereas you might have to struggle to get things to line up and match with the regular stuff, the Sanus CFA56 was much more straightforward. The directions were clear and concise with a full page for each step. Like all of these sorts of assemblies, there were a few key steps that you'll want to watch out for. The first, and most important, is to line up the front and back braces with the bottom and top of the corner posts. If you do that the cabinet will be true and square.

Like these things tend to go, when you complete the assembly, you'll be prepared to assemble three more in the time it took to assemble the first. That's pretty normal. With the CFA56, the unique features of the cabinet take a little additional explanation and planning - mostly on Sanus' part. As you might expect, the feet have threaded inserts for carpet spikes. In my opinion, these are pretty much unnecessary as the cabinet is heavy enough alone. They also included some plastic carpet slides that attach to the feet. Out of all of the accessories, these carpet slides were the least helpful. The cabinet is so heavy (without gear mind you) that is pretty much doesn't want to slide. Plus, the carpet slides tended to pop off at the slightest provocation. Sanus doesn't have casters available - something that I'd really like to seem them offer in the future. With the threaded inserts already available, it seems like it should be possible.

Three of the four interior shelves are glass that sit on your standard plastic-covered metal pegs. The pre-drilled holes are mostly very accommodating (out of the 15 or so I tried, only one was too tight to use, none were too loose). The plastic did have a tendency to slide off the metal peg so make sure after you place your shelf you check that it hasn't moved. The glass shelves can also be moved farther forward than you'd think at first glance which allows for cable runs between the shelves. It also allows for air flow. There is room on the sides as well to run wires in a pinch (I got a fairly thick set of Impact Acoustics component cables up the side).

The top and the sides seem to be hard wood (veneered at least). The CFA56 comes in espresso/black and cherry/black with the review unit in espresso. The only wood shelf is designed for vibration isolation. The way this works is there are screws on special holders that insert into the bottom of a specially designed wood shelf. The shelf has cutouts at the back and sides for cables/air. Sanus includes a combination of plastic and rubber stops for the wood connection. The stop is sticky on one side with the screw sitting on the plastic and that plastic connected to a rubber bottom. The only problem is that the screws didn't quite line up with holes at the bottom of the shelf and ended up sitting at a bit of an angle. This made them rub against the sides of the holes. I pushed on the shelf and it did seem a bit springy and didn't seem to add any noise.

    

The top of the CFA56 is connected to the corner posts through your standard dowel contact. You've seen this before where there are pre-drilled holes in the top that you insert a dowel half way into. The corner posts also have holes in them which perfectly match the dowel locations. I have a love/hate relationship with the top of the CFA56. The dowels fit perfectly and tightly into the top but slide easily in and out of the holes in the corner posts. While I like this because it means I can slide the top off whenever I want, it does make the top rattle a bit. Even after adjusting and readjusting everything, I never got the top to seat exactly right. This seems to be more of a fit and finish issue than assembly error. A heavy vase or something similar might make the loose top a moot point but I ended up adding a few small pieces of foam insulation tape on the tops of the corner posts. These are barely noticeable on the completed cabinet and completely eliminate vibrations.

    

The door installs easily with the provided hardware and was fairly easy to adjust. Just make sure that you slip the front under the screw and the adjustment nut into the bracket (this will make more sense when you get your hands on it. The biggest problem is that the door tends to make noise when it closes. I was expecting there to be some sort of magnet or foam stop to dampen the noise but there was none provided. I can easily imagine the door vibrating against the metal horizontal braces and rattling during high-subwoofer scenes. Once again, a little foam insulation tape fixed this right up though the door is a millimeter or two more open than it would be without it and it's probably something that should have been solved by Sanus up front. Also, the glass in the door is caulked rather than held in place with pegs. This eliminates any possible vibratory noise and is a welcome feature.

Hot air rises and Sanus is taking advantage of that fact. The bottom and top of the CFA56 have openings to allow air in and to circulate through the cabinet. The glass shelves have enough room around them to allow air to pass as does the lone wood shelf. Since hot air rises, it creates a sort of suction that draws cooler air through the bottom. With the openings at the bottom and top, this means that your gear should see plenty of airflow without noisy fans. What I would have liked to see instead of wood and glass shelves would have been some sort of perforated metal to allow air to flow through the gear. With all my components installed (or most anyway), the gear at the bottom remained cool even when in use while the stuff at the top tended to be hotter. While most gear is fairly heat resistant, this shouldn't be a problem but I did end up putting my Xbox 360 on the bottom shelf at first. Later, I moved it to the top when I found out it was heating up the rest of my gear. If you have any gear that tends to run hot, I'd suggest placing it near the top for quick ventilation and to keep it away from your other gear.

The bottom shelf and the lone wood shelf have a large channel to pass wires between components and out to speakers and anything else. While I would prefer some sort of masking system for the wires, the black on black on glass cabinet seems to absorb light. As long as you don't own da-glow wires or shine light directly into it, you should be fine. The bottom panel actually acts as a hatch to hide wires. I ended up pushing any extra lengths under it to keep things neat. On top of this, the CFA56 has a removable back panel that is the best I've ever experienced. It sits on two plastic nubs with a flip close latch at the top that operates quickly and easily. You can have the back panel off and out of the way in seconds. The best part is that it doesn't seem to make any noise as you push on it so even if you are bumping your sub to the Dark Knight, you won't have to worry about it making any noise. Once you remove the back panel, you have unencumbered access to all your gear. It is great.

    

The build quality overall of the CFA56 is quite good. The construction materials all seem to be top notch. I did notice on the back of the door where the vinyl woodgrain wrap didn't quite match up but other that that I noticed no blemishes. The woodgrain is decent but not the finest example I've seen. Assembly was not the easiest but this is a fairly complicated piece of furniture. The heft of the cabinet, especially when assembled, really speaks to the quality of the material. You know this thing is going to be solid when you get it all together. The espresso finish on the review unit had a reddish glow under bright lights but for the most part just looked black. If you are looking for a piece of furniture to disappear into a dark room, the CFA56 is for you. It was practically a black hole. With gear in it in a dimmed room, the lights on the gear seemed to float in air.

Sanus CFA56 Suggestions and Conclusion

My biggest complaints with the CFA56 are not with the build quality but with some of the accessories. I'd really like to see Sanus include an option for casters. While it may not be something that your casual consumer would be interested in, any serious enthusiast is going to want to get behind their gear. The fact that the wires travel out of the bottom of the cabinet means you could really back it up close to a wall. Fully loaded, however, the carpet slides just aren't good enough for moving it around. The door and the top need some sort of included dampening material or device. A magnet installed in the door might be enough to keep it from vibrating but the top will need something more. I like that the top is easily removed so I'm more in favor of a rubber stop on top of the metal corners rather than a tighter dowel. Either would be OK in the long run however. Lastly I would suggest perforated metal shelves over glass or wood. An option for a temperature-controlled built in fan on one of those shelves (or somewhere in the unit) would be nice too.

Conclusion

The Sanus System CFA56 is quite a substantial piece of furniture. You definitely will feel like you got your $850 out of it. It is heavy, has built in cooling, easy access to your gear from the removable back panel, and bottom exit of wires. It is easily put together by a single person though it is not the easiest piece of furniture you'll ever assemble. The aesthetics are very good with a fairly high quality vinyl wrap over some quality pieces of MDF. With a few user modifications that I detailed, you're going to have a piece of furniture that will not only make the wife happy, but will store your gear accessibly. And really, isn't that what we're all after?

Sanus Systems CFA56

$849.99

Sanus | Systems
Milestone AV Technologies (Americas)
2221 Highway 36 West
St. Paul, MN 55113
Toll Free: (800) 359-5520
Phone: (651) 484-7988
www.sanus.com

About Sanus Systems
Sanus Systems, a division of Milestone AV Technologies, designs and builds a broad variety of audio video mounts, furnishings and accessories that will satisfy even the most demanding audio/video enthusiast or interior designer. Every Sanus product is engineered to enhance AV systems and the surrounding decor. Today Sanus offers more than 300 products, including on-wall furniture, home theater furniture, TV stands, audio racks, wall mounts and speaker supports. Sanus products are available at thousands of retail locations nationwide; a store locator is available at www.sanus.com.

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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.

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