Component Shelves

There are several elements which go into the design and construction of a modern and elegant home theater or audio/video system. Naturally, the quality of the listening and viewing experience will be determined by the components and how they’re arranged and installed. But almost as important to the full home theater experience is the overall feel and appearance of the room. The installation should have a clean consistent, comfortable look which fits with the décor, the furnishings and the accessories.

What are often overlooked – but shouldn’t be – are the shelves on which the audio and video components will sit. They’re a small expense, when compared to the price of the equipment which will sit atop them. But shelving can make or break the beautiful, modern appearance that you strive for when spending many hundreds or thousands of dollars on a home theater.

Cmple is proud to offer a number of high-quality component shelves which will match perfectly with the look of any A/V installation, while fitting the space that’s available and securely supporting the equipment that’s placed on top of them. There are standard shelves, brackets, mounts with adjustable arms and even a folding mount perfect for tight fits.

Choosing the proper shelving requires some pre-planning if you want to maintain an uncluttered appearance in your theater. Here’s how to go about it, and how our selection of high-quality Cmple component shelves can solve your storage issues while improving the overall look of your room.

Dimensions and Weight Both Matter

All of our Cmple component shelves – and all component shelves, for that matter – have a maximum amount of weight they can hold. So while it’s easy to measure the length, height and depth of your equipment to see whether it will fit on the shelving you have in mind, you also have to consider each component’s weight.

We’ll look at an example in a moment, but one clarification is important. A shelf’s maximum weight rating is dependent on the mount, not each individual shelf. In other words, our Cmple one-shelf, two-shelf and three-shelf mounts are each rated at 17.6 pounds; no matter how many shelves they have or how the equipment is positioned on them, each unit can only handle that amount of total weight. The limitations aren’t related to how strong each shelf is, it’s simply a matter of how much weight the mount that attaches to the wall can hold.

OK, here’s that example. Let’s say you want to mount shelves next to your wall-hung HDTV, to accommodate a cable box, a Blu-ray player and a Roku streaming player. Their combined weight is 12 pounds, well under 17.6 pounds, so any of our Cmple shelf units will be able to do the job. But the cable box is 14 inches wide, the Blu-ray is 13 inches wide, and the Roku is 3 inches wide. Our single shelf (which is about 18 inches wide) can’t fit all three components, nor can a two-shelf unit (because each shelf is about 15 inches long). You’ll need our three-shelf unit to fit everything – unless you replace the Roku box with a dongle behind your TV, in which case the two 15-inch shelves will be perfect for the cable box and Blu-ray.

You’ll notice we didn’t mention the height of the components; that’s because Cmple multi-shelf units are height-adjustable, so you can move the shelves up or down on the mount to fit the height of nearly any component.

Choosing the Style of Mount

So far, we’ve been discussing our standard Cmple wall-mount shelves; whether you choose the one-, two- or three-shelf model, all of the shelves are made from black tempered glass. The multi-shelf units have a strong aluminum mount which also serves as a convenient cable management system, while the single shelves (there’s a smaller 12 x 10 shelf as well as the larger 18 x 13 one) mount right to the wall.

For a different look, we also offer universal, adjustable support wall mounts. These are based around an aluminum and steel pillar which mounts on your wall, with two arms that swing out to embrace components like set-top boxes and hold them firmly. They can hold up to 11 pounds and fit components up to 13 inches wide and 9 inches deep. A second Cmple model has two sets of arms to hold two components (and again, you can adjust their height to accommodate the height of your equipment). Additionally, we stock a slimmer and sleeker folding wall mount which is perfect for smaller components like Blu-ray players that weigh 6.6 pounds or less; it can be mounted either vertically or horizontally to fit the needs and look of your installation.

Finally, you can choose sets of telescopic component brackets which have a whopping weight capacity of 77 pounds, can be placed at any distance from each other to match the exact length of your equipment, can slide out to accommodate components as deep as 16.5 inches, and will be virtually invisible behind your equipment. These brackets will make it appear as if your equipment is suspended from the wall, with no metal or glass interrupting the clean look of your installation.

Everything we sell at Cmple is manufactured to our very exacting quality standards. The glass, steel and aluminum that we use are all top-quality, and are also RoHS compliant so that they’re safe to have around your children and pets. That means they’ve been tested to ensure they contain no lead, mercury, cadmium, PBBs or PBDEs whatsoever.

We’re also very careful to be sure that our specified weight limits are accurate. The most important safety precaution you can take is to pay close attention to the maximum weight for component shelves – equipment crashing to the ground is never a good thing. That’s why we’re very specific about the weight limits for each of our Cmple component shelving systems. Follow the guidelines and you won’t have to worry about damage to your equipment, or even worse, injury to your loved ones.