Studio Diary #5: The Rack Has Arrived

I’m currently getting my home studio more organised, and along the way I’m sharing my thought process, decisions, discoveries and regrets.

My studio rack is here.

Built Like A Tank

It’s a good job that the Trojan 16U Wheeled Rack is a very solid thing, because whoever posted it out didn’t bother to pack it securely, and it arrived in a box that had been badly crushed.

The Trojan was snugly packed in its own box. That had then been placed into a second – much larger – box on its own. The second box didn’t contain any packing material at all – just the Trojan’s box.

As a result, this thing arrived in a very beaten-up state. The outer box was badly crushed, and the Trojan inside was twisted out of shape.

Fortunately, it only took a bit of work with a lump hammer to knock it back into shape so that it would go together.

Bracketed Central Support

Halfway back inside the rack, there’s a vertical rail that runs from top to bottom. It’s a channel that you can run a set of supplied brackets into. You position the brackets where you need them, tighten them up with a nut and bolt arrangement, and they provide additional weight-bearing support for whatever you want to put into the rack.

The brackets take a lot of force to move, even before bolting them into place, and I had to use the lump hammer to physically knock them to where I needed them. I don’t think it’s meant to be like that. It looks like the central channel got damaged in transit, and I’m not sure how to bend it back into position.

On the plus side, that gives me even more confidence that they’ll help hold my power amp in position. On the down side, I’m not going to be swinging a lump hammer inside the rack once it has gear in it. If I decide to make wholesale changes to this rack in the future, that’s going to make things a bit awkward.

Side Vents? No, Cable Management!

Cable management is something that I didn’t think about at all when picking a rack. It never occurred to me that it would make life a lot easier if the rack came with something for me to fasten cables to.

There’s no official cable management that I can spot. I’m going to have to improvise.

The (non-detachable) sides of the rack have slotted vents, which I presume are meant for passive cooling? I can’t help but look at them, and see somewhere I can secure cable ties to.

Well Worth The Money

Overall, I’m very happy with this studio rack. It survived being badly packed, that central vertical rail is going to give me peace of mind, and I can use the slotted vents to tidy my cables away.

It’s well worth the money, in my opinion.