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Entertainment Centers
Twenty five years ago, compact disks (CDs) were only a distant dot on the horizon. People collected their music on vinyl albums or on tapes. Within five years, CDs became common; in ten years, you could no longer buy an album. VHS tapes have been pretty much replaced by DVDs. The future storage media for music and video will probably be something entirely different – even the iPod may be someday superseded.
Flat screen TVs arrived on the scene only a few years ago. They were exotic and very expensive and only for the esoteric few. The wide letterbox (16:9 ratio) screens seemed odd. The old standby square-ish screen (and 25” deep) tube TV was so inexpensive by comparison that they seemed secure. Once again, it appears that time has cleared the playing field. Better than 95% of the TV entertainment centers that we are now crafting at Hardwood Artisans are made to accommodate these new wide flat screen models.
This has required a lot of creative ideas dealing with how to house this new equipment. Our goal is to build pieces that will survive the current technology and be attractive and functional well into the future. Americans seem to have a love hate relationship with their TVs. It needs to be readily accessible, but hidden while not in use.
The piece of furniture that houses your TV, video, and stereo equipment needs to be functional; all of the pieces must fit; there must be proper allowances for wires, cables, and power cords; and all of the electronic gear needs to be easily accessible. As important as being functional, if not more so, this entertainment center should be aesthetically pleasing, comfortable to live with, and add something to your décor in its own right. In other words, whether in use or not, this piece should enhance your living (or other) room.
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