Bdi Novia Audio Video Furniture Overview - Crutchfield video

Amanda: Hi. I'm Amanda. Malcolm: And I'm Malcolm. Amanda: And we're here in the Crutchfield studio today with BDI's Novia™ line of audio/video furniture. Malcolm: That's right. We have the 8428, which we have here in cocoa and cherry. There's also the 8421, which is a corner placement version, which is not here today, but shares most of the same features. Amanda: So this furniture is very durable, very sturdy. It's not going to kind of bow in the middle over time like some of the cheaper-quality furniture might do. And also one thing we noticed is taking it out of the box is that it smells like wood and it smells like polish, and the kind of smells that you associate with high quality furniture at the furniture store. Malcolm: That's right, but unlike that furniture, BDI furniture is designed specifically for A/V gear. Amanda: Yep. Malcolm: You've got a lot more going on to complement your components. One example is this tempered glass top. Amanda: Yeah, and that's really great because you're going to have your TV and your speakers sitting up there, but the tempered glass will really stand up to years of use. Malcolm: Definitely. We've also got a smoked glass finish on the doors down here which hides your components when they're not in use but also allows full control with all of your normal remotes when you do want to use everything, which is really nice. Amanda: Yeah, very convenient. And also on this compartment here you can see they've kind of used a mesh cloth covering here on the front like you might see on, say, a speaker grille. And that's because BDI knows that lots of people are going to want to hide their center channel speaker just right in here. Malcolm: That's right. And if you don't want to put your center channel speaker down here, you could use this for media storage, or you can also lift out these backstops which would give you full space for full sized components as well. Amanda: Yep. It's very flexible. And I have to say too one of the first things that jumped out at me when we first opened this up was just the quality of the hardware. These hinges are sturdy and just very durable. Malcolm: Definitely. And check this out. I like this a lot as well. Amanda: Yeah, that's really cool. And it's great because first of all it means the door's not going to clunk down and stress the hinges and it's also not going to clunk down and potentially scratch the doors on the bottom. Malcolm: That's right. And also down here on the lower doors you notice that we have the same sort of thing going on with the really, really good sturdy hinges just like up above. Amanda: It's very high quality. And what you also see here is this little stopper down here at the bottom, and again that just allows the doors to close softly and smoothly, no banging shut. And this over here is pretty cool too. Malcolm: Right inside in the middle we have a vertical slot which is going to be able to hold your game console. It's very unique. Amanda: Yeah, and also in these two cabinets now you can see that there is an adjustable shelf in each of them, and these shelves are, are serious. They are very sturdy. They can hold up to fifty pounds each, which is huge. And one of the reasons they're so sturdy is because they're resting on these metal pins, and the metal pins are in metal brackets that are actually embedded in the wood here. And the metal pins, as you can see too, also have these little rubber rings on them, and that just prevents the shelves from sliding out if you don't want them to. Like if you're going to swap out components, you're pulling something out, that shelf isn't going to come sliding into your lap. Malcolm: Yep. Amanda: Which is thoughtful. Malcolm: Yeah, definitely, and you may have also noticed the ventilation that this furniture has. It's something that you don't find with normal, regular furniture. It's definitely more A/V oriented. Amanda: And it's really crucial because the gear that's going to live in here will generate a lot of heat. It's really nice that BDI put that kind of attention into this cabinet. Malcolm: Definitely. Now let's take a look at the back. There's lots of thought put into the back panel as well. You have ventilation up here. You also have these panels that are very easy to remove. Amanda: Yep. They just pop right out, and there's also space built in here in the back so you can run your cables between components. For example, if your DVD player and your cable box are right here but your receiver is over there, you can just connect them up and not have cables junking up the outside of the cabinet. Malcolm: You also have this hole in the base here. There's another one here and one over here that will let you run your power cable and your speaker wires right out the bottom and out the back, so you can route them to the appropriate locations they need to head to. Amanda: Yep, it's very convenient. They also have hidden wheels underneath the legs so you can roll it out to get to the back panel and then roll it back in, even over carpet. Malcolm: That's right. They even have levelers on the bottom, much like a fridge, so if you have an uneven floor you can really get everything balanced out. It's very nice. Amanda: Yep. And one last thing I wanted to mention, these cabinets require very little assembly when you get them home. To get this one ready for this video, all we had to do was put on the glass top, attach the knobs, slide in the shelves, and pop on the back panel, and all in all, it took us about ten minutes, maybe. Malcolm: Yeah. It actually took longer to unpack it. So, it ships, it's very carefully packed and you know, it ships out safely. It'll arrive to you in one piece, so everybody's happy. Amanda: Yeah, no dings or scratches. Very good. So if you'd like to learn more or find out if the Novia furniture will fit your space and the gear that you have, just go to crutchfield.com/BDINovia. Malcolm: Or as always, give us a call at 1-800-555-9408.