Big Chassis Amps / Rack Installation?

[TWInsall]

We used Middle Atlantic 90% of our custom rack installations. Everything they made fit perfectly. I even used their support shelves and custom cut outs with Soundilier racks when people were on tight budgets and didn't need or want any frills. Back in the old days when Altec was green we ordered our racks in the same green. When Mac was using Panloc I would use custom made 1/4 inch rack plates with cutouts for Macs. Then with the heavier amps we would mount a piece of angle steel to support the rear of the panloc pieces.

[vegaracer1]

My rack..20181122_015157.jpeg

[aclearspot]

I have my 452 sitting on a maple block on the bottom of my MA rack. No way would I attempt to put a heavy amp on a rackshelf. I had a 6600 integrated on a rackshelf, that had additional bracing, but thats only 90lbs.

[GaryProtein]

I have some of my components in an AtlasSound FMA rack and the rack is on wheels. The rack would be impossible to move and cabling would be impossible otherwise. The older Mac components are mounted with panlocs in custom cut-out faceplates. The newer Macs are on shelves and the MC2300 power amp on the bottom for the living room system is actually sitting on one inch of plywood at the bottom of the rack. The rack has a front door which I took off for the photo and the rear door I keep off for air circulation. The PassLabs crossovers and pair of MC602 power amps are near the speakers in the open. The MC602's actually won't fit in my rack (even if I could lift them) because they are deeper than my rack even without the cables attached. The MC602 amps with cables attached require a good 30 inch depth.

the rack ; https://www.audioaficionado.org/atta...3&d=1340065567
crossovers and power amps in the open: https://www.audioaficionado.org/atta...2&d=1340065551

[RaceCarDriver]

Yea I keep going back and forth what I am going to do. Right now I am leaning towards a custom order Salamander Chameleon Oslo from their commercial line as I can get that in a 30" deep build with heavy duty caster wheels.

The Big Macs are about 22" deep, figure having them sit a few inches back behind the hinges of the doors 30" should be more than enough. I am confident it could support the weight of 700 pounds of Mac gear 200 pounds of misc stuff with the right casters and shelves.

I am using one of these 21" deep models without the doors on it right now. I am pushing around 600 pounds on this 3 bay wide Salamander with the regular casters. 4 bay, 3 high, deeper with HD casters may be the ticket.



I looked into the deeper Middle Atlantic racks and with their 7U & 8U shelves with custom faceplates. If you get the right rack its perfectly capable of supporting several thousand pounds, I just haven't seen any actual pics of the 150 pound Mac amps on some rack shelves.

Part of me wants to be able to look at enjoy my gear, another part wouldn't mind keeping it clean, out of the way and help not collecting dust

I'll figure something out there soon. I like having easy access to everything because I always seem to be upgrading, changing out gear for new stuff etc. Maybe I will have to build something..

Thanks for all the comments!

[shindo]

I used a shelf that is secured on the front and rear of the rack. It holds my Ma 9000 easily . Its called Navepoint from Amazon, it good for 110lbs.IMG_1710.jpg

[Mack]

No issue with big amplifiers


20181121_230433-1.jpg

[TWInsall]

No I haven't , but Middle Atlantic make a great product that I used all the time with 2300's 2500's and 2600's, even 3500's. They were all designed to be rack mounted but I still preferred to have the extra rear support for the large amps. So I used MA shelves with an addition steel bracket across the back to make every thing stable. Some of the multi channel B&K amps were pretty heavy as were 7300's and later models and the MA shelving and front panel ll worked perfectly. Dealing with the early MX HT processors could be a pain but MA came through again and again. They would make custom new pieces for us when new products came out. This was in the 80,s, 90's and 2000"s, I assume it will be the same today.