Custom Built Turntable and Audio and Command Center – Finished and Installed!

The Turntable and Audio Racks and Command Center are Installed!

The turntable and audio racks, designed and built by FLOWbkk, are here and installed and I could not be more pleased. The work is impeccable and we even got the measurements right!

The racks arrived ahead of time! They were shipped by air-freight from Thailand and delivered to my front door, all within seven days from departing the FLOWbkk facility in Thailand. Such a smooth process! The two racks had been carefully packed, with every surface wrapped in heavy paper, Styrofoam, more Styrofoam, heavy cardboard containers, taped and the heavier rack on a pallet.

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I have a helper, who has been assisting me for years with the heavy equipment that comes through my lab. He was able to schedule time, almost immediately, to unpack and position the racks in my living room.

What a mess of packaging, but it’s obvious the care that was taken in the packing which is why everything arrived in perfect condition.

My invaluable helper also assisted with loading the Balanced Audio Technology Power Amplifier onto the lower audio rack shelf, only weighs 80 pounds! One of my cats, Ebony, is checking out the new sleeping platforms, which did not stay empty for long. I enjoyed loading the rest of the gear, except for the VPI HRX Turntable, which is another 80-90 pounds.

So the turntable rack, which handles the VPI perfectly, also houses the phono preamplifier components. Right now I have the Manley Steelhead components in place in the system. I will probably move back and forth between the Manley gear and the Pass Labs XS components. And now I can keep some of my vinyl collection right on this rack.

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The Audio rack holds the OPPO Player and a Sony multiple-disk player. I stream music with the OPPO player and play disks on the OPPO or Sony. The Balanced Audio Technology components include the Power amplifier VK-500 and Balanced Line PreAmplifier BK*5i.

I am very pleased with the results of this project. Michael and Valentino, FLOWbkk, are very skilled in designing and building custom furniture. One more image of the “in-place” racks along with one of my speakers really demonstrates how these racks, built of Acacia wood and Rosewood blend with the wood in the Magnepan speakers, which are my planar magnetic speakers in this listening environment. Beautiful!

In addition to the beautiful racks, I received an amplifier stand on rollers. Almost too beautiful to cover with gear!

Thank you FLOWbkk!

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. John E. Johnson, Jr. founded Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity in 1994, shortly after publishing a hardcopy book of the same title. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity until 2022. John has been involved in audio and video for more than 50 years, having built radio transmitters, amplifiers, turntables, and speakers from scratch. He was also one of the founders of the Northern California Audio Video Association, now The Bay Area Audio Society. John holds four university degrees, including a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, and has published numerous scientific books, along with dozens of scientific articles on biomedical research topics as well as imaging technology. He was the founder and Editor-in-Chief of two medical/scientific journals for 20 years. John holds several patents, including one on high resolution image analysis and one on a surgical instrument. He has been affiliated with NASA, The National Institutes of Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Stanford Research Institute, and The University of California at Berkeley. He is President of the consulting firm Scientific Design and Information, Inc., which is based in Redwood City, California. John resides in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and multiple kitties! His daughter, Cynthia, who was an integral part of SECRETS for many years, resides in San Francisco.