Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The Prepac media rack seems to be mainly intended for storing a variety of types of media together (CDs, DVDs, BluRay discs) but I bought it for CD storage exclusively. My CD collection had outgrown the rack I'd been using for several years and after making do with boxes full of CDs in one corner of the house or another, I finally decided that the only way to enjoy my collection to its fullest was to have all of the CDs accessible on a proper rack.
The Prepac Triple Barrister was straightforward to assemble and is reasonably sturdy (although the assembly kit wisely includes extra materials to anchor the top of unit to the wall in case of an earthquake or other disaster.) The individual shelves are solid and do not bow due to the weight of the CDs, which is a problem I've seen in other racks, and the overall look is sleek and attractive.
However, when I first put the Prepac rack together I was in for a few surprises. My old rack had provided 10 rows of CD storage and was several inches narrower as well as a few inches shorter than the Prepac, yet when I'd finished building the Prepac and installed the rows of shelves I was dismayed to discover that I could only go as high as nine rows of CDs -- one less than my old rack. Yes, the Prepac was about seven inches taller than my old one, but I soon realized that the lack of a tenth row was due to the wider spacing between the rows as well as the addition of wood mouldings along the top. The mouldings blocked the upper third of what would could have been a tenth row of CDs, making it impossible to use that row to store anything.
This threw me off. The increase in net capacity that I'd wanted from buying a bigger rack seemed like it might be pretty much negated!
I soon realized, though, that to get back to ten rows of storage and actually accommodate more CDs than I had before, I could just remove the top mouldings. (They are purely decorative so removing them does not make the rack unstable.) This got me back to the same ten rows of storage as my old rack, which was not a net gain in that regard, but because the Prepac was also wider than my old rack I still was able to store another 350 or so CDs.
Other notes about the Prepac:
a) There are additional mouldings going up the front of the rack. Due to the way the unit is designed these cover the ends of the rows of shelves, to the point that if you fill each shelf completely from sidewall to sidewall then two or three CDs end up being hidden behind the mouldings at either end. This leads to an important decision, because if you want to actually be able to see all of the items on a particular shelf then you have to avoid placing them behind the mouldings, thereby sacrificing some of the unit's capacity. Since there are 30 individual shelves with two ends each, that amounts to at least 120 fewer CDs that can be stored! And since the vertical mouldings appear to add stability to the unit I felt that removing them would be a bad idea.
b) The underside of the large flat piece that crowns the unit is unfinished. This means that if you view the rack from a lower angle (like when you're seated on a couch in the same room) the unfinished brown wood is quite noticeable. The bottoms of the adjustable shelves are also unfinished. To take care of this I bought some eggshell-finish black acrylic paint at the hardware store and painted the underside of the top piece as well as the bottoms of the first three rows of adjustable shelves. (Once the remaining shelves are installed they are low enough on the unit that you rarely get a look at their undersides.)
c) The black finish used on the main frame of the Prepac is easily scratched since it appears to be black paper that's glued to the wood. The installation kit includes a black marker pen for touchups but the surface is a bit more delicate than I would have liked. Thankfully, the surfaces of the individual shelves are painted so their finish is more durable.
So, not a perfect media storage unit but for the price it is certainly good enough to earn four stars. Amazon's delivery gets five stars because they got it to me much sooner than expected.
Click Here to see more reviews about:
Prepac Black Triple Barrister Media (DVD,CD,Games) Storage Rack
Get 20% OFF
Click here for more information about Prepac Black Triple Barrister Media (DVD,CD,Games) Storage Rack
