Customer Reviews

Salamander Synergy 236 A/V Cabinet w/ Two Doors & Media Drawer (Walnut/Silver)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really do love the beauty and the well thought out design behind the Synergy system. It is a modular design so you can always come back and expand on the system in the future.

It took me many hours to put it together (and I will explain more below on this).

The pieces are all very sturdy (thick wood, strong and heavy vertical supports) so you know it can hold a good amount of weight. Even the secondary pieces (such as the rear boards) are nicely made. There is nothing "cheap" looking about this system at all.

The cherry and black option also looks very nice (it looks a little darker than what I noticed on the monitor). I would have liked it if somehow they could make it so the heads of the top screws are not exposed.

OK so what am I not happy about? First off...it was missing two pieces (a washer and a silver screw knob on the rear). I ended up using things from my toolbox to supplement.

Almost every piece has minor dings or scratches...I could live with almost all of them. When I finally put all of the pieces together and it was time to put the top piece of wood on...I was shocked to see that there were a couple of long gashes (about 6 inches long...a second smaller one about 2 inches long) on the top piece. They look like someone dug a tool into the wood by mistake.

I discovered this after many hours so it took me even more time to swap the bottom piece for the top piece. I am very very unhappy that the maker cannot ship this in a way that the scratches do not occur.

The box that it came in looked very well packaged so I don't think shipping is the problem. I think it lies in the maker's internal quality control before the pieces get to the box.

I think one thing they can do to improve on this is use more of the protective plastic wrap. They put protective plastic wrapping on all the black pieces of wood which you peel off...why can't they do this on all the other major pieces as well?

If you want to order this system (why wouldn't you, it's a great design that looks very nice and simple), I recommend taking all the pieces out and inspecting them. If it has dings like mine did, strategically figure out which location the piece with the hideous scratch should go to first before spending a ton of time.

Because believe me, after hours of working on it and the weight of this package will make you not want to return it.

If you've seen this piece at the local stores you've probably heard that they come assembled. Well, the Amazon version requires assembly. While it wasn't too difficult or time consuming (maybe two hours including disposal/organization of packing materials), it would have been nice to know it. Aside from assembly, the quality and look of the cabinet are great. Definitely worth the sales tax savings to get it through Amazon - plus you get that feeling of accomplishment once you've put the thing together.

I had shopped IKEA and on line for TV stands and cabinets to find something I would like that would fit with my decor and support a 46" flat panel TV I was planning to purchase but I couldn't seem to find anything even close to my desires for a reasonable price until I saw this Salamander Synergy cabinet offered on line at a discount if purchased with the very TV I was interested in buying. What luck! Though I wouldn't normally purchase furniture without actually seeing it in person first, I was so worn out from "shopping" that I bit the bullet and ordered the cabinet. I'm very glad I did. It's a well-made and very sturdy cabinet. It loses the fifth star only because of the tedious assembly process required and the fact that the nuts and bolts package was one custom bolt short, which is always a bummer. There are 3 shelves and 1 drawer, all which can be "infinitely" adjusted, including putting the drawer in the upper position (which I did) unlike the unit in the photo which shows the center drawer in the lower position. You'll spend some time getting the shelves adjusted, however, because each is supported by 4 corner ledge-bolts that slide in channels of the upright aluminum posts. This is what makes them "infinitely" adjustable and is also why you'll need some patience. And make sure you install the drawer where you want it; in the upper or lower postion. If you change your mind after you've assembled the cabinet, you'll have to remove the top of the unit before you can make the change. By the way, there are 8 feet that support the cabinet off of the floor and each is adjustable.

Nice unit, well-made, handsome, functional, strong and sturdy.

Got this TV stand from Amazon and we love it. The white-glove service ppl came in and opened it up and took the box and nylon with them.. It took a couple of hour to put together but it wasn't that hard, you would have to look at all the pieces first and the instructions that come with all these pieces to figure out the best way to proceed with the install. Once you have it assembled it looks great and of very durable good quality wood.

I bought a Synergy 236 with black/aluminum posts from an online vendor. They had the best pricing and my stand was custom ordered with side covers and left and right doors with perforated steel. I opted not to get the center door and/or media drawer to allow more air to my A/V Receiver plus I wanted to put my center speaker on top of it. I also bought Salamander Saturn Wheels to replace the supplied foot level stands. Both the Synergy 237 and 236 requires 8 wheels.

Before I continue I want to say that I bought this $1200+ TV Stand because of the quality of the parts, looks, shelf adjustability, shelf space, and customization. I was looking at the cheaper stands but the wood was too thin, shelves were in fixed positions, small shelf space, and some didn't have doors and if they did they had poor ventilation and looked ugly. My friends thought I was crazy spending that kind of money on a TV stand and teased me saying "Does it come with a TV at that price?".

Shipping took about a week and the stand came in several boxes. 2 of them were very heavy. I installed the Synergy 236 on a weekend and it took me about 3hrs to finish it! That doesn't include installing the back panel to do the wiring. Having the Saturn wheels installed made the rest of the job easier but I did get confused when installing the shelf pegs. I actually thought Salamander forgot to put more pegs but realized I did something wrong in the installation and that fixed my problem.

Overall I am very happy with my decision in getting the Synergy 236 with no regrets. If you're thinking about buying and installing the Synergy 236 then my advice to you is that you're going to need a lot of patience, common sense, and a good strong back when installing this stand.

The Salamander Synergy 236 A/V Cabinet is an extremely well-made and handsome piece of furniture that looks like it will last for generations. This is not some cheap, Ikea-like piece of junk, despite the fact that assembly is required. (By the way, make sure you give yourself a solid three hours to put the cabinet together. It's not necessarily difficult, but you will need to take your time so as not to make mistakes.)

The furniture arrived in perfect condition and was packaged and shipped extremely well.

We got this unit to replace our previous entertainment center because our little girl is getting to the age where she is getting into everything. This unit allows us to have everything, wires included, contained inside, and inaccessible to her little paws. It is a very solid piece of furniture, and not really any more difficult to put together than any other entertainment center we have owned. It's expensive, but I doubt we'll ever have to replace it, as it is definitely built to last. most of the particle board centers sag and crumble after a few years, and we've had this one for almost two years now, and it's showing no signs of wearing down. Oh and I just rememberd that in other reviews they talk about it being scratched really bad when it arrived, and ours appeared to be the same way, but then I realized that there is a very thick, impossible to notice coating of plastic stuck on the outside of every panel, and when this protective coating was removed, it was flawless underneath. It looked just like panels were scratched unbelievably bad, but thankfully I finally noticed that it was just a layer of removable plastic that was scratched, no the unit itself.

I ordered this from Amazon after checking it out in a store and on the Salamander website. Has great features - finally a system that lets you deal with all the cables for your media! Also, mesh doors look nice and keep the air flowing. BE PREPARED to assemble this baby, though. Luckily, I had a friend with patience who actually read the instructions!!

If you've seen this piece at the local stores you've probably heard that they come assembled. Well, the Amazon version requires assembly. While it wasn't too difficult or time consuming (maybe two hours including disposal/organization of packing materials), it would have been nice to know it. Aside from assembly, the quality and look of the cabinet are great. Definitely worth the sales tax savings to get it through Amazon - plus you get that feeling of accomplishment once you've put the thing together.

The design of the cabinet is fantastic and fits all the video and audio equipment. It was a bit difficult to put together, but at least the instructions were complete.