So the grommet goes in front of the kick? If I have to put it behind should I just install another one in the kick or is there something more elegant? Like a mini grille or similar? I'll post a pic of what I'm up against later when I'm not "mobile".

Here's a different angle of one I posted earlier.  You can see the vent down below the toe kick.  It all depends on how much overhang you have in the toe kick.



I use these plastic grommets for air flow and the few times I've done a sub in a cabinet, I've actually cut out the bottom of the cabinet so the sub sits on the floor and then use a vent in the front of the toe kick like shown above with a downward firing sub. 

That looks sweet Paul, thanks. I'm going to try to do the same. Did the grille get a HVLP treatment from you too?

Nice sharing of your beautiful work. You just raised the quality of systems all over. We've been having the bottom of the cabinet cut out by for years and venting out the kick with vent grills or sometimes just a clean trimmed out slot in the kickboard.

But why not use one that is tuned properly?
[Link: bowers-wilkins.com]

Yes, it's painted to match.  Good eye!

Paul will you do my AV system at my house?

Where are you venting the air to with the fans? Is there spacing behind the cabinet and a grill on the top or side? Just curious. Looks fantastic.

If you saw the rack at my house, you'd think twice about asking!  My wife gives me crap about it because our stuff at home is always a mess and she want's to know why it doesn't look like the work I do for customers.

The two examples I showed in this thread are both very similar.  The fans blow through the wall and out a vent on the other side.  At these jobs the racks back to utility or mechanical rooms so it was really easy.

I use metal flashing and foil tape to fab up a little duct through the wall to help direct the airflow.

Most installs have the fans venting out the top, or side of the cabinets...

Paul I just noticed this now....do those racks not slide out? How do you install/service these?

Sounds like a perfect setup with the mechanical room right behind. For my own home, I have a Bluray and PS3 in a very small linen closet in our hall. I vented it through the wall into a closet for the spare room that has louvered doors. Did the trick nicely.

The first one with all the Russound audio gear is a Middle Atlantic SRSR that pulls out and rotates:




The dual side-by side racks are from SnapAV, but I also use the Middle Atlantic CFR series which are the same thing but not as deep.  These racks simply sit in the base cabinet and have plastic runnners on the bottom so you just slide them out and place on the floor. 

This style came out a couple years ago from MA and I use them all the time now.  Better access than the slide out and rotating style and they cost less.  They only go up to about 16U in height so they aren't that heavy and you can easily pull them out as long as you have good cable management.

If you noticed in the photos of the side-by-side setup the outlets and cable bundle are up high in the cabinet which makes a nice service loop.  If all your cables come out in the bottom of the rack, it will be hard to push the rack back in without bunching up all the wiring behind it.

Here you can see the rack pulled out of the cabinet.  Easy access to the back.