Plan for access before tidiness. Route cable through the cabinet's wire chases rather than around the outside, leave enough slack that a component can be pulled forward without unplugging it, keep power cords and signal leads from running long distances pressed together, and never bundle so tightly that a single change means undoing everything.
A removable back panel is the feature that makes all of this practical, because it turns rewiring into a five-minute job instead of a furniture-moving one.
Access first, appearance second
Every system changes. A streamer is added, a phono stage is swapped, a subwoofer moves. The cabinet that stays pleasant to own is the one where that is a small job.
Two things make it small: a back panel that comes off, and cable runs that have enough slack to let a component slide forward on its shelf while still connected. If you have to disconnect everything to move one box, the layout has failed regardless of how neat it looks.
Use the wire chases, not the outside of the cabinet
Grommeted holes through the bottom and divider panels exist so that a cable can travel between bays inside the cabinet. Running cable around the outside of a console instead is what produces the visible loom people are trying to avoid.
A workable order of operations:
- Place the components on their shelves first and set shelf heights to the clearances in their manuals.
- Run power to a single point, so there is one cord leaving the cabinet rather than six.
- Take signal cable between bays through the grommet holes, not over the top of a divider.
- Dress speaker cable last, since it is the stiffest and least forgiving of tight turns.
- Label both ends of anything you would otherwise have to trace later.
Power and signal
The conventional practice in installed systems is to avoid running mains cable alongside sensitive analogue signal cable for long parallel distances, and to cross them at an angle where they have to meet. Whether you can hear a difference in a given system is an argument with no end, but the practice costs nothing and keeps the layout tidy, so it is worth following inside a cabinet where everything is close together.
Phono cable in particular carries a very low-level signal and is worth keeping away from power cords and from any transformer.
Slack, strain and bend radius
Leave enough slack at each component that it can come forward a hand's width without tension on any connector. Stiff cable, especially heavy power cord and terminated speaker cable, needs a gentle bend rather than a right angle; a hard turn right at the plug puts load on the socket rather than the cable.
This is also why interior depth matters more than the depth of the component itself. The last few inches at the back of a bay are not wasted space, they are the bend radius.
What a B&A console gives you to work with
- Grommeted wire chase holes through the bottom and divider panels on every model.
- Removable vented back panels, tool-free on the Majestic, Haven and Horizon.
- Four adjustable vented wood shelves, installed by you after delivery, so heights are set with the gear in front of you.
- Gear enclosures 19.5 to 20.5 inches deep, in a cabinet 22 inches deep, leaving room behind a component for connectors.
- Optional pull-out shelf, finished to match, with slides that lock both retracted and extended.
See the consoles or describe your system and Brian will tell you how he would lay it out.
Frequently asked
How does cable management work in a B&A media console?
Every model has grommeted wire chase holes through the bottom and divider panels so cable runs between bays inside the cabinet, and removable vented back panels so you can reach the wiring without moving the console.
Do B&A media consoles have removable back panels?
Yes, on every model. On the Majestic, Haven and Horizon they come off without tools. On the Monarch and Pennington the back panels and bottoms are removable and vented.
Talk to the person who builds them
Send your component list and the space you have. Brian will tell you which console fits, or whether it needs to be built to a different size.
Figures on this page are B&A's own published specifications, taken from the current product pages and the ordering and warranty terms. Equipment clearances should always be taken from your own component manuals.