Can this be make in Italy? The highly industrialized country? Can this be made by Bell 'Oggetti? One of the best AV furniture makes? By looking at AR-703, you can hardly believe it!
AR-703 looks attractive. The steel column and perforated shelves look sturdy. Only after I opened the box, I found a note: 25lb maximum per shelf. 25 lb? A mid-price receiver weights more than 25 lbs! So is this really an audio rack or a towel rack? Then came the second shock. As I was assembling it, a steel bolt started to slip! I was only using the supplied little hex wrench about 3 inches long, and I am not even a big guy! What are these bolts made of? gold?
Still put it together even one of the bolts can't be tightened.

I did not give up the hope that may 25 lb is a conservative limit. So I put my Caver 505 (a light-weight power amp about 38 pounds) on the bottom shelf. Guess what? You got it, the whole thing was tipped over. Not only that, the shelf seems about to collapse any time.

Conclusion: The best part of this rack is its looks. But the design, material, workmanship are all very poor. Best used as an designer shoe rack.

I purchased this rack several years ago. I bought the rack because it is pretty. I haven't experienced the problems of the other reviewer. It has been rock solid for years now. The one problem is cable management. There is no place to hide your cable runs. Perhaps they changed the specs on this rack because I have 38 pound receiver on one of the shelves and don't remember seeing the 25 pound warning.

Looks cool!

1. Leans too much because of non-centered transformers in equipment and triangle footprint of rack. 2. Cable Management.

I've used 2 of these racks for about 7 years now. I've placed much more than 25 lbs on several shelves (heavy amps & receivers). I've noticed some small amount of sagging for items over 45 lbs but have never had a serious problem. You need to make sure you completely tighten down the shelves before attempting to place anything on the rack.
Build quality is still better than many rack systems I've examined.
These racks have been through 2 major moves; Australia to the States and from Montana to Wyoming. They've wethered the moves very nicely.
Cable management is a problem. The small plastic devices that are supposed to retain cables are totally inadequate. Bellogetti makes much better cable management troughs on some of their newer racks.
Will probably end up getting Bellogetti's top of the line rack system to replace this eventually.

Similar Products Used:

None (Have not used any similar products but examined several others)