Sauder Edge Water Entertainment Credenza, Estate Black

We like this entertainment stand. We like the height for our 60" Samsung TV on the top.

The only drawback we found was the depth of the compartments is a little tight. We've had to leave the doors off so far to fit our receiver and HTPC. We could also cut a hole in the back or leave it off, but that's not what we've done so far...

Inner width of each of the three compartments: 17.5 inches.

Inner depth of each of the shelves: 15.5 inches.

We bought this TV stand because we really liked the looks and dark finish. This has a straight black finish, without any significant wood grain. Others we saw were either a lighter color or a "distressed" finish that while nice looking, had variations in the color. We also liked having the drawer and the plain glass doors that are easy to see components through. It's quite functional and versatile for many tv sizes. Assembly was pretty easy and the finished product is sturdy and offers a fair amount of flexibility. The limited shelf heights and lack of adequate venting behind the glass doors are two areas of improvement. The cord hole in the top of the unit is functional if you place your tv on the stand, but might be an eyesore if you plan to wall-mount the tv.

Functionality:

The biggest drawback for us was that the shelves, when you use all three are too small for DVD cases when standing vertically. You can arrange the shelves to use two of them to hold blu rays, but the third will still be too small. The shelf holes don't extend all the way down to the floor of the unit, which also limits how low you can put the bottom shelf.

Otherwise, It's a nice, seemingly durable unit that looks great with flat screens. It's a nice height which keeps it from being too low, but doesn't make you crane your neck like sitting in the front row of a movie theater.

The table-top has a single hole in the center, near the rear (wall) side of it to allow for cords from the top to go into the top-center shelf space. The hold makes use of a typical grommet and cap for finishing off the look and keeping cords organized. If you're planning to wall-mount your tv, be aware that this hole/grommet will be visible on the top of the unit!

That center shelf space also has a hole in the rear wall of the unit. So do each of the other shelf spaces. They are fairly small in diameter about 1.5", and the shelves sit against the rear wall. You could probably cheat the shelves about 1/4" for very thin wires, but you won't be running component cables, multiple hdmi, etc behind the shelves. Otherwise, the shelves will either hit the glass door or be further out than the face of the unit. With the small holes in the rear and shelves that fit tight against the rear, there's not a whole lot of air flow or venting for hot components. You may want to cut your own larger vents for use with components that generate a lot of heat.

The front edge of the table-top is nicely rounded (except the side corners), which make it nice for toddlers and it also helps prevent the veneer from being obvious on that top-front. This added to the visual appeal for me. The drawer has faux-maple wood on the inside, including a textured faux woodgrain bottom.

Lastly, this unit is too low to the ground to fit a power strip underneath it. We have a power strip with two rows of outlets, which many home-theater strips do, and once you plug your cords into it, they are too high to fit underneath. The unit is so low, you can stand the strip on its side, either. If your outlets are behind the unit, you'll want power strips that have the flat-profile plug unless you don't plan on putting the unit a couple inches out from the wall.

Damage:

Ours had 1 scratched shelf (so I just put the scratch on the bottom so it isn't seen) and the long bottom molding does have some damage that I'm going to call Sauder for a replacement.

Assembly:

This was one of the easiest units to put together. No glue, dowels, or misaligned holes. It's a combination of the typical cam-locks as well as a new type of cam lock that doesn't use the metal peg in the adjoining piece of wood. Instead, the hole for the cam is cut all the way through the edge of the main piece and the cam itself has a peg attached to it. The peg goes into the hole of the adjoining piece and when the cam is turned, it forces a sleeve on the peg to expand and pull the two pieces together. You do have to hold the two pieces tight together when doing this, so that's the down side, but the upside is that it's less hardware and less screwing things into place. Overall one of the easier pieces to assemble with fairly clear directions including tips on where the finished edges should be pointing.

The unit also has two supports under the center of the unit, directly below the vertical pieces of wood that separate the shelf bays. A note on these: there is a piece of wood you attach the bottom of the unit for each support leg. Then you have to hammer the plastic support foot into the hole of the wood spacer. Be sure to hammer it in all the way.

Aligning the doors can be a bit tricky, but it's the standard adjustable hinge, so no real surprises. The drawer is also easy to put together and they use a clip and nail to hold the bottom panel in place.

The backing easy to put on upside down, which I did and didn't notice until I had 40+ nails into it. Visually, this didn't make any difference, but my vent holes are in all the wrong places. I was able to use a couple, but for some shelves I'll have to cut my own now.

One last tip, front trim easy to leave visible unfinished edges showing if you're not careful. This piece attaches with plastic L-brackets. Do your best on lining them up to the edge of the wood as the instructions show, but you want the top of the molding to be just a hair or two higher than the bottom piece of wood since it's an unfinished edge. Work from one side to the other. Once everything is attached, slightly loosen the screw that attaches to the main unit (not the one that goes into the molding). Doing one screw at a time, loosen, push the molding very tight against the main unit, then tighten down the screw again. This gets you a nice, tight seam between the two pieces.

Conclusion:

Very nice piece of put-together furniture. Average materials, above average looks, and below-average difficulty to assemble. It's not perfect, but pretty close.

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Item was delivered one day early but to my next door neighbors house in error.

Box was well protected with additional card board on outside and Styrofoam on the inside.

All of the parts were in the box, however, the top piece had a minor dent/damage about the size of 1/2 inch wide by 2 inched long.

Instruction manual was easy to read and understand. Took about 1.5 hours.

The reason for 3 stars is because there are 2 support blocks that have to be installed underneath the unit. If you do not, the entire piece will sag under the weight of the TV. The problem was they were too large and caused the stand to "bow" in the middle, thus the unit was not stable. I had to use a dremel kit to cut off about 3/8 of each to get it sturdy. Even after that, I had to use shims on one side to level the unit.

It is particle board and does look good with my Samsung 64" plasma. But for $229.00, it does what I need it to do.

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Sauder makes great products, heavy, sturdy, great looking and very intuitive to put together. I currently own a computer desk from Sauder that is at least 10 years old and it's still as good as it when it was new. This TV stand was even easier to build than my computer desk, which shows Sauder has invested in research to make their products ever easier to use and better. Highly recommended.

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I absolutely love my new TV stand. The only negative thing about it was minor dings in parts of it. The product arrived earlier than expected which was great due to the fact it was a weekend. It seemed easy for hubby to put together but a bit time consuming.

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