Jofran 272 Series Hardwood Media Unit , TV Stand in Black Review

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(More customer reviews)I ordered the Jofran 272 Series Hardwood Media Unit/TV Stand in Black, via Amazon, from Cymax Stores of Vancouver, BC on December 6, 2010. It arrived 9 days later, including a 4 day delay at my request. The box was heavy enough (113 lb) to require two people to get it into the house. Assembly took about 2 hours with much of that time spent emptying the box and laying out the pieces.
I had selected this particular TV stand after reviewing hundreds of them. It was the only one I found that met my desired specifications: glossy black finish, at least 24 inches tall, sliding doors (rare), and suitable for a 42 inch flat screen TV (there are about 5 inches to spare on either side).
The main pieces were protected in a lot of Styrofoam and soft material. Unfortunately, the bolts, washers and other hardware were contained in a flimsy plastic bag that was torn. I never did locate the hex wrench tool needed to tighten the special bolts; fortunately, I had another in my toolbox.
The manufacturer cleverly attached the sides to the front with hinges, which saved assembly time. All the holes lined up pretty well, but installing the top was overly complicated in my opinion--it required placing the heavy top down on 6 widely separated dowels while fitting the back into a groove cut into the top. It took a couple of tries--I even double-checked that the groove was wide enough to accept the thickness of the back. One of the dowels arrived smashed and I had to fabricate a replacement from existing wood dowel stock that I happened to have. One of the wooden mounting strips was rather badly cracked, but it didn't impair assembly.
Instructions were poor, which is fairly typical for these furniture projects. I had to look very carefully to determine the proper orientation of the key center support. The diagrams were decent, but pay attention to where the dowels get inserted.
The black finish has some streaks of coffee or bronze; perhaps the paint was thinly applied in those places or it's done intentionally to make the stand appear "blacker than black." Anyway, the stand does look glossy black and the imperfections(?) are not noticeable more than a foot or two away.
The sliding doors have wheels on the bottom that ride in parallel grooved tracks. Spring loaded cylinders fit the upper tracks. A handy locking feature at the back of the doors allow you to easily reinsert the doors after cleaning the framed tempered glass. Removing the doors should require a simple lifting to get the cylinders to retract and allow you to swing the bottoms out; but this is trickier than it seems, since there is very little clearance for the wheels. The manufacturer affixed tape to the panes of glass for safety reasons, and after removing the tape I noticed some adhesive left behind. Glass cleaner wouldn't completely remove it despite three tries. I'll have to locate my bottle of Goo-gone to complete the cleaning.
Two adjustable shelves are provided along with metal support pins. Tiny screws are included that can be inserted from below, up through holes in the pins, into the shelves to firmly hold them in place. I doubt many people would bother do so (I didn't), but it was a thoughtful idea.
The back has elongated slots near both ends, which--at an inch and a half wide--provide a handy way to pull cords with larger plugs through. The adjustable shelves run across these slots such that both the upper and lower storage areas have places to pull cords through.
I wanted my TV to sit about 26 inches from the floor, so I used my table saw to remove about 3 inches from the bottom of the legs (I had pre-planned this when selecting this stand). There's still some space showing under the bottom and the chopped look works great for me. I didn't need the floor protectors at the bottoms of the legs since the stand rests on carpeting, but I did try to remove one without success. It would be easier to buy new ones if I ever want to set it on a wood floor.
Overall, the cost ($337 with free shipping) is a little high but I am fine with it since it met my needs like no other I could find.

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