The APEX-150 is the shortest upper module in the Forged Audio APEX racking system, giving 170 mm of usable clearance beneath its shelf: the right space for streamers, phono stages and slimline sources. It is a 2-ply bamboo shelf carried on four Ø38 × 150 mm solid steel posts, and it bolts straight onto the tier below with the supplied fixings, whether that is the APEX-50 base platform or another APEX module.
A shelf designed to dissipate
Each shelf is a 620 × 400 × 36 mm board made from two bonded plies of bamboo. The bond line between the plies acts as a mechanical energy break, so vibrational energy has to cross a material boundary rather than travel through the shelf freely. Bamboo itself has no single dominant resonant pitch: its random internal fibre geometry distributes vibrational energy broadly instead of ringing at one frequency. With a Janka hardness of 1,410 to 1,610 lbf it is harder than European oak, and its modulus of elasticity of 18 to 20 GPa keeps the shelf stiff enough to push its resonance well above the audible band.
Solid steel, coupled through the rack
The posts are solid steel, not hollow tube and not aluminium. Solid steel has the mass to resist vibration at source and the rigidity to channel what does enter straight down through the tiers below and into the floor, away from the equipment on the shelf.
Sizing made simple
Every APEX module quotes its usable clearance, the space between the tier below and the underside of the bamboo shelf. If your component stands shorter than that figure, it fits: with 170 mm to work with, the APEX-150 suits network streamers, phono stages, DACs and other slimline sources at a sensible height in the stack.
Part of a modular rack
Every APEX module shares the same thread and base fitting, so the APEX-150 bolts straight onto the APEX-50 base platform or any other tier and can be added, removed and rearranged as your system changes. Stack two, three or four tiers, mixing heights to suit your components; for stability and safety Forged Audio recommend keeping the finished rack below 1.25 metres.
Practical details
The sculpted edge groove works either way round: run it to the rear as a cable channel for shallower units, or face it forward as a styling detail beneath your equipment's front panel. The four posts sit in from the edges of the shelf, leaving 500 mm of clear width across the front. And because the bamboo grain is unique to every shelf, no two APEX modules look quite the same.
