The APEX-315 is the tallest upper module of the Forged Audio APEX racking system, giving 330 mm of usable clearance beneath its shelf: any component up to 330 mm tall fits, valve amplifiers and power amps included. That clearance is also the perfect height for vinyl storage, with a 12-inch record sleeve standing upright beneath the shelf. Unlike the APEX-50 base platform, the APEX-315 is not designed to stand alone; it bolts straight onto the tier below with the supplied fixings, its 2-ply bamboo shelf carried on four Ø38 × 300 mm solid steel posts.
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 down through the tiers beneath and into the floor, away from your equipment.
Sized for the biggest components
Taller tiers give valve amplifiers room to breathe and large power amplifiers the ventilation their transformers demand, and the APEX-315 offers the most clearance of any module in the range. Sizing is simple: each module quotes its usable clearance, the space between spike and shelf, and if your component stands shorter than that figure, it fits.
Part of a modular rack
Every APEX module shares the same thread and base fitting, so the APEX-315 can be added to an existing stack or repositioned as your system changes. Build on the APEX-50 base platform and 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, or face it forward as a sculpted accent 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.
