Custom or ready-made?

[Quicksilver]

A few months back I decided that creating a home studio would be ideal for what my needs are and since then I've been researching a wide range of options on the subject. I was initially considering a basic ready-made office desk to start things off and mounting a couple of near-field monitors onto some stands separate from the desk. The desks I'm currently looking at are around $250 - $500.

Lurking throughout the studio building & display section of the HR forums made me re-consider a lot as more than a few of the members here have built fantastic looking desks and workstations themselves for a lot less money that I would think and some have even had others build the setups for them.

I'm liking the idea of getting a desk built to custom specifications but am unsure as to what would be reasonable to expect in terms of cost and whether there is a site or place somewhere online where I can get my hands on some existing plans or ideas to base my own design on.

All input is appreciated.

 

[Seidy]

I'm still designing my own table but here are few things I followed:
* how much space do I need on the table: do I have to have room for laptop/keyboard/drummachines/mixer/...
* do you need rackspaces and how many. do you want to mount rack units under the table surface or do you want to have them freely tweakable. also pay attension to ventilation and cableing
* monitor speakers should be at ear height (if you calculate/measure the right height don't forget to think on isolation pads if you use any)
* monitor(s) (displays) should be at right height CLICK

try to look at various design sites to collect some ideas

 

[Quicksilver]

Thanks Seidy, those are some great points indeed. I think at this point I'll have to send out a few requests for quotes to several custom furniture workshops when I have some solid design ideas in mind.

Are there any particular types of wood that I should consider over others assuming that some wood reflects sound better than others and may results in an inaccurate representation of the audio being played?