Nice rack (and I'm talking about the audio rack). Here's my DIY experience:

I built a similar rack (4 shelves), after having purchased a Salamander one from Audio Advisor. After putting together the Salamander, I figured I could do this too. Well... w/o a dedicated wood shop, that's not as easy as it looks. But I did build one.

I used the thickest rods I could get my hands on, which was probably overkill and only served to increase the cost of the nuts & washers. I did use only three rods, though, which according to TNT Audio makes it easier to balance the rack on the ground. That's true, but then it's also easier to have the whole thing off kilter w/o really noticing until you're sitting down to enjoy your music and realizing you've got some more nuts to adjust.

I used MDF-type particle board, and then used regular stained wood baseboard edging to finish the egdes. It took a few tries to get the edges to match the MDF, but it was a lot nicer looking afterwards than just painting the edges. Also, since the baseboard is wider than the MDF, it actually looked like a my shelves were thicker than they really were, although the fact that this hid the nuts and washers under the shelves did kind of gave the illusion away.

One more issue with MDF is that it's pretty dense stuff and you really need a solid drill to get through it - my rechargeable was hardly up to the task. And lining up the holes exactly wasn't easy either, although having just three of them made minor errors easier to hide. In any case, it's probaly better to have them professionally drilled at a qualified shop. TNT Audio suggested using two boards glued together, but that was too much work and would have killed my drill. If I do this again, I would probably use a sheet of nice oak on top and MDF on the bottom with oak baseboards so that it would be easy to match the stain all around.

It cost me about $140 (mostly Home Depot) to put the whole thing together. I sold it to a friend for about $100 when I needed something bigger. I sort of wish I would have kept it.