I think the unit, overall, looks great. The "high end wood finish" isn't any more high-end than any other units I've bought or seen, but it looks very nice. I thought 500 dvd's would be *a lot* but I was underestimating my dvd collection. I have the unit in a corner and it fills the space nicely.  The over-all "putting together of the unit" was not as bad as the impression I had from other reviews - it was bulky, but able to be put together by one person with enough space to turn the unit over.  There are a lot of extra shelves, which I assume are so you can have a mixed collection of dvd's and cd's, but I over-filled it as it is and am not using several shelves.  Overall I would recommend this unit - it looks fabulous and was exactly what I was expecting.