We see in this thread some examples of vinyl storage which are not very different from my own collection currently: shelves at and near ground level. My vinyl collection is upstairs in our house (no room for it downstairs). The lower shelves make me suffer from the problem I describe next.
Our stereo equipment is in the living room, in a ground level cabinet that my husband put together before I knew him, I believe from a kit. It has doors, which is nice. My husband’s record collection is in one side, and our CDs, a few cassette tapes, and stereo accessories are in the other. But - as we age, getting down on/up from our knees, and trying to read tiny text (even with glasses), we find it harder to deal with things stored that low. It’s really awkward to identify and access what you want. Plus it’s not really my “vision” of furniture for our living room.
This is why I want to get something like this media storage cabinet (okay, exactly like it), which will put the turntable, CD player, and tuner/amp at a more accessible 34", about 14" higher than the current unit, has tilt-out bins for the 12" vinyl, and drawers for CDs or whatever for easier access. It was pointed out to me, though, that the proposed cabinet’s width (51") would cover up a heat vent in the floor where I want to put it. If a heat vent deflector and positioning the cabinet in front of it doesn’t solve that problem, there would need to be some rearranging of furniture. Plus that unit costs a lot, and hubby is a frugal fella.
Yep, I hear you there!
I don’t like those flip bins. Why? Damage to jackets etc and too much movement of heavy things. And, they are going to be heavy to wrangle.
I landed on this…
I would look at IKEA and, most importantly, some vinyl forums on how people set them up io insure success (doing them incorrectly can be a disaster).
You can also add some “dummy weight” on the bottom row like bricks and show covers outward to cover them etc and avoid bending.
Thanks! You are probably right about the bins, although the description for the unit I’m interested in says:
Our proprietary LP Swivel Bins protect records when closed and display them when open. The dual-pivot hinge balances the weight of the records, even when the bin is full. Each bin holds approximately 110 LPs.
I’m sure 110 LPs is quite heavy. My engineer husband didn’t make any comments about the bins, but I will ask him if he thinks they’d be detrimental to the jackets and hard to handle. We may not fill the bins to capacity; we’d probably just transfer his collection, and he has maybe four linear feet of vinyl (compared to my approximately eight to ten linear feet).
I guess I’m trying to spiff up the furnishings in the front room, trying to get away from stuff we had from when we were single, in college, or “kit” type stuff, and more in tune with other furniture that is of better quality. So Ikea stuff, while it’s good, is not the best fit in the room intended. I will look it over for something for DVD storage in another room, though.
I totally get the ditching of the el cheapo furniture but IKEA simply worked all over the music room.
Here’s the current setup. I have about 500 albums but ~200 of the jackets are on the walls and just their innards are here mixed in with the other 300 or so.
This piece just maximized the space I had and since this room is small and packed with crap that trumps any “nice” furniture.
Note dehumidifier is used as a place to put all the silly stickers that coke with things.
Ah yes, Kallax, the best one for records! Mine is a 2x4 unit, it was gloriously filled to the brim but I sold many of my vinyls and the rest is now stored in boxes since a few years, waiting for the next time I’m moving house (which is hopefully in a few months).
I guess I’m too young for records. I grew up with cassette tapes, but I can see how it would be cool.
My buddy is a big time collector. I thought for a brief moment to get into it until he told me he was invested $30k into equipment and the astronomical prices he pays for some of those records.
Fleetwood Mac “Rumors” is in my top 10 records of all time.
Now to expose how much of a Vinyl nerd I am… If you look for the Warner Bros Pressing BSK 3010 , that is the best pressing from back in the day
I read the two-album, cut at 45rpm pressing supposedly blows that one away. I saw one recently for $110. Good album and all, but I’m not paying extra to flip the record every two songs.
Never saw them, but saw Bim Skala Bim (poor man’s version) in the RIT Union cafeteria way back when, lol. Also on campus - John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band - they got only the best D list stuff back then, lol
