The joys of owning large numbers of LP's!!

DaveyF

Well-Known Member
Jul 31, 2010
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La Jolla, Calif USA
Since I have a small listening room, the allotted space for my LP collection is always a problem.
After maxing out my space with various LP holding solutions, I came upon what seemed like a great idea. IKEA, always a source of some good LP holding gear...at least in the past, now has a new line called the Kallax.
So,last week after running off to my local IKEA store and walking about ten miles ( seemed like) to get to the Kallax display, i decided on one of their birch units.Got it home and after an hour or so of 'kit' making she was up and running!! Even had detachable feet ( quite nice actually on large rollers).
Now comes the problem, where to put the little gem. Some of you have been in my room...and know that space is at more than a premium.
Therefore, I decided on the one last remaining spot, behind my listening chair. Worked well....sort of.

Problem is that i now sit even more into the near field than ever before!! Ok, I thought, I'll just move my speakers back about 3" towards the rear wall to compensate.... :rolleyes:

Lordy, if this hobby isn't the most frustrating sometimes..:mad:

Plusses, the ability to now store about 500+ more LP's was solved....Minusses...my soundstage depth shortened up considerably and the 'in your face' aspect of the presentation increased
greatly!!:(:(

Ok, not to be beaten back, the next solution occurred to me....with the help of the wife. Previously I had stored about 500+ LP's in my closet, this in a smaller cabinet and with a great deal of other stuff bunched into the same area. Take the small cabinet out, replace it with the new Kallax...and add two more units on top of the Kallax...for a total of three stacks and with the new ability to store about 1500 more LP's---sounds good right!


:mad::mad:

The Kallax is exactly one millimeter less wide than my closet...to the millimeter. Which should be no real issue as I have one millimeter to spare, or so I thought.
I figure I can roll the new unit in and good to go....:cool:
No Go!!!
I forgot my other LP holder ( which holds about 300LP's and is 6'tall and mounted to my rear wall) is now in the way. Ok, lets take that apart and move it...no big deal! ( and two hours later:()
Yes, the Kallax goes into the closet ( just), and now i need to get the other two Kallax units. So, another trip to IKEA...
Hello Mr IKEA salesman, is it really true that all of the Birch Kallax units are out of stock! Indeed laddy says the salesman, and not expected back into the stores for at least another two months!!!:(:(:mad:

However, we do have the brown version he says.. ( ok, says I, that will have to do as it will be somewhat hidden in my closet). Oh, minor detail, we only have one...you sure you want two!
One it is.....until next week when they re-stock the brown version...and another trip to their friendly abode to pick it up.

Meanwhile, my room is torn up and the LP's are spilling out all over the house, LOL;):rolleyes::eek::eek:.....wife is looking at my LP collection with more than her usual disdain for the black discs.:(

Anyone else have these issues?? Am I the only one currently in LP purgatory:rolleyes:
 

awsmone

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Apr 6, 2014
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Canberra Australia
Hi DaveyF

I have been using IKEA units for 5 years

I have 22 of the 8 shelf versions

I have had no problems, other than a near catastrophe where I packed the records to close to the front lip and some tilted forward, they would have fallen over but they were stopped by other units

I have a dedicated library next to the music room which houses 90 percent of all my records

Good luck
 

astrotoy

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May 24, 2010
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I have several of the Ikea units (the ones before Kallax) to complement my 110 Per Madsen Racks. Collectively they hold my 15,000 record collection in my listening room, which is a bit larger than yours. Steve W has seen it, as have some others on the forum. Being in Northern California means the units are bolted with earthquake straps to the studs in the walls. The Madsen racks go up 6 high - all around the room on three sides and the unevenness of the records does a good job in diffusing the sound. Now my 500 10.5" reel to reel tapes have to go in the adjoining room. :) Fortunately 50TB of digital files (including 10,000 album rips at 192/24) fit neatly in one 12 bay NAS drive on another level of the house. See my avatar.

Larry
 

spiritofmusic

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Jun 13, 2013
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E. England
Just fitted shelving for 4000 lps and LDs, 2000 cds and 2000 DVDs and BRs in the 10x10 alcove space off my listening room.
www.i-cubes.co.uk
 

XV-1

Well-Known Member
May 24, 2010
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Sydney
Yep, been there too many times.
Personally, I don't really like the Ikea shelves, although I have a 4x4 and quite a few 2x4 down on the two to act like a side table. You need to add a back and they are too deep, so you need to add wood to bring the recirds more forward. The worst is that the cubes are too large so you have too many records creating too much weight
The i-cubes look quite good.

My main record shelving I designed myself and had my uncle make them. They have have 3/4 high dividers - these make sorting records easy - see 2nd photo.

35241909181_9feba2ab48_b.jpg

35356997155_d9d0222249_b.jpg
 

awsmone

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Apr 6, 2014
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Canberra Australia
Those are really nice, like the gaps makes easier to find..
 

Hi-FiGuy

Member Sponsor
Feb 23, 2015
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I use one of the units but unfortunately that is only about 1/16 of my collection and my room is very small. I agree you have to build them up on the back side or at least put in a stop to keep the records from sliding back in to far.
If you use the 6x6 you have to attach them to the wall.
Still struggling with a solution to get my collection out of packing boxes as my Maggies are already pissed about the rooms size.
20171006_175003.jpg
Very small room, about to go through an appearance transformation
20171006_174714_1.jpg
 

Hi-FiGuy

Member Sponsor
Feb 23, 2015
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385
Yep, been there too many times.
Personally, I don't really like the Ikea shelves, although I have a 4x4 and quite a few 2x4 down on the two to act like a side table. You need to add a back and they are too deep, so you need to add wood to bring the recirds more forward. The worst is that the cubes are too large so you have too many records creating too much weight
The i-cubes look quite good.

My main record shelving I designed myself and had my uncle make them. They have have 3/4 high dividers - these make sorting records easy - see 2nd photo.

View attachment 36685

View attachment 36686

Love the snot out of this set up! :cool::eek:

If you don't mind me asking, how are the shelves that the records sit on joined? I don't see a dado, are they just glued and screwed, pocket holes or even glue/screw and biscuit?
 

DaveyF

Well-Known Member
Jul 31, 2010
6,129
181
458
La Jolla, Calif USA
I use one of the units but unfortunately that is only about 1/16 of my collection and my room is very small. I agree you have to build them up on the back side or at least put in a stop to keep the records from sliding back in to far.
If you use the 6x6 you have to attach them to the wall.
Still struggling with a solution to get my collection out of packing boxes as my Maggies are already pissed about the rooms size.
View attachment 36691
Very small room, about to go through an appearance transformation
View attachment 36692


Wow, looks like you have a super small room like mine. You are right, Maggie's hate rooms like that! I used to own Maggie's...until I moved into the small room syndrome, and they basically told me to get lost. What size is your room?
 

spiritofmusic

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Jun 13, 2013
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E. England
Joys of lp ownership? Hmm, consecutive days moving 2000 plus lps from one property to another, up 20 step spiral staircase, and onto shelves.
Yep, joyous.
Never again (house move, that is, not getting rid of lps), I'm really not sure I ever want to do this again (esp since in 5 yrs I expect to have 4000 lps).
 

DaveyF

Well-Known Member
Jul 31, 2010
6,129
181
458
La Jolla, Calif USA
Joys of lp ownership? Hmm, consecutive days moving 2000 plus lps from one property to another, up 20 step spiral staircase, and onto shelves.
Yep, joyous.
Never again (house move, that is, not getting rid of lps), I'm really not sure I ever want to do this again (esp since in 5 yrs I expect to have 4000 lps).

Luckily I don't have to move 2000 LPs up stairs, although this portion of my collection is close to that number. BTW, I'm always a little nervous when someone stores multi thousands of LP's on a second level. I think it was last year that I visited this local shop that was storing 60,000 LP's on the mezzanine level. Noted at the time that the floors were a little shaky, but thought nothing of it---until: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/loc...pse-Building-Normal-University-309013091.html

TG nobody was in the store at the time!
Oh, out of the 60,000 LP's that they had...and after picking through the vast majority of them ( don't ask how long I was there), I left with exactly.....none.
 

asiufy

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Jul 8, 2011
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Ha! 2000 LPs up a flight of stairs? Easy! Try moving 4000 across the world! Just putting everything into boxes was a pain... And of course, my current place can't accomodate them, so in storage they stay...

And the most insane thing is that I keep buying MORE of the buggers, even though I can't even SEE the ones I currently own...
 

spiritofmusic

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Jun 13, 2013
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E. England
Alex, I never claimed I was the MOST crazy.
Just borderline certifiable
I know someone who has 28TB of digital files on a home made server/NAS.
If that bolt from God hits and he hasn't got a back up, I'll have no regrets I wore my discs out carting this lot upstairs.
 

gian60

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Apr 17, 2016
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I asked my carpenter to do one similar Ikea shelves to stay exactly in the wall


IMG_1160.JPG
 

NorthStar

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Feb 8, 2011
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Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
I was looking @ some pictures here; very nice shelving for LPs.

And I was humorously thinking that home invasion robbers would have a great challenge if they were analog audiophiles.

And of course I was thinking of the film 'High Fidelity' with John Cusack.
 

Kcin

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Mar 27, 2016
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After several moves and about 5 years after the new house was built. I finally moved away from boxes and lining the walls with LPs.

My solution had to provide 3 requirements:

1. I had to be able to flip through my LPs - I hate looking at splines.
2. The storage had to be mobile so that I could clean in behind and move things around to suit
3. It had to be "easily" repeatable, so that I could build more without further design thoughts.

I came up with a metal space frame of HSS and dovetailed walnut drawers. These are now all filled-so time to build some more this winter and attack a few more thousand LPs.

View attachment 36698 IMG_2035.JPG
 

XV-1

Well-Known Member
May 24, 2010
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Sydney
Love the snot out of this set up! :cool::eek:

If you don't mind me asking, how are the shelves that the records sit on joined? I don't see a dado, are they just glued and screwed, pocket holes or even glue/screw and biscuit?

Thanks. Screwed from the back and underneath each shelf.
 

asiufy

Industry Expert/VIP Donor
Jul 8, 2011
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almaaudio.com
Marc,

That was just me wishing all my problem was moving records up the stairs :) This thread just reminded me of the insane amount of money I spent on moving the damn things over... It's just... frustating...

I like Kcin's approach! Perhaps I'll adopt that for at least some of my collection...

Back in Brazil, I had a piece made too, a bit like Gian's. Only I had CD drawers underneath, and records above. And since that clearly wasn't enough, in the corners of the room, instead of bass traps, I actually put two LP towers :)
 

Simon Moon

Well-Known Member
Apr 24, 2015
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260
Joys of lp ownership? Hmm, consecutive days moving 2000 plus lps from one property to another, up 20 step spiral staircase, and onto shelves.
Yep, joyous.
Never again (house move, that is, not getting rid of lps), I'm really not sure I ever want to do this again (esp since in 5 yrs I expect to have 4000 lps).

Tell me about it!

I am in the process of moving as we speak. More boxes of LPs than I want to count. A bit over 1500 LPs.

And to make matters worse, I was unable to find any boxes at any record store or box store around me that are 12" x 12", like used to be available. All I could find were 12" x 18". Let me tell you, that extra half a foot adds a lot of weight!

Lucky I am down to my last 3 boxes to move. Still to come... unpacking them and putting them on shelves. Oh joy...:(
 

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