[Closed] show me your hifi / vinyl storage solutions

skills wise i’m tooled up with a router, track saw, table saw etc and i can do things like fitting kitchens, converted my garage this year and I’ve laminated together a tabletop, made a resin river table – that sort of thing, but I’m certainly not skilled enough for dovetail joints or any fine cabinetry

If you've been able to develop skills to use such equipment, and complete certain tasks, then you have the ability to learn how to use other tools. Dovetails aren't as difficult as they might first seem, certainly standard 'through' dovetails. Practice makes perfect of course, but learning skills with hand tools can help you use machinery too, as you understand the processes that bit better. Very often, using hand tools to do a job can be quicker and easier than setting up power tools. And hand tools can help with little 'fixes' to make up for the imperfections and inadequacies power tools can often leave. Learning to use hand tools can also give you more confidence in your abilities. You've nothing to lose, but a bit of time really.

See? Easy! 😀

Just some shelves in the chimney breast alcoves

https://imgur.com/gallery/FU6qHB K" alt="records" />

You can see a bit better on this gloomy pic, the top half of the right hand shelf is a bit more filled up now

https://imgur.com/gallery/FU6qHB K" alt="shelves " />

And my bargain basement stereo is just on a unit, although I did make the shelf for the tapes

https://imgur.com/gallery/FU6qHB K" alt="stereo" />

Edit. I can never get photos working here

Can I ruin everyone's day by asking where you place PJ Harvey in your collection?

Under 'Alternative' for me....

I have an alcove in the lounge, about 950mm wide, so went pretty simple and built a unit from reclaimed wood to fit it.
Planed down lengths of beech for the uprights and 12mm plywood for the shelves.

Upstairs I use three 2 x 3 Ikea Kallax units for the rest of the vinyl + storage.

I have 2 IKEA [url= https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/kallax-shelving-unit-oak-effect-90307492/ ]Kallax[/url] racks, one in the lounge, hi-fi on top, records in the shelves and one buried in the cupboard-under-the-stairs.

Used to think my old hi-fi rack was pretty nice: Glass shelves, on black [url= https://www.diy.com/departments/form-twinny-white-powder-coated-steel-twin-slot-bracket-h-40mm-pack-of-10/3663602767039_BQ.prd ]twin slot shelving[/url]. Had the glass shelves custom made. Still got them, but they're just stacked on the floor in the garage 🙁 (nowhere to put it in this house.)
Still had the records in an IKEA shelf unit, but a floor-ceiling one.

@sc-cx

Walk us through your system if you would be so kind. It looks all seventies and interesting!

PJ Harvey under H

Band Aid under B

Solo artist by surname band by first name. I’m not doing genres.
I had most difficulty choosing where to place the Fred EP. Under F for Flowered Up or S for St Ettiene. Went for the latter in the end.

As for physical storage we have an IKEA storage cabinet that’s just the right dimensions by accident. About 6 foot tall and 18 inches square. So five shelves of vinyl each holding about 70-80 records. Shelves high enough to put the corresponding letters of the alphabet 7” singles in a pile on top of the 12” stuff.

PJ Harvey under P
But David Bowie under B in the records, D in the CDs 😁

I decided that filing under surname was silly at one point, cos some aren’t real names, like... well Iggy Pop. Pop is not his surname. Or Jacques Greene. Just didn’t get around to moving all the records.

thanks for the input guys - We've got a tall Ikea kallax for the records and some Besta for the hifi components but im looking to make something to bring the two together.

organising vinyl is contentions here - she prefers alphabetical straight through, i prefer genre (which can be pretty fuzzy) with no organisation within genre so i can flick through the hiphop or flich through classical as per my mood. if i wanted to quickly get to a specific artist or track, well i've got a sonos connect hooked up to the same hifi.....

Genre is a horrendous system. There is so much crossover it never works. I've around 1500 LPs and go with first name first for solo artists and bands (omitting the obvious "The"). So PJ Harvey, Pink Floyd, The Pretenders and Peter and the Test Tube Babies all go under P. Otherwise you just get lost.

Oh and Kallax for the win 🙂

PJ Harvey comes under P - right after Pixies.

And Kallax here too.

Full Besta here...

@sc-cx

Walk us through your system if you would be so kind. It looks all seventies and interesting!

Sorry - only just seen this.

There's a story there, lovely old JVC gear (1981) but it broke the evening I posted on this thread. I have always hunted bargains for my cheap gear - the Luxman EQ was 30 Euros, the AMP/cassette player was around £40...speakers were (believe it or not) £2 each.

The only thing I bought new was the record player - cheap Rega P1 but I have upgraded the cart to the Nagaoka MP110.

Anyway, I needed to replace the amp so picked up this not so bargain.

It's the relatively new Leak Stereo 130 and CDT with a pair of Wharfedale Linton Heritage speakers. Sounds amazing...

Those Leak units look really nice and a sort of compact width. Wanting to upgrade my hifi but it works just fine with an Airport Express for Airplay 2 streaming and Pro-Ject phono box for vinyl and cassette ripping.

[url= https://i.postimg.cc/rRwkfZNM/Vinyl-1.jp g" target="_blank">https://i.postimg.cc/rRwkfZNM/Vinyl-1.jp g"/> [/img][/url]

[url= https://i.postimg.cc/k6cCFP8T/Vinyl-3.jp g" target="_blank">https://i.postimg.cc/k6cCFP8T/Vinyl-3.jp g"/> [/img][/url]

Alphabetical of course with PJ Harvey under H, not by genre!
Habitat bookshelf x 2 with speakers somewhere higher up out of shot.
Thirty year old hifi cabinet, can't bear to get rid of it and we have the space at the moment.

Not mine but very impressive from an old cycling pal from Glasgow who is a professional carpenter.Hope you don't mind me posting examples of your excellent work Craig 🙂

Not mine but very impressive from an old cycling pal from Glasgow who is a professional carpenter

Think that should be joiner actually.

^ that's lovely, and those HS7s sound great.

That Leak/Wharfedale combo has popped up as an ad a few times on various sites recently. Really nice setup, how is the sound? I've saw one reviewer say its quite warm and another saying its quite stark and revealing.

Warm, but not as loose as my old early 80s set up. The speakers are incredible, we have a small room but they're not imposing or boomy.

After running cheap gear for a few years I'm genuinely taken aback by what I'm hearing... I gave Songs in the key of life a spin earlier and it has never sounded better.

I've only tried a couple of more modern records (Daft Punk Homework and The Streets OPM - the sound tightened up a bit, perhaps something to do with production techniques.

CD player is as good as you'd expect, I've not tried the USB or streaming yet.

I have always had a soft spot for vintage style gear, this fits well with the look of the house - and I'm getting an LP12 next year for my 50th which should finish it off nicely.

Another Linton Heritage listener here - beautiful. I've never done a hi-fi upgrade that made so much difference and really genuinely gives me that feeling of wanting to play my whole collection again. Very addictive sound. And I love that it's the music I'm aware of, not the kit (I demoed a load of different speakers at Richer Sounds, and all of them sounded technically excellent, and made me want to stop listening after about half a track, or felt like they were giving me a headache, whereas the Lintons just pull you in. They are especially good with acoustic/folk stuff but seem great with anything really, although with the Rega at least will certainly expose production quality).

(Rega P3/Rega Elex-R /Wharfedale Linton)

@sc-xc hang on a minute ... £2 each?

Not the wharfedals! The Jvc in my first pics. FB marketplace special 🙂

Ikea kallax.

Sorry guys, slight thread hijack.

I recently inherited a 70s ERA turntable with an SME pickup arm from my father who is still alive but as deaf as a post.

While the sound quality is lovely I am a little suspicious of the vintage French electrics and whatnot, so I'd like to get it serviced. Can anyone recommend somewhere to get it serviced and the wiring checked?

Try North Hill audio on Facebook. Loads of his work on it and there is a thread on retrobike too. I had him check out and update a micromega cd player. He does some lovely work manufacturing his own tonearms.

Not the wharfedals!

Ha! I was seething for a moment 🙂

Try North Hill audio on Facebook

Thank you, I'll give them a shout.