View Full Version : Ideas, drawings, advice, designs required
Hi all,
Right, seem to have a wee result with the GF. She has agreed that I can move my LP's (approx 500) into the living room along with my CD collection (few 100). We have allocated a location for a "music wall". Have a look at the photo below and see if you can help be design a bespoke 'unit' to house my record/music collection and house my hi-fi. (TT, amp and CD, Ember Headphone amp and also DAC...maybe a FM tuner later). The speakers will be on a different wall with cable running under the floor.
Make a sketch if it helps.
We will be getting a tradesman to build it apparently.
The unit can be 1400mm wide and height...well I need to be able to reach whatever is up there.
http://i68.tinypic.com/14xp7us.jpg
http://i68.tinypic.com/14xp7us.jpg
Simon_LDT
25-01-2016, 09:32
That wall looks awfully small for 500 records plus 100's of cds, reckon you might struggle there.
That is more than enough space - I have about 600 LPs and they almost all fit on 2 shelves of a Homebase bookcase. It also holds about 400 CDs with no problem and will fit into that space with room to spare.
http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac233/Macca_photos_2009/coll001.jpg (http://s903.photobucket.com/user/Macca_photos_2009/media/coll001.jpg.html)
Don't ask me to design anything, though, I'll leave that to the art school crowd ;)
Simon_LDT
25-01-2016, 10:46
What do I know, haha! :lol:
I've got an Ikea Expedit (8 blocks) and I'd struggle to get 600lps in it, then again most of mine are gatefolds and I do have them in outer sleeves for protection.
awkwardbydesign
25-01-2016, 11:04
That is more than enough space - I have about 600 LPs and they almost all fit on 2 shelves of a Homebase bookcase. It also holds about 400 CDs with no problem and will fit into that space with room to spare.
Don't ask me to design anything, though, I'll leave that to the art school crowd ;)
Or count? That looks like just over 200 CDs and about 150 LPs!
Or count? That looks like just over 200 CDs and about 150 LPs!
Okay I checked just for you. ;) Upper shelf has 175 LPs on it - quite few are gatefolds and about a quarter are in plastic outer sleeves. So 350 all together (2 shelves) and about another hundred elsewhere. Not as many as I thought must buy some more ;)
Edit : there are about 280 Cd s there.
awkwardbydesign
25-01-2016, 12:59
Okay I checked just for you. ;) Upper shelf has 175 LPs on it - quite few are gatefolds and about a quarter are in plastic outer sleeves. So 350 all together (2 shelves) and about another hundred elsewhere. Not as many as I thought m
ust buy some more ;)
Edit : there are about 280 Cd s there.
Oh, OK. I tried to count/estimate but the picture was too fuzzy. (Must get out more!) Here's what 600 plus LPs looks like in my house.
http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m604/awkwardbydesign/Records3.jpg
Firebottle
25-01-2016, 13:11
Oh that's a cunning bit of storage in the top of the stairwell, illuminated as well :interesting:
Yes - what a great idea. Well done.
]Oh, OK. I tried to count/estimate but the picture was too fuzzy. (Must get out more!) Here's what 600 plus LPs looks like in my house.
Your estimate was closer than mine :)
In any case it still shows you could get 600 in the proposed space without trouble.
Thanks. I like the stairs idea as well.
I'm also looking at fitting my hi-fi in the space.
awkwardbydesign
25-01-2016, 14:42
If you can do the overstairs thing for most LPs/CDs, and have a smaller regular use shelving system on that wall, it would leave more room for the stereo. Another advantage of the overstairs storage is that you never have to paint the ceiling there! And as there is a landing in my house, the space above the records is now cupboards for towels, etc.
http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m604/awkwardbydesign/Mobile%20Uploads/20160125_142643_zpsgfl7omp9.jpg
Hi all,
The unit can be 1400mm wide and height...well I need to be able to reach whatever is up there.
Just did a bit of measuring and you can fit 100 LPs (mix of normal and gatefold) comfortably in a space 35 cm high x 40 cm wide so two shelves at the bottom should cope with your collection easily and take the height up to circa 80 cm. This leaves you enough space above that for a couple of shelves of hifi gear.
Alternatively you could divide the space vertically with shelves for LPs/CDs on the left and hifi units on the right ...(or vice versa)
Either way loads of space to fulfil your needs ....
Oh, OK. I tried to count/estimate but the picture was too fuzzy. (Must get out more!) Here's what 600 plus LPs looks like in my house.
http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m604/awkwardbydesign/Records3.jpg
Great idea, Richard...
Here's my collection when it was 'semi-sensible':
http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/794/img2020hk.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/841/img2020hk.jpg/)
It's now grown to about half that much again.... Thank goodness I now also do streaming, so have around 25,000 albums stored on 8TB of hard drive space, so the LP and CD buying has slowed down a bit! :eek:
Marco.
Fuck me sideways with a dried out pineqaple husk :eek::eek: I have NEVER seen a collection like that !!
Great idea, Richard...
Here's my collection when it was 'semi-sensible':
http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/794/img2020hk.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/841/img2020hk.jpg/)
It's now grown to about half that much again.... Thank goodness I now also do streaming, so have around 25,000 albums stored on 8TB of hard drive space, so the LP and CD buying has slowed down a bit! :eek:
Marco.
Cheers, mate. However, there are plenty of folks with far bigger music collections than mine! :)
Marco.
So where do you store the original 25,000 albums you have ripped your collection to on the 8TB drives then Marco?
I think he has them under the stairs.
Officer.
I'm currently wrestling with a similar problem, and came across these on Ebay.
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTI5MVgxNTc3/z/1VkAAOSw5VFWJPSl/$_57.JPG
( full link here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111804578700?euid=c103902635ce48f59098f61220d7c0c6&cp=1&exe=12742&ext=32470&sojTags=exe=exe,ext=ext )
They look nicely made, and they're strong enough to be stacked up to make a unit big enough for most collections, with the system on top or within.
I enquired about bespoke sizes; they can do a box with internal dimensions of 400mm wide by 350mm high by 350mm deep, which would hold around about ninety albums, for about £10.25 each including VAT, plus delivery. The only problem is that they have a minimum order of 100! Sound a lot, but if you call it £1100 all in, its probably about the same as having a bespoke piece of furniture built. For your purposes, I guess you'd need about ten, so put the other ninety on Ebay and make yourself a tidy profit. Similar boxes sell individually for up to £35 ( http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vinyl-LP-12-Record-Storage-Box-Stackable-Portable-Wood-Handmade-/301839981183?hash=item4647109a7f:g:2aUAAOSwHaBWim2 T )
While you're at it, put me down for four of them!
I'd do it myself, but I don't have the capital or the space at the moment :(
So where do you store the original 25,000 albums you have ripped your collection to on the 8TB drives then Marco?
Lol - they're a mixture of downloads and rips of some of my CD and vinyl collection, as I like to compare identical recordings on different formats, which is rather useful, for example, when doing 'vinyl vs. digital' comparisons :)
Here's the 'streaming station' (with two NAS drives combining to provide 8TB of choons).... Should keep me going for a bit ;)
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/633/Zs1PHj.jpg
Marco.
I'm currently wrestling with a similar problem, and came across these on Ebay.
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTI5MVgxNTc3/z/1VkAAOSw5VFWJPSl/$_57.JPG
( full link here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111804578700?euid=c103902635ce48f59098f61220d7c0c6&cp=1&exe=12742&ext=32470&sojTags=exe=exe,ext=ext )
They look nicely made, and they're strong enough to be stacked up to make a unit big enough for most collections, with the system on top or within.
I enquired about bespoke sizes; they can do a box with internal dimensions of 400mm wide by 350mm high by 350mm deep, which would hold around about ninety albums, for about £10.25 each including VAT, plus delivery. The only problem is that they have a minimum order of 100! Sound a lot, but if you call it £1100 all in, its probably about the same as having a bespoke piece of furniture built. For your purposes, I guess you'd need about ten, so put the other ninety on Ebay and make yourself a tidy profit. Similar boxes sell individually for up to £35 ( http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vinyl-LP-12-Record-Storage-Box-Stackable-Portable-Wood-Handmade-/301839981183?hash=item4647109a7f:g:2aUAAOSwHaBWim2 T )
While you're at it, put me down for four of them!
I'd do it myself, but I don't have the capital or the space at the moment :(
If your taking orders id have a few ... Maybe if you got enough folk interested we could get a job lot
Due to an imminent house move and lack of finance I'm not in a position to do so, but if anyone wants to take it on I'd have thought they should be able to double their money. I'd be happy to forward the correspondence I've had so far.
We've just got one of these for storage purposes - and they happen to fit LPs perfectly, not that we're using it for that...
http://www.morplan.com/shop/en/morplan/heritage-rustic-shelving-units
They also do a 'gondola' which might be perfect for LPs...
http://www.morplan.com/shop/en/morplan/shopfitting-heritage-gondolas
They're well built, rough finished (shabby chic) but quite nice. Good price too.
Audio Advent
28-01-2016, 02:22
Oh that's a cunning bit of storage in the top of the stairwell, illuminated as well :interesting:
+ 1 from me. But.... can he actually reach those records??
awkwardbydesign
28-01-2016, 09:09
+ 1 from me. But.... can he actually reach those records??
No problem. Even my wife can reach them. Just don't lean forward!
We put in some Vitsoe shelves recently, and we really really like them. For vinyl storage they say you have to use the shorter of the two shelf lengths, which is about 660mm each, so a double bay like ours would fit perfectly into your space. You can also put your hifi on there, and then have smaller shelves above for the CDs. I did a rough count and figure one of those shelves holds about 200 records. See the photo of our set up below - just LPs and books, but if you look at the link below you can see it can look fantastic with hi-fi on it as well.
A big bonus is that it is totally modular, so you can add shelves as you find that you need them. Also high WAF, at least with my W.
It is not as expensive as you might think. We had some other shelves custom made by a local chippy in MDF, and after painting them etc etc it worked out a lot more expensive than this, and the shelves bow slightly and that;s just under the weight of paperback books.
I cannot recommend them enough.
VITSOE Hi-fi gallery page (https://www.vitsoe.com/gb/606/gallery/hifi-storage)
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160204/b8495e822d94b2bfe9c113d6d0155c35.jpg
British high fidelity
04-02-2016, 01:31
Love the spirit level, very scientific 😉
Love the spirit level, very scientific 😉
That actually came free with the shelves! It is the exact width of the shelf units, and has little nubs on the end that fit into the rails so you can make sure that you put them up dead straight and the right width without having to fanny about. It is a really lovely bit of design.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160204/d3cc4946ab8ee731845e6aa4e7285856.jpg
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160204/fb1cd00fbf59f913d851a0b5fbb54a02.jpg
I have drunk the proverbial Kool-Aid.
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