Deconomix LP Storage

After many a month online, the most popular search term that brings people to this site is “LP storage”, so much so that livingwithmusic.com has taken over the top spot with many search engines. Since November of 2005, I’ve covered quite a few (but not nearly enough) of the most popular storage solutions for the vinyl enthusiast, but my bookmarks are still filled with perhaps a bit more reclusive shelving units that may be less wide-spread but have garnered as positive or even enthusiastic reviews as have the widely-known solutions discussed on this site already.

One manufacturer with a rock-steady reputation I keep coming across, especially on European music forums and discussion boards, is UK-based manufacturer Deconomix.

As far as I could ascertain, Deconomix, founded by Stuart Fisher, has been supplying the more than huge UK-DJ market with vinyl storage solutions for more than 7 years, but it was the steady flow of highly enthusiastic recommendations that turned my attention to their expandable storage solutions that reach industrial vinyl archiving proportions. Additionally, and that’s where things get interesting for people with a thicker wallet, they can also custom-make just about anything you want, from curved consoles to floor to ceiling archiving storage. If you have enough LPs or other vinyl items to open a shop with … hell, they can outfit one of those as well. Continue Reading →

Gratification System

I don’t know about you, but I’ve chosen a job for myself that has its own rewards, but usually they are far and long between and are certainly more of the ideal type. In my eyes, I earn enough to live comfortably, but any sort of luxury is hard to come by and usually demands keeping a rather strict budget, which I’m definitely not very good at. On top of that, my job – if done right – regularly provides me with insane working hours and long phases in which I’m basically busy between opening my eyes in the morning and trying to close them again at night. Every single minute inbetween, even those in which which the stomach demands some food, are taken up by work. I know that’s not a healthy way to live, but I also do thrive on it at times (yes, the definition of workaholic fits me perfectly).

Very early on then, when I was still at university, I devised a gratification system for myself to help me get through the most insane work phases. Because I also happen to be a procrastinator when I get the chance, I usually also end up with a seemingly unscalable mountain of work which then has to be completed in a substantially limited time frame. Stupid, I know, but in the past it also lead to the best results possible. One starts conditioning oneself to work that way if the results are good, only to notice once one gets older that it might not have been a good idea. Just like one of Pavlov’s dogs, my engine starts humming when the work starts piling up, not when it is in the process of slowly accumulating. It’s an automatic thing and very difficult to keep in check. Continue Reading →

Boltz LP Shelf Units

Usually I can’t even blink an eye before someone takes me to task for not including this or that in one of my posts and also this time, about two seconds after I put up a post about the nifty Boltz CD racks, Steve, hailing from the US, shot an e-mail my way, complaining that I had forgotten to include the Boltz LP shelf units, his – as he put it – “one true and only love” (did I ever mention that we collectors are a weird bunch?). In a post scriptum, he added that his wife had threatened him with divorce (no surprise, mate) if he ever bought another expansion set and, he tells me, he now has to resort to having them shipped to his office. Collecting can put a real strain on your life and relationship(s), can’t it? Continue Reading →

The Demise of the Record Store

I’ve often said around these parts that collecting music also incorporates something of a haptic experience. Collectors that I know don’t only go for the music, although it is certainly the central aspect of their endeavors. Some collectors get off on special packaging and exclusive collectors boxes, others are wild about cover design, label discographies and liner notes. No matter what, there’s more to it than the music itself.

Because, in retrospect, I have really been collecting music more or less from the time I first came into contact with it, I also know that actually touching the object of desire, turning it around in your hands and analyzing its various parts used to be an important part of the purchasing process. Many of the LPs and CDs I have were also not planned purchases, but spontaneous purchase decisions that were influenced by the object itself rather than a mere description of it.

All of that has changed. Continue Reading →

Gothic Cabinet Craft: LP Rack

Sometimes I think I should have kept most of my LPs, which I didn’t, but when that thought crosses my mind, I always remember how much space my old record collection took up. When I had LPs only, many years ago, I ended up with a really cheap metal basement shelf system that I could afford but which was also butt-ugly (brown and beige), and it took up an entire wall of my first rather spacious one-room student apartment. I just didn’t have the cash that time to get anything else, and just like today, I favoured investing my money into the music on the shelves instead of the shelf units themselves.

Today I don’t have many LPs left (some I have in storage to be sold one day) and they are housed in my old rock-solid IVAR cupboards. Whenver I come across some interesting posts on music forums discussing LP shelving units though, I always check them out and when I do, I always feel a tinge of regret about having sold or given away such a large part of my old vinyl collection. Continue Reading →

Collect LPs …

I don’t know about you, but I got rid of a very large part of my LP collection. Not only have I reduced it by about 80%, I’m still currently planning to go even further and to only keep a fraction of what I once had in my possession. Basically, I have decided to keep those recordings that are not available at all in digital format or those that are only available in grossly inferior quality. I still can’t sleep all to well because of past and present decisions, but as a discerning consumer, I think one is able to really collect CDs of excellent quality. It takes time, it takes patience and you need quite the thick hide, but it’s possible.

Interestingly enough, I have – as a teacher – noticed that a larger group of my students is beginning to enter the analog domain that I have pretty much decided to leave. For a while, this had me baffled, but I soon realized that the collecting of “old-fashioned” LPs was not so much an investment into superior quality (which ii often was and is), but more of a lifestyle if not also political statement. And it seems as if there is someone who has gone out there to prove that this assumption is correct. Continue Reading →

IKEA Ivar

As soon as this site went online, I was flooded with e-mails (please do use the comment function on the site if you have questions on a featured item or related issues). Enquiring minds wanted to know what I myself use to store my collection and what I could recommend. Well, despite my posts to the contrary, I use the ultimate budget system, a simple IKEA shelf system called “Ivar”, slightly “tweaked” to fit my needs. Before you read on: Ivar is not one of those Ikea products that you need an IQ of 200 and infinite patience for to put together. You don’t even need any tools besides a screwdriver, and the skills required to put it together tend towards zilch. Fact is, it doesn’t get much easier than Ivar (and I have lots of IKEA experience with other, err, less successful products in that regard). Continue Reading →

The Record Album Frame

When searching the Internet for LP frames to finally get some of your favorite covers up on the wall, chances are that, depending on your search terms, Rock Art Picture Show’s Record Album Frame will pop up right at the top of your search results, simply because it has been around for ages. I don’t really know when they started producing those, and their (abominably ugly) site doesn’t say, but they have a history. The site doesn’t hold back on the hype, either: Continue Reading →