Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler How do you store your media?

I have a huge, ever-growing collection of discs, as I'm sure many of you do. Does anyone have a large, somewhat attractive, flexible storage system which they'd recommend?

I'll need to be able to have easy access to: CDs, games, DVDs, SACDs, DVD-Audio, and Blu-ray discs in all their various sized packages (thus the need for flexibility).

Something in a high gloss black would be nice, and I'd prefer the look of metal or glass over woodgrain.

Some of the stuff by Prepac looks pretty nice, anyone have experience with them?

I have no experience to lend, but I'll be interested in whatever you end up with. I toyed with getting pre-made media shelving for a while, but now I'm resigned to having custom-shelving made. Hopefully it will all happen sometime this year (basement being ready for the home theater and what not).

I think I was looking at Boltz and some other brand I can't recall when I was thinking I was in the market.

I was looking at one of these a few years back as an alternative to Raid....
Lime UnRaid storage

Just follow this link. I beleive all they do is furniture to store audio products. http://www.can-am.ca/ very well know in canada.

That's kinda neat, but I have this for my home computer, with a Tyan MB, I add terabyte drives as needed (up to 3 now). Really what I'm looking for now is a way to store my physical media (can't really rip SACD, DVD-Audio or Blu-ray--well, maybe the later two if I really put my mind to it).

I have the Can Am metal cabinets and they come in choice of color. They are stackable and I have a 3 drawer and a 2 drawer. They look like high grade office file storage. I got mine in hunter green and have the stack in a second bedroom as a stand for the TV in that room. Only disadvantages are cost and storage limited to 120 per drawer. Need to keep disks in original packaging to view titles on the spine. You can store CDs in one row and DVDs in another.

Original packaging is indeed preferred, nay, required.

Thanks for these recommendations; keep them coming. I'm looking at each.

I use binders to store my disks. I throw away, ahem *recycle*, all CD/DVD cases w/ literature and all. I have no qualms whatsoever doing that ... storage problem solved :-)

Man, I wouldn't be able to do that. I like the packaging. It's like getting a spouse but throwing away the body, leaving only the personality.

I think I'm in the wrong place; I don't know what you people are doing with your speakers and your media packaging.

I use the sorice B-series cabinets. I have 4 B-300's, each with a B-150 stacked on top. Optioned with locking wood doors and shipping it costs roughly $1 per disc. I like being able to fling the doors open and scan the whole thing at once. I also have 3 mbc's for LP's, LD's and components.

I was looking into something a bit different for storage, more than just function and not a standard bookcase style.
I came across these awhile back:

http://www.topdeq.com/office-furniture/ascia-36.php




They are called Ascia cd towers, convertible for dvds. They can be wall mounted and are essentially the same as any other storage cabinet, slotted rack system, but with a nice wood finished panel on the front to 'hide' the fact you have a storage unit.
The door is on long hinge for an easy click open.

I was very tempted to buy these but the price was in the $400 range and for something that i could buy at Walmart for $30, that holds 200 cds and just add the wood panel to the front myself, i could save hundreds.
I figured we would need three of them for our cd and dvd storage requirements.

Now ask me if i've been able to find a standard, cheap cd storage unit to modify.
Not as of yet.
After further thought on it, i also prefer to have cd storage with the cds oriented horizontally instead of vertically, for easier reading of the titles.

My quest continues to find something that will work.

Ha ha. I almost spit out my coffee!!!
While that may seem sensitive and romantic to show that you love em for their 'person', just try telling your spouse that you don't need her body....

OMG, my mental picture has me giggling in my office.

OK, time to revisit this thread. My media collection has grown out of control, it's taking over all my floor space.

I'm looking for a rack that is about 32" wide, and as close to 63" tall as possible without going over (trying to fit it in an existing closet). Should be deep enough to hold DVD cases, obviously. I just want shelves, no doors. Black is the preferred color. Willing to pay for quality, but nothing insane.

Ideas?

Idea .

The rotating would be nice, as I could increase my total storage, but that's too deep to fit inside the closet (it would fit, just not be able to rotate).

That site also sells Prepac products. They have some of the rough size that I want, but after reading reviews, I think I'd be upset with the price vs. actual quality.

Smaller idea .

That one would fit. But that link helped in a different way. That site lists how many discs fit in each rack. It made me come to the realization that I'm completely screwed. There's no way to actually place approximately 2000 discs (between CDs, DVDs, BDs and games) in that closet with any sort of organization.

I guess the storage is going to have to go out in my main room. And it is probably going to have to be more than one rack. I'll have to rethink some things.

Thanks anyway, John.

How about pull out shelves mounted on drawer tracks? It would have to be DIY.

Edit: I bet Mark has almost all the tools to build it.

yes. almost.

I know this is not part of what you are asking but if you have done or intend to convert everything to a digital format for playback, then you can at least ignore the 'organization' part of storage as it will only be backup for disaster recover purposes.

I already have over 200 BDs, and 300 DVDs, I don't have the HD space to back all of those up.

And I admit, half of having such a huge collection is showing it off. When someone new comes over and asks "what do you have to watch" opening that closet with the stacks of discs really leaves an impression.

The DIY route would be good to maximize the use of the closet. I just don't have any wood working tools at all. I can't afford to start another hobby.

Idea x 2?

I have no idea. I'm back where I was last time I asked this. I wouldn't even mind a big rack or x2 in the room, if they looked good, and were constructed well. But there are so few HUGE racks (like 500+ discs) from which to choose. None of them scream, "buy me!"

I've been thinking about hiring a contractor to reframe and install new heavy doors in the 3 openings of my living room. If I do that, I'll have the same person do some sort of custom shelf system.

Until then, I'm either going to buy some cellular blinds, or another subwoofer.

Actually, I was referring to two of the unit that was suggested as the first "idea".

Ah. I had thought about that. Wondered if two rotating racks would fit in the closet. That would get a little attention.

Just wished a new product would have jumped out at me, one I knew I had to own.

Thanks again for your footwork, John.

I'm sure I'll update everyone with what ever I end up buying.

Especially if they tumble out onto that someone's head.

Well, no; two of them wouldn't fit in the closet, but I thought you'd moved on to a location in the room. I didn't know at first that you were talking about that many discs. You already have about twice as many as I do.

I still need to figure out what I'm going to do for shelving when I move everything into the basement. I have a ledge that runs the perimeter of the basement, so that will allow for quite a bit of shelving space along two walls in my main room. I'm thinking I'll put up some more shelving as a room divider, too. Right now I'm still using old school library shelving, which works great, but I ran out of room a while ago. My DVD movies are on the floor at this point.

It's looking like I'll have to do custom shelving on the ledge. I don't see anything that will work for me. I may end up with some of the Boltz bookshelves for my room divider shelving. I like the look, and it's not the most expensive shelving out there, but who knows if it will fit in with everything else. I can't seem to find the modular shelving solution I'm looking for at a reasonable price, so yeah, I'll probably have to cobble something together with my dad, and it may not look all that great.

I look forward to seeing what you do with your collection, Chris. With Cam's equipment closet thread and this media storage thread, I should get some good ideas.

I just got one of these:




I ordered it from here:
http://www.storeyourmedia.com/1260-cd-spinning-tower-solid-hardwood-ebony-finish.aspx

The sucker is BIG (almost 5 feet tall). It holds 1260 CDs or 560 DVDs, or a combination of both (shelves are adjustable). I have it set up for 2 rows of DVDs (240) and 6 rows of CDs (960), and it's a little less than half full. The top bottom and sides are solid wood and the shelves are MDF. It's a nice unit, and the finish matches my black speakers almost perfectly.

Hmmm, this is more like it:
http://www.storeyourmedia.com/1500-cd-rack-solid-oak-veneer-black-finish.aspx

But really, "solid oak veneer"? Solid veneer? I guess that's technically correct, as it is not a liquid or gaseous veneer. But to me solid means the same wood through out, veneer means a layer of the wood applied on top.

I ended up order one of these:
http://www.storeyourmedia.com/1000-cd-storage-rack-deluxe-black-finish.aspx

It's it's a little smaller (can fit between my chair and the wall outlet, or the side surround and the rear wall), and is the vinyl laminate version of the one I linked above. It costs a little less, and I didn't want my media stand having a better finish than my speakers.

I'll see how I like it, and probably order another one later. Together they should hold the majority of my collection, and the stuff like Criss Cross, Mary J. Blige and Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch can stay in the closet.

I also ordered blinds: http://www.baliblinds.com/Style.do?productLineId=59&styleId=156

Midnight Bright White, because if I wasn't going to get "solid veneer", I might well get some oxymoron named product.

Rythmic's F12 subs are back ordered by two months, so they'll have to wait.

I have some Midnight Balis myself. I got them for inside mount, though, instead of outside, so light comes through at the edges. It's not really an issue since there's another curtain in front of the window, but next time I'll be a little smarter. I have a couple of windows in my basement stairwell that I'll get some blinds for at some point.

Are you settled on Rhythmik, or is it simply what you would have bought NOW if they'd been in stock? Just curious what your motivation for going with them is.

Oh, and congrats on your purchases. Should be fun!

I got them as inside mount; I knew what I was doing. I don't like the way outside mount look (without a valance anyway). I sized them to fit as tightly as I could within the windows, and the frames are pretty deep. I don't need 100% blackout anyway, I just don't want the summer sun shining through the slates into my eyes for a couple hours each evening.


I've settled on Rhythmik (oops, you're right with a K). My two tiny subs were fun, but I want something bigger. I've got a coworker who will them with only 10% loss too. I figure two of their F12s will be OK.

Of all the subwoofer tech out there, I like Rhythmik's the most. Everyone is going DSP. I'd be OK with that, if the subs were fed a digital signal, but the ADC-DAC pass bugs me. Even if there's no real technical problem with sampling and decoding an analog signal of 100 Hz or less, it still bugs me.

Plus the DSP can only model what the woofer will be doing, it doesn't really know what's happening. The DSP assumes the voice coil is always going to be at a fixed temp. That's not true, during a really intense LFE passage it will get hotter raising resistance and causing compression. There are a lot of other variables too that DSP programs don't account for.

Rhythmik actually measures (at the coil, not the cone surface like other servo designs) how the woofer is moving and uses that as feedback into the amp, adjusting the signal to make the cone move correctly.

Thanks for the explanation. I was reading on their site and liked what they had to say to justify their direct servo tech. Hard to argue with the price, too. Here's hoping they get back in stock soon.

I'm going to get the amp with the XLR jack (limited to the 370 Watt model, which is fine for the 12"). I'm going to run it with the 14 Hz bass extension and high damping. This is the lowest SPL mode, because so much of the amp's power goes to controlling the woofer. But is it the most accurate (high damping), and reaches the lowest frequencies.

Figure the black oak cabinet with silver anodized woofer will match the rest of my speakers well enough.

Yeah, that should work well. I can't wait to read about it all!

I got both my blinds and media rack today, and within four hours of getting home from work I had them both installed.

I really did a good job picking out both of these products. First, the Bali blinds are everything I expected. I got them installed before the sun set. I do have a little outline around them where the sun isn't completely blocked, but it's hardly noticeable. It's so odd to see white blinds that totally block the sun, though. What I wasn't expecting is how good they are at knocking down outside noise. I'm guessing about 20 dB of high frequency cut (I can still hear the bass of the diesel-electric engines on the tracks up the street from me).

The media rack. Just wow. It's one of those cam-locking systems, but also uses wooden dowels. I said I didn't want a rack with a better finish than my speakers, and went with the black oak vinyl instead of wood veneer. I was thinking it would be close in appearance to my V3s, but it isn't just close it's almost exact. Really solid, for a rack that large, too.

Definitely happy with these purchases.

Hey, I'm glad they're going to work for you. Here's hoping I'm as happy about my next purchases, whatever they may be. Ha ha.

Oh, just found one draw back to the media rack. The holes for the shelf pins are not close enough together. So I get three shelves of BDs, and then a forth gap that is only big enough for CDs. Or two shelves of DVDs and then a CDs shelf, and one shelf that is bigger than needed for CDs, but not large enough for anything else.

So I'm doing it up as 6 shelves for BDs, and 2 in the middle for my most listened CDs. I'll get another rack for DVDs and the rest of my CDs.

Now I just need a sorting system. I'm thinking by distribution company (Criterion) when I have enough to group them that way. Then by director, when there's enough, and select studios (Disney/Pixar), and finally by genre (sci-fi or comic book movie...that should cover the rest of my discs). Sorted by release date, of course.

That should make my friend who sorts all her DVDs alphabetically by title absolutely insane.

"Where do I find Benjamin Button?"
-"That's David Fincher, so you'd think in his section, between Zodiac and The Social Network, but it is in fact a Criterion release, so on the top shelf."

Ha ha, whatever works for you. I do subdivide a little bit, besides just by title. I have live action feature films and animated feature films in their own sections, then live action TV shows and animated TV shows in their own sections, music in its own by artist, then documentary type stuff, then calibration discs. Everyone has their own system. I can't wait to have a nicer shelving system for all of it.

Are movies like Beowolf and Aeonflux considered Animation?

Are they considered movies?

Dude, you guys are NERDS!

Hey, I like Beowulf. Easy now .

+1 Cam. A virtual Angelina - right up there with Lara Croft! Who said anything about nerds!?! Nerds are candies.

The character models in Beowulf were smack in the middle of the uncanny valley. I couldn't watch more than a few minutes of that movie, it gave me the jibblies.

Chris, it's ashamed that you didn't get to see Angelina. I guarantee there would've been an uncanny peak in your pants.

The real life, fake Angelina doesn't do anything for me. Just Google'd pics of her character in Beowulf, that does less.

I just Googled some pics.... great idea. I'll be back it two minutes .....