Buried in Boxes: A Brief Guided Tour of My Collection (The Upstairs Part)

What am I going to do with all of this stuff, and where will I put it? It's a problem all collectors face if they collect things that take up space. There is no easy answer.

[@RaymondFranzino]

I didn’t know that the Library of Congress had an off-site backup facility in Connecticut!!! Dave, you own a truly impressive collection of CDs and scores.

[@Gjoa1906]

Dave Hurwitz - “this is your life” We each have our place and moment in time. Let’s just enjoy it.

[@endicot1949]

Golly! I hope you are taking precautions against meeting your end like Alkan.

[@chepulis]

At least the cat must be proud of how great of an obstacle course her human has assembled

[@tragoudia]

Τhanks for the fantastic tour, dear Dave! Being able to benefit from your immense knowledge and passion is always a privilege and a pleasure.

[@jensguldalrasmussen6446]

"Too much of a good thing can be wonderful" as said one of the great philosophers of the first half of the 20th century! Thank you for the tour de chambre, David! The people, who crap on boxes, simply have a wrong analysis. It's not the boxes per se, that constitute the problem, though, granted sometimes it's their design. It's a total misunderstanding, when the artzy-fartzy product devolpment departments of the record labels compete in making their next boxset stand out by being special. Boxes that by outer design stand out, don't fit in, this to be understood in the most literal sense! What should be outstanding is what's inside the box! The big SONY boxes of the Bruno Walter and George Szell complete Columbia recordings are exemplary speciments in this regard: sturdy cardbox box, hardbound book (it world be an insult to name it a booklet!), meticulous discographic documentation, good quality (original) cd-covers, and when it comes to the most important of the package, the sound, state of the art audio restoration. Okay, we can discuss the sound of that Mahler 2 in the Walter box....but that apart, I've never heard any of these recordings in better sound! Another theme where people err is in blaming David's calamity on the boxsets. In my experience, they are space savers compared to the same content on individual cds, each with their own jewel case - and, actually, the road to Hell is paved, not with good intentions, but with piles upon piles of jewel cases! In David's case, I think, the root of the problem is not to be found in, what comes in, but rather in, what's not coming out! Everytime I acquire a box set, the individual, duplicate cds either go to my teenage son, who quite recently has acquired a taste for orchestral/instrumental music - and, if it is in realm of opera or other kinds of vocal music, it goes to a second hand cd-store. As some recent videos have shown, the overflow room is not only filled to the brim with duplicates, you also find duplicates of duplicates. The easy way out: sell the duplicates, or give them away to indebted students, school kids from less privileged bacbkgrounds, or make the day for someone(s), who struggles to make ends meet

[@bbailey7818]

I love Sony's concept of original jackets: not just the front but the original liner notes on the back. When I moved, I gave up nearly 800 lps and I was lucky enough to find a young string player music student who loved vinyl, and I happily gave him all of them.

[@davidgow9457]

Dave, any collector will sympathise with you. I do not have have as many cds as you but I have a lot and vinyl as well. I have been collecting for 60 years and do not like selling. Spouses seldom collect and understandably do not want to see the house cluttered. I am lucky to have space but it fills up. At 73 too late too stop now!

[@glennsolva1567]

A truly amazing collection of wonderful, wonderful music. A treasure trove within a house. I personally think it's a wonderful dilemma, because you get to enjoy all this, however BIG the collection gets eventually. Take good care of yourself & enjoy your lifes work. 😊🎼🎶🎹📯🎺🎻🎻🎻👌🏻

[@lindsayspalding6608]

I also have a large of these large, difficult-to-easily store mega-boxes (although nothing remotely as many as the ones that you have amassed during many years of your own love-affair with the delights of listening to, and enjoying, and collecting CDs). Until quite recently, I constantly felt uncomfortably guilty about the fact that I very rarely actually play any of the discs that are contained in all these many jumbo-boxes, and that quite a few of them are still waiting to be opened since being delivered. However, I have now come to accept the truth that merely possessing such a large collection of recordings is something that, in itself, constantly provides me with an infinite amount of pleasure. Yes: it's an incurable addiction, but an infinitely satisfying one, as well.

[@SamWesting]

Many vinyl connoisseurs on YT, which is fine, but they tend to dwell on the audiophile labels of RCA, Mercury & UK Decca/London, while rarely ever reviewing stuff from Columbia & DG. So I appreciate hearing Dave’s opinions on artists they largely neglect, like Bernstein & Ormandy. Keep up the good work, Sir.

[@hamidrezahabibi8111]

I like this lifestyle. I have still around 300 CDs 💿 and 50 SACDs and I like to keep them because I sold my 5000 CDs 💿 and I got really the blues afterwards. Now I have all my 350 albums on my iPhone 📱 and more ♾️ Streaming Services are available and convenient. But you are a writer, reviewer and more… So that’s you and that’s your magnificent collection and wisdom surrounding you and we benefit from it immensely. Thank you 🙏🏼 Mr. Dave Hurwitz 🫡

[@stepheng9607]

We are the same age and I am looking around at all my books, CDs etc and wondering what to do. We don't have children so I have been giving some thought to Swedish death cleaning. Essentially getting rid of stuff. The difficulty is when I look around it is like looking at my life. Getting rid of items is like erasing my past. However there is only so much space and I have to think about how people will cope with it all when I am gone. So I'm digitising everything. Difficult but I can't keep hold of the past and move forward to my next phase.

[@plumjam]

It's nicer to have physical manifestations of these works. I've found that on digital platforms I just keep cycling through the same small number of tracks. Out of sight, out of mind. Have a big library like yours, go for a wander, and come back with something you haven't listened to for years! Wonderful.

[@tomasrigout]

Oh god I love Dave so much 😂😂

[@alanmcginn4796]

Astonishing is all I can say. So much stuff! Insanity in its best form. I have digitized everything I have into iTunes and have a backup hard drive. I have one closet in my office that houses current box sets but that’s it. Holy Lordy. How many CDs are we talking haha.

[@markdecker2112]

Dave, as a follow-up tour, you should talk about your stereo and how you go about a-b testing CDs to come up with reference recordings your web site uses.

[@UlfilasNZ]

🙄

[@bigtom6939]

My gosh, your partner must be a terrific person to not mind your collection. It's kind of weird that most of that won't be listened to again but its comforting to know it is there. Thanks again for being here and making your videos,I really have learned so much from you. I am a fan in Cleveland!!

[@Don-md6wn]

I could see the Abbado and Bernstein boxes is stacked on top of each other in the back of a storage closet, or maybe side by side on the floor of a closet underneath hanging clothes as an elevated platform for shoes.

[@grantparsons6205]

What a fabulous collection Dave! And yes, nothing beats physical product! Computers crash. CDs last for yonks! Just celebrate it! You appear to have parted company with vinyl. I've not been so strong. And vinyl is really space hungry...

[@eddiegreschak9995]

Coming in from working in this heatwave this video is refreshingly funny, I love it your like the Seinfeld of classical music.

[@bbailey7818]

For some reason, that made me think of Kramer who found the castoff set of the Merv Griffen show in dumpsters and set it up in his apartment.😂

[@Madjed2024]

I loved how candid you usually are and in particular in this episode as another viewer commented I guarantee you that you have the sympathy of collectors who understand not only the why but the nuances of physical musical objects that one can feel and read through and listen to . Of course any one verses in technology can say : Dave why to Tony you top all of y he them but it would take. I do have a subscription to Qobuz despite a big vinyl collection. Maybe one way is to get rid of the ones one can find on streaming services and keep the ones that are not available anywhere rise but then again one would lose the insert that has all the notes and that is part of the listening and learning experience. I do not have a wise solution for even myself and I keep bouncing between freeing room and the resistance to sell or give away

[@ericleiter6179]

Thanks for the real behind the scenes tour...4th wall destroyed to show Dave's Overflow House!!!

[@glennportnoy1305]

I think that some of us take for granted your hospitality. Thank you for sharing your home with us on these videos. Much appreciated.

[@Greg_Nicklin]

All of a sudden, all I can think is, "does Dave wear pants when he's dressed in shirt and tie to discuss The Ninth, or is he in these shorts?"

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Asked and answered!

[@grahambell8760]

I'm very happy to keep my cd collection, physcial cds. The business model most practiced now is to get you hooked, get you a subsciption and then to increase the cost and lower the quality until the company really starts to lose money. Then some executive will trash it, take most the assets and run. If you leave the service - you lose it all. I have lots of physical product that is long out of print. And the streaming services, when I try them, I can't get the performance I want and have to battle to get the work in order. On the re-sell market, CDs are pulling in some major money.

[@Italonino]

This channel is so addictive, especially Dave's opinion of atonal music. I recently heard a speed metal version of John Cage's 4' 33", never have I been so moved!

[@jimshulman9221]

When the executors of Julian Morton Moses's estate (he was the owner of the American Record Collectors' Exchange, a store that specialized in out of print acoustically recorded classical music) had to disperse his collection, they found the records were sometime three or four shelves deep, meaning that when he filled up one shelving unit he put another directly against it. It was a bit like excavating Tut's tomb. At least you can still see your recordings! So far as accumilation's concerned, there's immutable law of physics that the amount of crap one owns expands to the space available.

[@johnmaloney67]

that was amazing Dave Many thanks for the tour

[@davidaiken1061]

Oh, boy, do I understand, Dave! One hard-core collector to another. My solution has been to have a CD "purge" every Spring and Fall. I sell whatever in my collection I haven't listened to with any frequency for the previous decade to the best used-recording emporium in Boston (Orpheus Music; they do house calls). That way I can explore new repertoire and previously underexplored classical artists, though the purged CD's outnumber by far the recently-acquired ones. Eventually, as my spouse and I grow older, more serious downsizing will be in order. Not ready for that quite yet. And, yes, those boxes don't stack up readily, do they? Especially pesky are the ones whose dimensions imitate LP boxed sets (e.g., "Bernstein Symphony Edition" on Sony). Thanks for the tour, Dave.

[@lesonyrra]

A lovely tour and I can't imagine anyone I'd rather hear ramble/vent!

[@grantparsons6205]

I actually saw the big Abbado box in my local books & music charity shop recently. £25 was the optimistic asking price...

[@grahamcombs4752]

Your best posting yet ... if not "ever." Thank you. I'm drooling over all those box sets. I've only just begun and very late. You're my guide.

[@OperationPhantom]

Wow, that was an interesting tour! In a way I admire those minimalists wanting to get rid of as much physical possessions as possible but I too got the collector bug in my youth and like to hold something, read a booklet, put on a CD etc. for added listening pleasure. Still, compared to your collection Dave, I'm an absolute beginner! I mean, I even have rooms completely devoid of box-sets... Talking about box-sets (randomly): I think the nicest one I have is the Rhino Girl Group Sounds box, which is in the shape of a fancy hatbox. And the CD's are like make-up cases with a mirror on the inside. Weird but less frightening than that Abbado behemoth.

[@ocelotsly5521]

Thank you for showing us part of your home, David. Love the cat wall. Something church-like about that far green room.

[@jesus-of-cheeses]

I too love physical objects. Even though I rip every CD I buy and can call up every album digitally, I love browsing around my shelves and picking out something to listen to. But I have a question: Why do you have to keep the big boxes that by your own admission you won’t ever pick up again? Why not sell them or at least sell the smaller boxes that they duplicate? I think the defining feature of a collection is curation. A collection isn’t just a massive stash of all the objects you can get your hands on. It represents your values, your taste, your personality. So maintaining a collection doesn’t just mean (re-)organizing, but also pruning and de-duplicating so that everything that remains is in some way valuable to you.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I've done tons of pruning, and you may be right, but it's different if you keep things for professional reasons.

[@user-et8mh2ki1c]

I loved this video; thank you so much for sharing how you store everything. You certainly add new dimensions to the old BBC series, Upstairs, Downstairs -- Overflow and Over-Overflow. I would have thought that with all that space to cover Finster and Mildred might volunteer as tour guides.

[@stangibell4274]

Thanks, Dave, This was a refreshing change of pace. I just turned 79 and have wondered what is going to happen to my puny (compared to yours) collection when I am gone and no longer able to curate and collect.The idea of it being broken up saddens me. Your collection (we who also love physical product feel both your mental and physical pain) belongs somewhere important. To know might inspire others like me to do the same. I transformed a walk-in closet into a music room that also contains my -not unimpressive- collection of vinyl. Anyway, thanks again, Dave. Your tour far surpassed those on Flag Day of the Betsy Ross House.

[@MaggiMagg1]

If you ever want to get rid of the overflow (or the lot), just mail it to Iceland, marked "Magnusson, the CD collector". I'll pay for the shipping (the container). 😊

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I'll keep that in mind.

[@jaumemoletibrun]

You're amazing, thanks Dave❤

[@eliecanetti]

now I know how people felt in the early 1960s when Jacqueline Kennedy gave a tour of the White House, satisfying a nation’s intense curiosity.

[@im2801ok]

I wonder why all those giant music enterprises fail to include a user-guide in each of their mammoth boxes. Well, here's the thing: you extract all the CDd's and any other content from the boxes. Then you set them side-by-side, and fill them up with some insulating material, to form a row at your desired length. Then you stack them up on top of the first row (applying some glue) to form the next one, and so on and so forth, finally coming up with four walls to create a generously-sized cubicle. You then glue together all extracted booklets etc. into two large sheets and put a layer of insulating material between them to form a light ceiling, and - voila! - you got yourself a lovely listening room, complete with ravishing and inspirational wall paper. Of course, the extracted CD's can find their comfortable place on your existing shelves.

[@paulcandy1358]

The guest room looks perfect Dave. Just waiting for the invite. We can listen to Francois-Xavier Roth's 'wonderful' discography (cough).

[@classicalmusiclists]

Dave it was fun to get a tour of your working spaces. Don't know how big your overflow room is in the basement but was thinking that the big library shelves that slide together would be a good way to expand the storage. The references I could find under Mobile Library Shelving say "mobile library book shelving is a system of sliding shelves mounted on floor rails, also known as a high-density or compact library shelving system." Many archives and museums use them. Thanks again for the tour.

[@tom6693]

Think we've all been hoping we might someday get a real tour of your place, Dave, and a chance to see what we've only been able to imagine: the complete colonization of your house by that world-class cd collection. So thanks for this great video. Totally worth the wait.

[@sjc1204]

"colonization" is a perfect word to describe what we saw in the excellent tour.

[@bbailey7818]

Thank you for the tour. I don't feel so bad now about my storage issues. I feel your, if not pain, your dilemma. I feel sorry for my heirs who are going to wind up with all of this. I used to have a one BR apt and kept cds under the bed, in the storage locker, and had overflow in a commercial storage unit. Now with a large house, I can readily find things but space is still at a premium. One solution I use is when I get a box, I weed out single cds and lps (yes, I still have them despite offloading hundreds when I moved) that are now in the box. Gone as well, are all tapes, open reel and cassettes. But I feel compelled to make cdrs of live performance material of all types. Hundreds of those. IMSLP? I can't look at scores online. So I must print the ones I want, usually full page, though some work as miniature scores, two to a page. Most recently, full page Smetana's Brandenburgers in Bohemia and Gustave Kerker's Belle of New York (on cpo, recommended.) Scores take space. (I also have 78s, cylinders and decades of High Fidelity and nearly complete run of Opera News, 1940-2010,the latter of which I stopped saving from about 2011 when the magazine turned into glossy fluff.) Happily, in this climate I can store printed matter in the garage safely on shelves with doors. Closets are good places to store boxes, there's always room somewhere. The walk-in closet with those shelves designed for ladies' shoes is a great place for cds, scores, and boxes. Linen closets are actually for more music storage--and dvds. If you're looking for a new bed, I bought a king that has a bookshelf headboard and commodious drawers on two levels all around. Well worth the extra expense!

[@richardwills5780]

Wonderful tour. I feel your pain!

[@nihon_nippon]

I always find videos where people show off or talk about their massive collections to be very enjoyable. I often get a little jealous but they have the burden of having to store and move it so perhaps if I had it their way, I'd be a lot less enthusiastic about it lol. Anyways, thanks for the chat!

[@user-zu2hx5ib4s]

Dave, based on your recommendation, I just purchased the Barenboim/Chicago Bruckner cycle on DG on mint vinyl.

[@ahartify]

Don't forget that LPs, 78s and cassettes are making a comeback, and there is a local shop in my town in New Zealand that sells this stuff and has survived when half the shops went out of business during the pandemic. All is not necessarily lost for the CD, and its sound quality is better than digital steaming anyway.

[@dmntuba]

I truly understand your issue, but would still luv to spend a week walking/digging thru your collection 👍

[@noliverslol387]

Loved the "cd" tour! haha

[@michaelmurray8742]

I’m struggling to manage the 4000ish CDs in my collection. Yours seems to be a full time job! Maybe you need to employ a curator to deal with it. You mentioned you’d like to keep some of it…how do you decide what to keep??? Keep on collecting and thanks for sharing.

[@sleepjar7013]

Dave, thank you for the tour. It’s your own version of the Tower Records Classical Annex! Maybe you could build a fort with all the big cd boxes and do a video from inside!

[@nicolehale5662]

Hello Dave. Thanks for this outstanding video. I have often wondered, “Will he ever give a tour of his collection?” And here we are. Watching this video I couldn’t help but think, “Could I be hired onto the team that volunteers their time to catalog Dave’s physical media collection onto Discogs?”

[@jegog.]

I have dozens of box sets big and small. I've ripped them all and all my other CDs (uncompressed) into iTunes on an 8TB SSD drive (with a couple of HD backups). I put the disks in their sleeves on my CD racks, but the big boxes that they came in are now in storage, clogging up my attic. All the CDs that came in Jewel cases are in drawers with the inserts. Getting rid of the Jewel cases opened up lots of space in my CD shelves for the sleeves from the boxes. I've spent quite a bit of time organizing everything on iTunes. I can find any recording in just seconds which is better than any streaming service I've tried. Dave's collection looks to be at least 10 times bigger than mine (mine is about 10,000 disks), so I don't think he would live long enough to rip and organize everything.

[@kkmug78]

Hugely interested in your scores collection.

[@bumblesby]

I have a large collection of CDs in a couple of CD albums. I ditched the jewel cases and simply inserted the back, front and inserts into the sleeves. Lately I have been using those plastic shoe box size boxes to put in the CD and stuff so I don't have to fold it. It saves tons of space from individual CDs for the big box sets LOL

[@petterw5318]

I understand what you're saying, but I saw the two Jochum DG boxes and you still haven't done them! Or the Cluytens box! Maybe the idea could be "make a video of it, put it away".

[@The_5-Minute_Detective]

I’m looking forward to the Garage Sale of the Century!

[@maxmachado8632]

You could establish the “David Hurwitz Foundation for Music and Arts” with all of that in its library…

[@bigalfactotum9935]

Of all the sets I know, the most cumbersome is the Anne Sophie Mutter “fandeck” from DG, which came with her discs arrayed in a domino-fan projecting from a scarlet slab of glass. Where do you put something like that?

[@gardenphoto]

For those of you who are very curious, The Jewish-French composer, Charles-Valentin Alkan, (supposedly) met his end when a rather large bookcase toppled over him when he was reaching for a book on one the higher shelves! Be warned, Dave; the ghost of Karajan is waiting in a rather large and hefty BOX to do you in when you least expect it! Keeping the HvK monolith at sea-level is an excellent precaution; it can't fall off the floor! 😁"Listen carefully," indeed!

[@dizwell]

A tip from 20 years ago: digitize! In your case, now, ripping your CDs to hard disk would involve serious coin. You'll need to pay several someones to do it correctly, or otherwise live to 176 if you choose to do it yourself. You'll also need server hardware and multiple 18TB+ disks to store it all. Then, whatever you build as a fault-tolerant server, you'll need to build three of them: primary, backup and backup of the backup. And you'll need a fourth copy on a single hard disk that you keep off-site and update every six months. Once digitized, the physical disks can just be stuffed in a loft or cellar for relatives to sift through once you have gone to meet the great record producer in the sky (and I don't mean John Culshaw!) I love _owning_ music. But I long ago gave up trying to manage _physical_ CDs. For you, it may be too late, however!! I appreciate you said you like physical product, handling it and so on: but I'd reserve that for the scores, which never work as well digitally as their paper-based equivalents. Music can be owned and collected _without_ the need to accumulate mountains of cardboard and polyacryllate platters, however! Anyone coming to collecting classical music fresh: digitize early! Don't leave it until a warehouse of CDs needs ripping. Doing it as you acquire is the key to it not being a chore or an expensive project! By the way, that cat-climb on your wall is adorable. No wonder the cats are happy: you obviously care for their play-needs extremely well. 😅

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

It try. Sometimes I think they even appreciate it.

[@mmahpeel]

A solution - purchase a double-wide trailer and plop it in the back yard. Place the trash in the trailer - select Liszt and maybe the Khachaturian symphonies could be inaugural and free up space elsewhere.

[@stefanehrenkreutz1839]

Dave: I have a friend who has made a set of prompt cards for young children. One of the cards says "I am heard." I would like to assure you that you can say 'I am heard " with total confidence.

[@berry5593]

Ha! Classical music keeps you agile!

[@sjc1204]

It was fun to see your box set predicament and also to just hear a ramble. It's overwhelming to think about your collection if it were all in one place; this and the overflow. What are your largest box sets both in number of discs and by physical dimensions?

[@clemmteetonball11]

Fantastic stuff ! I've still got 700+ cassettes of recorded live concerts from Radio 3 (BBC) including gigs that the BBC haven't kept. Storage is an issue I can tell ya'.

[@SO-ym3zs]

You should use the Abbado box for an Ottoman!

[@MichaelFrontz]

You said it- I "collect" digitally the stuff I want to get to and buy the stuff I'm really into or want to have in my house. Actually, I have avoided getting sucked into collecting classical CDs- unless they aren't available digitally. Bluray films are the thing I've found myself accumulating, and I need to be careful not to overflow into my partner's space.

[@johanr3580]

I liked the contraptions for your cats

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

So do they.

[@culturalconfederacy]

Pretty soon, Dave will be doing videos peering out from behind his shelves and box sets.

[@cartologist]

Nice shofar!

[@lukestables708]

What an amazing collection. Can't help but feel though that digitization is the way to go?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I will never have the time.

[@libor4128]

Dear Mr Hurwitz, can I ask your permission to show this video to my wife and son? Just to let them appreciate that I am not the biggest CD hoarder in the universe, which I suspect is what they think. I admire your achievement as CD collector, and as a member of the same generation (I was born in 1963) I totally understand your preference for physical products over digital ones.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Of course. Public humiliation is my destiny.

[@curseofmillhaven1057]

Certainly, I don't have as many CD's as you Mr H but enough for it to cause significant issues with my other half. I have now resorted to seruptiously sneaking newly acquired discs into the house, ripping them to a media player fairly quickly and then storing the discs in a room in the loft (where my wife never goes). Inevitably though, I am starting to run out of space there, so goodness knows what I'm going to do!

[@davidaltschuler9687]

One of the funniest comments from a music writer soon after CDs came out went something like: One of the best things about CDs is you can get them into your room without the wife seeing them and asking "Don't you have enough of those yet??"

[@davidthedude327]

You have got the most insane amount of CD's.

[@joseortiz1815]

Thank you very much for your videos Mr Hurwitz which I really enjoyed very much... Just one request; after show us a couple of times that big big big Abbado box, are you not going to do a whole review? ...maybe in 2 or more videos?😊...just a thought. Thanks again & all the best.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I reviewed all the Abbado stuff in the smaller boxes, so he's covered very, very well.

[@joseortiz1815]

@@DavesClassicalGuide ok David, I see the point, I'll keep watching those videos...and listening sure. Thank you!

[@uccelino]

Thanks for the tour, Dave. Makes my own collection look like a shrip on the back of a blue whale…. Love it❤ Big collections of excellent music makes me smile, wether they be CDs, LPs or scores. - But I didn’t see a stereo there? Do you listen on headphones or do you have a stereo tucked away elsewhere?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

More than one.

[@user-wp4ju4hp5w]

Claudio Abbado conducting the Lussane Festival Orchestra are truly memorable

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

No, most of them are pretty mediocre.

[@robertdandre94101]

ask dave.....,.why do we collect records....? and how many times will we listen to each record in a lifetime....once, twice, three times.....?????

[@caleblaw3497]

I tried to donate some CDs and DVDs to local library and they refused to take them. The same happened to Goodwill stores. One day when I die, whoever cleaning up my belongings will likely just throw everything away as trash. That is kind of sad to think of. I tried to sell things at eBay too. But no matter how low you price them at, no one is buying them.

[@PhillipYewTree]

I have no idea how you find the time to listen to this number of cds.

[@abdias8293]

On your major shelf of box sets, which box is the one in between Verdi and Fricsay's? Thanks.

[@BriGuy1974]

You have major shelves, maybe add minor shelves and keep atonal out in the hallway?

[@jeffreylevy1108]

This may not be the place to raise this, but...for those of us who are long time collectors...and who dont know anyone who would appreciate this stuff....WHAT CAN ONE DO WITH IT in the AFTERWARDS....???? Say, over the next twenty years.??? I have a very large library of specialized books and classical cds. At some point I will consider consolidating...at some point how do I pass these things on???? Any ideas. University libraries are changing. From what I hear, they dont even want donations of books. let alone music cds.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

We've talked about that. Either throw it out or just leave it for someone else to worry about after you're gone.

[@OuterGalaxyLounge]

Thanks for letting us case your joint. The foot community (I'm not in that, OK, I just know how the internet is) are going to have a field day with your tootsies, lol. Impressive demonstration of upper body strength, showing us what Abbado was mostly good for. OK, that was too far, but we kid 'round here. Nice honesty about the collecting conundrum; I know guys with a far worse situation.

[@PhillipYewTree]

Hi Dave, the solution is to have a box-room.

[@billspectre9502]

OMG! What a bunch of stuff! It needs to all be preserved as a collection, or not…. One thing I’m wondering though, when you put on a shirt and tie to speak about The Ninth! Are you also in shorts and barefoot?? 🎉🎉

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Sometimes. Or naked.

[@dmntuba]

You could build another overflow room out of all your box sets or build more shelves with box sets to hold more box sets...or maybe a guest house 😂

[@jonobester5817]

You could have your own radio station/show.

[@Vandalarius]

IKEA Kallax shelves should work for most oversized boxes! That Rostropovich box is not going to fit anywhere though.

[@zdl1965]

Thanks for the tour of Aladdin's cave, or is it Ali Baba's cave? Nope, its Dave's industrial complex, CD collector of the millennium! I'll show this to the missus, just to make her feel better about my mess.

[@harrycornelius373]

Abado box is more hassle than hassock

[@SO-ym3zs]

Your complaint about the boxes being physically clunky and awkward has an obvious solution: streaming. But, streaming sucks :) I only buy music on physical media, space be damned!

[@eduardoyoshikawa9767]

OMG it's really a lot of boxes (and discs in general). But it's not just because you love music; it's your job after all, so it's justifiable. About the Abbado box, I would suggest that you throw the discs away and stash all your valuables (family jewels, gold bars and the like) inside. The robbers will never look there :)

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Good advice!

[@stevemcclue5759]

Put Mildred's basket on the Abbado box...

[@jean-pierreissele7916]

I remember that Dave, when making the video of this box, tried something of the kind, but did not really succeeded! 😂

[@fredcasden]

Is it filling up the house or taking over the house? Just asking.

[@michaelhughes1504]

Looks like it's time for you to start collecting LPs!

[@neilblaze168]

How many of these box sets did you actually purchase, vs. receive as a complimentary review copy?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

All of them.