Music Library Tour

[@pnichols6500]

I have the same Ikea CD shelves, they are perfect for me. I have come to disliked (a lot) storage where you have to read the spine. All my records are stored where I can flip through them and see the covers, or on the wall where I can display them and access easily. Have custom made copper wall racks that look cool and hold multiple albums as well. Fortunately my wife loves this and we have pretty much have decorated our living room/dining room around music and we each have our own stereo system.

[@LetsCleanaRecord]

That's such a nice way to flip through records. Send a pic! Link to our email address above. Thanks for watching!

[@automatedelectronics6062]

My storage, for LP's, I use4-4x4 Ikea Kallax shelving units. Because my walls are a little over 8 ft. tall, I stack the Kallax units, so I have 2 stacks of 2. The bottom 2 rows of each stack originally housed my boxed sets but running out of room, I moved those to 4 new Kallax 4x1 shelving units with 2 stacks on either side of my LP shelving units. I then housed my R2R tape collection in file boxes on that row of shelves. Needing more room for LP's, I removed all but my box of quadraphonic R2R tapes. Those R2R boxes are now stacked between the legs of a tall front speaker stand which I built. The bottom row of my main Kallax shelving units houses my 78 rpm collection in dedicated record boxes. In between the 2 stacks of the main Kallax 4x4 shelving stacks is most of my CD collection . Housed in 2-5 ft. wide shelving units, also stacked. The overflow, which includes my Christmas and Classical CD's are in a huge drawer. For the boxed CD sets which were a little too large for the shelves, but not as large as those in the rest of my boxed sets, I found a couple of small shelving units, with adjustable shelves, which I stacked between the legs of my other tall front speaker stand Then there is my 7" collection, which numbers around 11K. I have 2 6.5 ft. tall x 47 in. wide Teak bookcases, back to back, which I got at Copenhagen Furniture maybe 30 years ago. There is also another Teak bookcase almost 6 ft. tall x 37 in. wide up against one wall. I still needed more shelves so I bought a bookcase from Office Depot. This houses my 7" boxed sets and my Compact 33/Little LP collection. All these are in my computer room/office where I also do my recording to hard drives of my record and CD collections.

[@LetsCleanaRecord]

Pic please!

[@ericelliott227]

I don't hold much with ratings and the like. It is completely subjective and opinion. One might rate an LP 4 stars and the next person may think it rates 1 star. I don't buy records based on ratings. I buy records based on familiarity, research and the like. I have roughly 850 records. I use Ikea Kallax 2x4 units stacked on top of each other and modified. I built the units and installed metal angle brackets in each outside corner. I then measured the space of the cubes and determined where I wanted my records to sit. I took 1/4 round dowels and cut them to fit and Gorilla glued them in place. I then put one unit on top of the other and installed metal flat brackets in back. I happen to have my records organized alphabetically by artist, I then purchased some high quality plastic angle cut dividers (the kind that can be used in bins or shelves or what have you), they were dead cheap when I bought them and I made alpha labels with a label maker. I could have organized by genre or any other way, but with my space and all it would not be that practical. I do have my classical and various artist records separate though in record crates as I have no room for more LP Ikea units. I have about the same amount of CDs and built my own CD racks. I designed them to look like obelisks and painted them black. They had LED lighting and glass doors, but after a time I took the doors off as they were more nuisance than anything else (they also presented some acoustical issues in the room). So now it is just open shelves and lighting, much better. I also use a stand alone cataloging program that I customized. I know what I have on the shelves and all and there is tons of info for each LP and CD. (Personal preference as I am a custodian/historian of records). Besides the obligatory new HDPE inner sleeves after cleaning/restoring and an outer sleeve for most, I store my records in the jackets, not outside them. 95% to 97% of my records are original pressings and most of the jackets are not perfect of course, so I personally see little point in storing the media outside of the jacket. That said, there is also nothing wrong with storing that way, it is just preference. The important thing is to not store records too tight. I have mine so I can easily pull them out and put them back in without any struggle or friction and whatnot. Not too loose so they rest at large angles, but not too tight either, just enough breathing room to keep them upright at a proper angle range. As for CDs: I keep mine in the jewel cases obviously. I was never one for tossing the jewel cases and storing the media in wallets or what have you. While not much can be said for the artwork of a CD, there is still information and while the wallets won't really scratch the CD (CDs are pretty tough when it comes to scratches), I just like to keep the info and personally find the wallets too fidgety. As for your cleaning demo: Still doing things incorrectly I see. You use too much fluid first of all. You also continue to let the vacuum go too long! You should also not get a lot of bubbles or foam. You don't want to try to aerate, you just want to agitate and let the weight of the brush do most of the work and no need to be over aggressive. Also #15 needs to be followed by either the 3-step or #6 per instruction. However, if you want to put the record straight into a cavitation RCM right after, that is fine too. Nothing wrong there. I have a separate brush for each fluid and a separate wand for cleaning fluid and rinse. I also got a thin vinyl or neoprene turntable mat to put on the cork plate of my VPI between sides. It made no sense to put a dirty record on the cork plate and clean side one, then turn the record over and put the cleaned side down on the now dirty cork table. Sorry, but blowing it off with a little blower doesn't cut it. So I will put the record direct on the cork table for the first side and then when that is done I put the vinyl or neoprene mat on and do the other side. I also noted a lot of bubbles on the record as it went through the KLAudio, that means the cavitation is NOT getting into the grooves! I also have suspected for a while that the KLAudio is not a cavitation machine, but in fact a bubbler.

[@kenheitmueller69]

I'm pretty sure I ruined another otherwise mint LP by overscrubbing with both the goats hair brush and drying with my RCM with 'velvet lips' style manifold. I have test files from an uncleaned LP and same one after cleaning and although the high level clicks and pops went away after cleaning, there was a new, constant low levels grunge that was not there previously. I am convinced that we should never scrub our grooves. ever.

[@pnichols6500]

Interesting, I don't use brushes except for the very fine hair type (Kirmuss style) because I feel they are aggressive, use felt pad type (MoFi) over the carbon fiber type for removing dust because under strong light I always see fibers left on the record. Don't know if I'm right, just my personal preference.

[@LetsCleanaRecord]

Sorry to hear that. May I ask, what kind of fluid did you use and did you use the goat hair brush with that fluid?

[@kenheitmueller69]

@@pnichols6500 I've noticed that many brushes leave a circular smeary track visible between the leadout grooves. This is scratching. If it's scratching the shiny area between the leadout grooves, It's scratching the groove walls as well. I threw both the carbon fiber ones and the black pad ones away. way too aggressive.

[@kenheitmueller69]

@@LetsCleanaRecord I use the old distilled water with 10% IPA and a couple drops of Photoflow that I've been using for 35 years with no problems. I now do a pure distilled water rinse after as well. I barely touched the vinyl with the goats hair brush lately. I'm pretty sure that my RCM having new replacement lips that are pretty high bristled felt is the culprit. I did some videos and direct recorded examples of playing a dirty used record before and after treatment, thinking I was going to make a video about the merits of thorough cleaning only to discover that while the treatment indeed got rid of the loud clicks and pops, it introduced a low-level constant grunge that was definitely not there on the first uncleaned pass. I wonder how many thousands of LPs are being destroyed by over-zealous scrubbing.

[@ericelliott227]

@@kenheitmueller69 Goat's hair brushes are softer than the Osage brushes (which I use) and way softer than the VPI brush, so I don't think it is the brushes causing your issue. One also need not get too aggressive with bushes either. You don't want to try to aerate the fluid or create foam. All yo want to do is agitate, just let the weight of the brush do it and you need only do so for about one minute total if you are using an enzymatic formula. You first spread the fluid, then agitate for 30 seconds or so, let it rest for a minute, agitate again for 30 seconds or so and then let it sit for another 30 seconds to one minute and vacuum off. For rinse just spread the water, run the weight of the brush around once or twice and vacuum. The lips on the vacuum wands should be velvet or similar and should come just over the edge of the slit by the hairs of the material, like right up to it. Over vacuuming can also cause audible scratches that can sound like "low-level grunge" (risen noise floor). That homebrew you are using will also cause that "low-level grunge" especially in combination with over vacuuming and what have you. That 10% quantity IPA even at 70% high let alone 91% high concentrate is too much. IPA can harden some contaminates to the groove walls in a concentration like that. For records stored in a typical home, most of the contaminates are protein based and IPA can harden proteins. Photoflo is a hydrophobic surfactant, kind of like that found in dish soap. You are essentially laying down a shield burying any leftover contaminates still on the record. I used to be a photographer and developed my own pictures. Photoflo is to stop the "fixer solution" (aka "Stop bath") from going too far and burning in print photo development and essentially seal the photo to protect it hence it's hydrophobic property. Your stylus of course easily cuts through that and what you hear is the dirt that was not removed essentially. It takes more than one session usually to get any used record clean and or restored no matter what. The "low-level grunge" you hear is contaminates left behind, essentially you have raised the noise floor. I can get the same from my favorite my trusted AIVS fluids after just one session or what have you depending on the contamination of the record, etc. Whether using enzymatic formulas or not, the cleaning fluid will lift and suspend some contaminates right away to be removed, but other contaminates may only get softened and form a layer via a little brushing and especially vacuuming, because you have essentially now spread those softened contaminates. Subsequent cleanings with the right fluids and method will remove those softened contaminates to a point, sometimes all the way depending. After that, the only way is proper cavitation. I say "proper" cavitation which includes both proper machine design and methodology as I have seen "cavitation" machines also raise the noise floor. As with anything, the right tool for the right job.