How do you store your cd's?

[coastrat]

God, I LOVE forums like this where people post things they've made and make me think I could actually do it despite having only a pair of scissors and some balsa wood shavings for materials...

Anyway....I'm curious what a lot of you use for cd storage? I've got 300-ish and I'm torn between wanting them to be relatively accessible, but yet not obnoxiously noticeable.

I really dislike those metal vertical stands (and their wooden counterparts) b/c I feel they're inefficient and a little ugly. Ikea has a few things, but, you know...Ikea...

Y'all always come through on some creative solutions so I'm anxious to see who uses what.

[SlumpBuster]

Unfortunately, I'm using ugly wood racks you wouldn't want. Currently I have two rack 4 feet wide by 4 feet tall, hand made by me out of red oak. They are designed to hold a little more than 1400 cds, both space and weight wise... and they are almost full. So big and ugly rules the day at my house. But I have a "dedicated media room" (also known as a finished basement herein the midwest :D).

Assuming you don't want to rip them to a computer, for 300 disks, I would get one of those Sony 400 disk megachangers. You can always daisychain 2 more changers on if the collection grows. You can get them for spare change on ebay. Plus, they can integrate well into a higher end system if you only use them as a transport and use and outboard DAC.

[coastrat]

Assuming you don't want to rip them to a computer, for 300 disks, I would get one of those Sony 400 disk megachangers. You can always daisychain 2 more changers on if the collection grows. You can get them for spare change on ebay. Plus, they can integrate well into a higher end system if you only use them as a transport and use and outboard DAC.



Hmm, that's an interesting approach I hadn't thought of. I'll look into the those big mammajamma cd changers.

Would a similar concept be to employ an iPod (sigh) and run that through a DAC?

I've never used a DAC or researched them before so I'm a bit unfamiliar on them. Any
recs?

Thanks!

[nightflier]

Ikea Beno CD Towers with shelves in between. I have 5 towers so far.

[PeruvianSkies]

After I throw out the case and the artwork/booklet I lay them flat on the ground and stack them one on top of the other. Right now I have 3 stacks that are about 4 feet high. You don't want to stack them any higher than 4 feet as they topple over too easily at this height. You also want to make sure that you lay them facedown so that the shiny side is facing up, you know...to prevent scratches to them. This makes it a bit challenging to find the CD that you want as you have to pretty much search through each CD to eventually find it, but that only makes you appreciate it all the more once you have it. Sometimes the top 3 CD's in the stack, which are usually the most recently purchased, get the most playtime because they are the easiest to find.

[Rich-n-Texas]

You do not. :lol: Coastrat, go to the pictures gallery and find PeruvianSkies photos of his HT setup. It's mammoth!

[coastrat]

After I throw out the case and the artwork/booklet I lay them flat on the ground and stack them one on top of the other. Right now I have 3 stacks that are about 4 feet high. You don't want to stack them any higher than 4 feet as they topple over too easily at this height. You also want to make sure that you lay them facedown so that the shiny side is facing up, you know...to prevent scratches to them. This makes it a bit challenging to find the CD that you want as you have to pretty much search through each CD to eventually find it, but that only makes you appreciate it all the more once you have it. Sometimes the top 3 CD's in the stack, which are usually the most recently purchased, get the most playtime because they are the easiest to find.



I tried this once, but it was too hard to keep cutting the 80 grit sandpaper spacers I made to put in between each cd.

[nightflier]

How about:

http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/summary.php?PID=39&Title=Azur%20640H%20Music%20Server%20-%20with%20AudioFile%20technology

Or some such device?

[coastrat]

You know it's funny how simplistic some of these ideas are. Having a cd/hard drive combo seems so obvious. However...$1,200? Wow.

The idea is great though. Sorry, hope I don't sound like a whiner.

[PeruvianSkies]

I tried this once, but it was too hard to keep cutting the 80 grit sandpaper spacers I made to put in between each cd.

Two other things I forgot to mention:

1. I also make sure that the CD's are near a window that allows a large amount of sunlight to make direct contact with the CD's. This enables me to locate the CD's easier with the brightness of the sun, but it also causes some great patterns to form from the sun reflecting off the CD's reflective layer making a sort of rainbow all over the ceiling...very cool.

2. Sometimes I'll place a post-it note on the ones that I want to find quickly, but I make sure that the sticky part is touching the label side...you know...don't wanna damage the disc.

[Rich-n-Texas]

How 'bout this...

I recently received my two Genesis remastered DVD's in the mail, opened the case and found that it included a DVD-A disk and a CD/SACD disk. The one thing I noticed though was that one of them had what looked like a brown tinge on it's play side. No problemo I said to myself. So as to maintain color conformity across all disks, I broke out my trusty CD cleaner and started scrubbing. Took a little elbow grease and some Biccardi 151 rum (added to strengthen the alcohol based CD cleaning solution), and viola! About ten minutes later I had nice shiny silver finishes to both disks!

Man, I'll bet ya they're going to sound sooo smooth and clear ya know? :thumbsup:

[Feanor]

...
Anyway....I'm curious what a lot of you use for cd storage? I've got 300-ish and I'm torn between wanting them to be relatively accessible, but yet not obnoxiously noticeable.
...

I bought a used computer: P4/2.66MHz, 512Mb for Cdn$250; I use this with an external HD, 160Mb, about Cdn$100, where the music is stored in Apple Lossless; I use an old monitor, keyboard and mouse. Works great!

I now have the option of storing my CDs in a closet if I so choose. My wife and I have roughly 650 CDs of which about 400 have already been ripped.

[basite]

don't you mean Gigabytes instead of Megabytes?

I store my cd's on my desk, I'm almost running out of space, so a shelf (I've got plenty of space on the wall at my desk) will be coming soon...

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[Feanor]

don't you mean Gigabytes instead of Megabytes?

...
Keep them spinning,
Bert.

Yes, my boob, gigabytes, I meant. Mind you, I easily recall when a > 160 megabyte hard drive was considered enormous, circa 1992. For that matter I can recall when a 10 megabyte HD was big. I tend to live in the past.

[GMichael]

120 of them are recorded on my CDR.
115 more are on my computer.
There are 100 more in a plastic, slide in rack in the living room.
Some unknown number are in the hutch under the screen.
Another number of them are spread on the floor next to the hutch.
Many are hiding somewhere in my car.
A few are hiding in the wife's car.
Several are missing altogether.

[noddin0ff]

Duplicate (actually triplicate) Hard Drives!!! 320Gb will last for the rest of the year, but at the rate of new CD acquisition, a 500GB upgrade will be needed soon.

Did I mention redundant backups?

~800 CD's worth stored in lossless compression.

Backups...

The disks them selves are going into around 15 of these Large Storage Cases (http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?CATID=71227&PRODID=62770). Each holds around 60 with the spine up to the top. They're clear enough to read through and small enough not to get to cumbersome or heavy. They stack Ok. They're as cheap as I can find for mass storage.