Analog Gear News

Truly you jest! Cheers,Chet

I posted about this on The Vinyl Asylum

Holds 60-75 records. $3750- that's for one unit! $500 more for walnut. Yes, with this unit you can look at the lps either from the spines or rotate and look at the front. But look how much shelf space it wastes. This is certainly a disadvantage. And for these lofty prices, I'm fine reading the spines. Although nothing much surprises me these days, this truly seems like highway robbery to me. I'd love to know how many actually sell.

Is there no ridiculous overpriced 1 percetner product you won't shill for? Is this serving your readers? Are you that desperate and lazy for content? Surely you can do better Emperor Bonaparte.

for that kind of cash you can get a beautiful mid-century looking solid wood sideboard that will hold/store both your equipment and records, and look much more stylish doing it. I see bankruptcy in this company’s future…

strictly numbered and signed special "Founder's Batch"

But artisan storage is hereby declared Not a Thing in this product category, sorry.

"But babe! The boxes are signed! Babe? Where'd you go?"

“ hired "the best designer, engineer and advisors (from Frank Gehry Partners, BOEING Aircraft and Cambridge Audio amongst others)" to execute the concept.”

This doesn’t exactly give one confidence to get in a plane anytime soon!

Maybe if they had an NFT.

I think those devices would cover up too much of my wallpaper made out of hundred dollars bills.

So much anger in the comments.
How dare they make this product and how dare you force me to read about it ;)

Obviously wildly overpriced but the design is interesting. Thanks Michael.

that limited how we can spend our money. As long as someone is not funding a terrorist group, involved in child porn, and any other illegal activity, who GAF what people spend their money on. There are some who have the ability to pay $3800 or $4300 for LP storage and to them it would be equivalent to what others spend on an Ikea Kallax shelf. So what? Last I checked, it's a free country,. So don't get your panties in an uproar. Relax and enjoy your LP's. I'm just pissed I didn't think of it before they did!

First time I’ve heard that phrase. I’ve heard don’t get your panties in a bunch, or a wad. I guess this is a new take on the expression…

Hey Mike.
Ugh.
Sometimes I don’t know what’s more entertaining, the comments or the reason for the comments. It is an amusing product to consider when you have 7k LPs. Will you be at the Tampa show in a few weeks ?
John Deuble
North Florida

I'd don't have the wall space for this and my collection of Cheryl Tiegs' posters.

At $56 per record I’d have to go through my collection and find the LP’s that are worthy.

...that Mr. Fremer didn't misplace a decimal point somewhere? Maybe they're really only forty bucks each. Of course, the bespoke cube market is pretty hot these days so maybe they're forty grand.

or on what they spend their disposable is no one else's business as long as no one is harmed even if most folks finds it evokes the title of WC Fields' film, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. This is product is far from unique in this regard. High end consumer audio is rife with some feel is exorbitant profiteering only because others are willing to pay the fare. To those who choose to draw a line in the sand here and say the emperor is naked, I'm not going to say they're wrong. Maybe I'll ask, "Why here?"

This product's flaw--a fatal flaw to my aging eyes--is the fixed height at which it's attached to the wall. Records stacked face forward are best set at waist to chest height so each jacket can be viewed as the one in front of it is flipped forward whereas spine forward records are best shelved at eye level to facilitate reading the small print. I would insist on a means of raising and lowering the boxes at the asking price.

If I were to criticize Mr. Fremmer, I would point out too in "lern too spel" is a grammatical, not spelling error.

Happy listening &, as always, YMMV.

the asking price.” LOL! I get the sarcasm but good luck with that one! Great idea, though…

The shelves are attractive. The turntable rotation is a good idea that could be implemented on may existing shelves if they have the room.

Did it ever occur to you that you’re the only one here who seems comfortable attacking people personally? “Fock off, verbal diarrhea, jackass”— all your words. None of my postings were personal. You really should look in the mirror before you accuse someone of having anger problems.

Can that be true? It would go a long way to explaining the cost. Its just hard for me to imagine such designers would take on this project and don't have a lot more lucrative work to do, than make a shelf for records which partially spins. Yikes. More power to them all

This is

This is a great idea and you can fashion one at home from some IKEA parts and a Lazy Susan, probably for $50 or less. We should thank the “inventor.”

I think the reason that you get comments like those in this thread about certain kinds of products Michael, and I have nothing but respect for you and your commitment to vinyl records- is that this hobby highlights a couple of things that might bug some folks a bit. Many products are designed for a class of buyer that could, if willing, spend virtually anything they wanted on the hobby. That would be, even here, a tiny fraction of your audience.

What bothers me about a lot of products just like this one, is that they are designed to rip you off-- so long as you're willing to be ripped off.

Let's just be real-- this is a small piece of functional storage furniture, not a Bentley, not an Italian leather sofa, and it is priced to gouge any chump stupid enough to not care they are being reamed. So by all means, buy it. The seller thanks you for supporting his order of magnitude profit margins.

Just like a $20k power cable is an utter RIP-OFF and does not sound better than a $500 power cable-- they just sound different based upon your system, room, etc. If you have the dough for it, buy and enjoy-- but the dude that made that cable that you dropped $20k on is laughing his ass-off all the way to the bank. I know a few people in this biz. They know what they're doing when they design a product for chumps. So chump away! Somewhere in most of their products lines are items that are often a solid value-- then there's the "Bling Series"-- that would be for those seeking a new status symbol.

The multi-thousand dollar record weight (and I of course use weights and clamps on my turntables) and most other clap-trap like this, is designed for people with more money than sense-- but do I say therefore no one should by any of this stuff-- hell no! It's free country.

You are free to believe whatever subjective, placebo fueled nonsense that your heart desires. Even when it defies all logic, physics, or other worldly explanation existing outside of your own head.

Beyond a certain build and materials quality point, things like cables, weights, cable lifts, contact enhancers, etc. and whatever; things don't just keep getting better just because the price gets higher and higher.

You will never be able to sit and listen to an array of any of these types of products and align them in order of price based upon how they sound.

Want to bet?

Why is a $200 bottle of Pinot Noir better than a $30 bottle? It's not. People that think otherwise are deluding themselves. There are differences, but none of them are qualitative. This hobby always likes to claim otherwise. It's a lot BS.

When you get into more complex stuff, like tonearms, amps, turntables, speakers, etc., the rule also applies, just at much higher price points, but beyond a certain point, it's all just flavor notes-- not better, or best, or alien technology, or bespoke whatever.

In this case, it's clever record storage box at a rip-off price point. Yeah, it's a rip-off, but if you dig it, go for it!

Michael- I am sorry to report (and this is not on YOU Sir) that this product is way overpriced.  Who am I to judge?....am an Architect, an Audiophile, an Audio repair technician, and an avid Woodworker (speaker designer/builder). Even if I had $150 million in the bank, I wouldn't be so cavalier to spend 4K on a product with very low intrinsic value.  I mean come on just because the self slides out and spins around does not make this anymore convenient to view records (oh there's a big plate on the front right in the way!) I see what the "designer" is trying to emulate i.e minimalist Art like Donald Judd.  Now if this was made by Judd yea I would pay 15K for one (Then the unit has intrinsic value....an investment) I don't know for sure....but would suspect this was brought to market by a Millennial (some of the most entitled and under deserving generation the world has to offer...not all of them but most in my experience)  Also how is this attached to the wall?....records are heavy as ShXX! I highly doubt the designer thought far enough in advance on that subject (I would have used a blind cleat) Yo

observation that many of us have already made. Yes, it’s over-priced. Newsflash - go take a look at ANY medium or high-end modern furniture shop online and the prices will make your jaw hit the floor. There are lamps that cost multiples of what this guy is asking for his shelf. So a bit of perspective please. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that Michael also featured a cool affordable white table lamp that works amazingly well to light up your hi-if rig. I for one enjoy looking at and reading about over-the-top products once in a while. If it bothers you that much, spend your time flipping through an IKEA catalog instead. I will give you credit though for not feeling the need to include any cheap personal attacks on MF in your post like SOMEONE else who shall remain nameless. Now p,ease excuse me while I go scratch my Elubow…

I’ve never once engaged in personal attacks. However, I’d love to make an exception here: YOU’RE A JERK!

but extremely overpriced, plus I couldn’t imagine stacking them without having them tip when pulling out a draw. Back in the day every department store carried record cabinets that you could stack. I don’t understand why a manufacturer can’t produce a simple cabinet that’s 28”x13”x13” made of 3/4” plywood that can be stacked so you can add units as your collection grows and price them at $150 each. Today it’s either cheap particle board or uber artisan cabinets with little inbetween.

I did chuckle at Michael’s comment in the article, “yes, these are costly”.
But I hope they sell thousands of them so that maybe IKEA knocks them off at a reasonable price.
I think it’s a great storage option for a limited amount of vinyl or for the 1% to who money is no object.

Cool design, out of my budget range.
I would never understand people who get mad because they can’t afford something, but think because they can’t afford it nobody else should be allowed to have it either.

In all the pics of this I've seen (also on their official Instagram page), the lovely artwork that many vinyl records have, is hidden out of sight by an ugly square of metal. It does come in different colors, though. I guess this is what happens when you get a space engineer to do interior design.
So what does it do? Does it 'store' albums? Then it is very expensive. Does is display albums? Then it is a failure.

As I'm sure you were thinking as you wrote the piece but it is an interesting design which could be easily copied by any cabinet shop for a few hundred $ ea, incl the swivel base :)

The "On The Wall" unit looks like the ideal partner in which to display your complete ERC collection and impress you audio buddies! :P

I like these, but I can't afford the asking price. Such is life. I like Patek Phillip watches as well but I'm wearing a Casio. At the end of the day, I have some decent wooden crates that I could screw on a french cleat. Viola! I'm hanging my vinyl collection. But if you can afford these...rock and roll!

Keep in mind, I have some very expensive records. I'm just not buying a shelf that cost more than my records. I understand the concept of putting a 200K car in million dollar home. But you buy the house first because it offers more than just a garage.

For me, they'll be prizing my Per Madsen Designs record racks from my cold dead hands. I know Mikey uses them too, because I've seen them in his photos. I have too many records and not enough wall space to store them that way, even if I could afford to, and don't have any particular "favorites" I want to highlight and break the continuity of my filing system.

BTW you can still get Per Madsen clones from some woodworking craftsmen, at comparable prices to the originals (maybe even better accounting for inflation). Search the 'Net for them if interested. Maybe Mikey will do a review of them.