The purpose of this Webpage is to describe briefly the collections of books and audiovisual media that my wife, Martha E. Richardson, and I, Ronald E. Wyllys, have accumulated over the years, as well to explain how we store, use, and manage these collections.
At present our audiovisual-media collection contains approximately 1500 CDs, about 90% of which are classical music; the rest are a mixture of mostly folk music, some jazz, and some spoken-word recordings. Of movies and operas, we have about 400 DVDs and 100 VHS tapes; the former number increases steadily; the latter decreases slowly through replacements by DVDs, but we expect always to keep some irreplaceable VHS tapes. We have around 100 cassette tapes, mostly folk music; many of them are unique recordings that do not exist in other media. Finally, we have around 200 LPs, the residue of a collection that once consisted of over 1500 LPs. The majority of the LPs that we have kept are unique recordings that have not been issued on CDs (and likely will not be).
Our book collection currently numbers around 4,000 volumes, heavily weighted toward science (especially mathematics, physics, and astronomy), computer technology, music, and history (especially the history of science and technology), along with detective stories and with science fiction from the 1920s through the 1950s. Our books are stored in bookcases located in every room in our house (except the bathrooms), in our garage, and in a storage building in our back yard. Some of the bookcases were built into the house when it was constructed in the 1950s; some were purchased from furniture stores and from local bookcase makers; and some I built myself. We even constructed a bookcase for paperback books by removing a section of wallboard from an interior hallway and installing hardware for adjustable shelves between the studs (the uprights within the wall).
This section records the major considerations and conditions that we took into account in designing our Home Entertainment Center (HEC). Our goal for our HEC was to combine, in a single set of free-standing furniture pieces, the means of providing for both the presentation and the storage of a variety of audiovisual (AV) media.
Starting with an initial design concept prepared for us by able architect-designer Philip E. Rudick of Austin, Texas, the design of our HEC was done largely by Martha, with plentiful comments from me. The details of the design (e.g., exterior heights, widths, and depths of units; interior widths and depths of drawers) were done by me, with several later corrections contributed by Marshall E. Baxter, the master builder, super-craftsman, and superb carpenter who built the HEC units in his shop in Paige, Texas. We hope that others may find some of our design choices, and/or the reasoning behind them, useful in designing their personal entertainment centers.
The picture below shows the five individual units of the HEC, flanked by a pair of tower speakers. All the units provide AV media storage, and all but the left outer unit also house AV equipment. In the upper portions of the flanking units, the holes for the shelf pins are drilled on 1" (25.4 mm) spacing, rather than the usual 1-1/4" (32 mm), in order to provide finer adjustments of the shelf placements.
The five units were constructed using high-quality, furniture-grade, maple-veneer plywood. The doors in the upper inner units are fitted with glass having a light bronze tint. The units are free-standing and separate, so that they can be moved as necessary (e.g., for cleaning and for making wiring connections). They are placed tight against each other along the west wall of our living room. We refer to the five units, from left to right, as (i) the outer left flanking unit, (ii) the inner left flanking unit, (iii) the central unit, (iv) the inner right flanking unit, and (v) the outer right flanking unit.
SUMMARY OF DIMENSIONS
Item |
American |
Metric |
| Overall height of central unit | 73" |
185.4 cm |
| Overall width of central unit | 50-1/2" |
128.3 cm |
| Overall depth of lower portion of central unit | 25" |
63.5 cm |
| Overall depth of upper portion of central unit | 15" |
38.1 cm |
| Height of lower portion of central unit | 26-1/4" |
66.7 cm |
| Available interior height between shelves, upper portion of central unit | 14-1/4" |
36.2 cm |
| Interior width of center-speaker space (centered between sides of central unit) | 29" |
73.7 cm |
| Interior width of television-set space | 49" |
124.5 cm |
| Interior height of television-set space | 31" |
78.7 cm |
| Interior width of subwoofer alcove (centered between sides of central unit) | 16-1/2" |
41.9 cm |
| Interior height of subwoofer alcove | 21-1/2" |
54.6 cm |
| Overall height of individual flanking units | 84" |
213.4 cm |
| Overall width of individual flanking units | 20-7/8" |
53.0 cm |
| Overall height of lower portions of flanking units | 40-1/8" |
101.9 cm |
| Overall height of upper portions of flanking units | 43-3/4" |
111.1 cm |
| Overall depth of lower portions of all flanking units | 21" |
53.3 cm |
| Overall depth of upper portions of outer flanking units | 15" |
38.1 cm |
| Overall depth of upper portions of inner flanking units | 21" |
53.3 cm |
| West wall width | 15' 6" |
4.72 m |
| Overall width of five units | 11' 2" |
3.40 m |
| Overall width of five units plus tower speakers spaced 1-5/16" (3.3 cm) away from cabinets | 12' 8-3/16" |
3.87 m |
| Space remaining on either side of cabinetry plus speakers | 16-11/16" |
42.4 cm |
The lefthand picture below shows a closer view of the central unit. At the top is a center speaker; in the middle is an HDTV receiver with a diagonal size of 40 inches (102 cm), and at bottom right under the TV, an LED 24-hour-display clock. At the bottom is a subwoofer, flanked by two enclosures that house drawers for LP albums and cassette-tape albums. The center drawer, above the subwoofer, is used to house miscellaneous items.
The righthand picture below shows the left of the flanking enclosures and the two types of drawers. Both the LP drawers and the tape-cassette drawers have an interior depth of 22-1/4" (56.5 cm) and an interior width of 12-7/8" (32.7 cm). The LP-drawer sides have an interior height of 8-1/4" (21 cm). The tape-cassette drawers are divided into 2 files by a divider with a thickness of 3/8" (9.5 mm), cut to dimensions of 22-1/2" (57.2 cm) by 3-3/4" (9.5 cm). The tape-cassette drawer sides have an interior height of 3-3/4" (9.5 cm).
As all collectors of vinyl media are aware, LPs are heavy. A sample stack of
our LPs just 6" (15 cm) high weighed almost exactly 25 pounds (11.3 kg).
This meant that the LP drawers, which are almost 2 feet (61 cm) deep, would
each be holding about 100 pounds (45 kg) of albums, so for these drawers we
used extra-capacity (150 pound [68 kg]) full-extension drawer glides.
In the flanking units, the four 5-drawer stacks contain identical drawers, each of which can be fitted with fore-and-aft dividers to provide either 3 files suited for CD storage, or 2 files suited for DVD and/or VHS videotape storage. All drawers are fitted with full-extension glides. The upper portions of the outer flanking units are used for objets d'art and, in the right outer unit, an LP turntable. The lefthand picture below shows a CD drawer; the righthand, a DVD drawer.
The lefthand picture below shows a VHS videotape drawer. The righthand picture below shows the back of a drawer, displaying the three grooves that are cut into the back of each drawer (there are three matching grooves on the inside of the front of each drawer). This arrangement makes it possible to insert either (a) one fore-and-aft divider, to provide two files for either DVDs or VHS tapes, or (b) two fore-and-aft dividers, to provide three files for CDs. These drawers have an interior width of 16-3/8" (41.6 cm); a usable interior clear height of 6-1/8" (15.6 cm); and an interior depth of 19" (48.3 cm). The dividers are made from maple-veneer plywood of 3/8" (9.5 mm) thickness, cut to 19-5/16" (49.1 cm) in length and 3-3/4" (9.5 cm) in height. The grooves were recessed sufficiently to provide a snug, but not binding, fit for the dividers.
Our HEC also includes two rear speakers, mounted in the ceiling behind the seats
of the primary viewers. These speakers are shown in the next picture. Altogether,
the six speakers in our system enable us to listen in the multi-channel mode
commonly described as "Dolby 5.1".
We have found these programs from Collectorz.com to be exceptionally user-friendly, and we have been especially favorably impressed with the responsiveness of Collectorz.com staff members to the needs and wishes of the users of their software.*
*Disclaimer: We have no connection with Collectorz.com except
that of satisfied customers.
Comments or questions: wyllys <at> ischool <dot> utexas <dot>
edu
Webpage last updated: 2008 December 13