Packaging and what you do with it.

[For The Love of Music]

Hello AA’ers

Writing to see what everyone’s thoughts are on packaging; what they think of it, what they do with it, does the others in the house want it around?

Now we know it’s somewhat taboo to discard the original packaging in case of warranty or repair, aside from the inevitable trading up. There is some serious thought that’s goes into encasing your components, speakers and cables.

As I have assembled my system it quickly accumulated starting with well constructed cardboard boxes of size. Fiber boxes at the onset of this journey now seems to be followed by an accumulation of wooden jewel type boxes and crates taking up even more space.

My wife finally fed up at looking at all these empty boxes wasting space in an intrusive manner and believing it all represents a waste of money - she blows up and yells at the top of her lungs, “get rid of this S#$T and I mean now”, I exclaim, “but honey you don’t understand”.

Understanding what WAF now means from being on this site, and somewhat fortunate to have a warehouse, I reluctantly agreed to move all my audio packaging into storage where they are shrunk wrapped onto pallets, placed in upper level racking, out of sight and traffic.

For those that don’t have commercial warehouses, are these boxes piling up where your significant other is saying WTF?

Where are you keeping them; the garage, spare bedroom, attic?

Here is the jewel box, and must say beautifully crafted and I now have 6 of these, with one on display and the others getting ready to move out to the warehouse as these in cumulative are the same size as a reference speaker:

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Here is my neighbor carting off speaker crates I made him keep in his garage, later making him and his friend cart them to my facility on his way to Portland. It was already bad enough before these came along and I knew if my wife seen these, it would of sent her off the deep end:

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Well I hope you share how you manage these byproducts of great sound - Happy Listening!

[jdandy]

Ed.......Yep, those big boxes, double boxes, shipping crates,, etc can really pile up as time goes by. I am fortunate to live on a nice piece of property so I bought a 12' x 24' shed with a roll-up door and placed it an acceptable distance from my home out near my work shop. I ran power underground to it for lighting and receptacles, and have used it ever since to store all my boxes. I even have enough room left to squeeze my Gravely zero-turn mower inside and still manage to get the roll-up door pulled down.

I am a firm believer about keeping boxes for my gear. I can store boxes for ten years, decide one day to throw a couple away, and within a month I will need them back. That's just the way it goes, so I keep all of them. That big metal framed shed keeps all of it out of the house and the attic. Well worth it.

[JMD]

Dan

I agree about the boxes and even have some with gear from the late 70's. When I built this house which has a hip roof I had the builder put a 12'x20'x8' walk in storage space in the attic that houses most of the empty boxes except for the wooden crates for the Nola's which are in the garage. Still doesn't prevent me from having some "spare" gear in an unused bedroom that was empty at one point when the youngest left home. I have in the last couple of years sold some of that bought new "vintage" gear and still had the original boxes and packaging which increased the value.

[Antonmb]

I have a detached 3 car garage with an attic, all the boxes go there. I had to cut a large opening in the floor and install a block and tackle to get the bigger boxes up there. It’s a nuisance getting them up there, but worth the effort. Like Dan, occasionally I get the urge to try to thin the herd, but never get very far. My wife supports my hobby, enjoys the system and understands the desire to keep the boxes, but is also happy they’re out of sight.

[2fastdriving]

This is why I have a big garage. Well that and my beautiful cars [emoji16]

[John49]

I have turned a 2-bedroomed Flat/apartment into a barely 1-bedroomed unit... Partner not happy, but she loves me. [emoji445]

[Weirdcuba]

I have thought about dumping external boxes on some smaller stuff, which would save some space (in my attic). I could just replace those when the time comes. Of course, I would keep the manufacturer boxes with logos (into which the packaging goes, etc). I have no more room in my living room for gear or in my attic for boxes.

What about that theory (trashing certain outer boxes)? If you had to ship, you could buy a replacement outer box.

[cdobson]

Offsite storage...

[W9TR]

I am conflicted on this subject. It is a bit of a bone of contention at our house.

I've got a 5' x 8' storage locker that holds all the boxes and some other miscellaneous crap, mostly seasonal sporting goods.

It costs about $45/mo. to maintain.

On one hand, if I got rid of the boxes I could save $540/yr. that's probably enough over time to buy new boxes or have new crates made if I sell anything.

On the other hand, it sure is nice to have those consecutive serial number boxes as part of the package when I go to sell gear. Even if it doesn't really add much to the value, it makes for a faster and cleaner sale.

WRT the jewel boxes - I paid for them, so I'm keeping them!

They annoy me. They don't add anything to the sound. They are beautiful - but not beautiful enough to display. And I have to keep them to sell what's inside. I think they're just a waste of resources and money. I'd much rather the manufacturers put that money into the sound of the end product instead of trying to imbue status and luxury by using over-the-top packaging that ultimately ends up in a closet.

I like the Audeze approach - an inexpensive but very sturdy flight case I can use to transport the headphones - a case that also served as a bullet proof shipping container.

[SuperD]

My wife says I’m a box hoarder but it paid off when I had to send a component in.