[Note: This site will go on holidays for 16 days to allow me to finish up some other projects. Programming will resume on August 22.]

I’ve been all over the map when reviewing multimedia storage systems, but one of the best that I’ve seen at several friends’ houses is actually from Germany and comes by the simple name of “max”. And it’s mighty cool at that. I’ve been to their website a million times, calculating, configuring … and drooling. It’s my system of choice, should I ever move and have about a 1000 to 2000 Euro left over.

You all know the problem: If you are anything like me, you don’t just have CDs. You have LPs, DVDs, and maybe even some old videos you have so far been recluctant to get rid of, simply because they offer the only available version of some concert or film. So, what you usually get is rack chaos. Maybe you have a nice system for the LPs, an adequate one for all your CDs, but when it came around to the DVDs, you ran out of money and went for some cheapo setup. Well, if you go for “max”, you can put it all into one system, a system that is infinitely modular and will not really limit you in any way. Best of all, although it isn’t a cheapo system, it is more than affordable when compared to the usual upscale systems available on the market today, which more often than not are not even modular.

Because this system is so flexible and can basically be arranged in any way imaginable, I’ll try to sum up up some of the important facts and features for you:

Material:: “max” is made from 9-layer birch (clear finish) and each element has a back wall with a thickness of 9mm, making it a sturdy system that can actually also stand by itself, maybe even be used as a room divider if you set up two walls of elements back to back.

Construction: You don’t need any screws, nails or glue to assemble the elements or to construct a big wall with a larger number of elements. Everything is / can be connected by a unique and patented way of sticking each board or element together. If you want to hang them up on the wall, they need to be glued together and in that case wall mountings are supplied at little extra cost.

Elements: There are four elements available. Elements “A” and “B” are for CDs and hold 13 and 30 CDs respectively, Element “C” is for books, DVDs (you can get about 28 DVDs into one element) or videos and element “D” is the biggest one for about 80 LPs each. If you mix the elements, “D” has to be at the foundation of the shelf system you set up because they are deeper than all the other elements. The elements can be stacked to a height of 3,34 m. I wouldn’t do that, but they say it’s possible (and the result more than sturdy enough).

Sizes: Element “A” is 16,70 cm all around, Element “B” just doubles the width of element “A” (33,40 cm) and otherwise has the same measurements, element “C” again has the same depth of elements “A” and “B”, the same width as element “B” and a height of 25,05 cm and element “D” is the one that breaks the mould with the same width as “B” and “C” but more depth (33,40 cm) and a height of 41,75 cm. Confused? Have a look at the technical details: “max” technical details.( “Innenmasse” are the inside measurements and “Aussenmasse” the outer ones. Simple.)

Pricing: The more elements you buy, the cheaper they get. Simple really. Element “B”, for example, costs Euro 14 if you buy 1-5 elements, Euro 12,40 if you buy 6-17, and so on until you’re down to Euro 10 if you buy more than 84 elements. Have a look: “max” price list (”Einheiten” = “units”)

Some simple calculations for collectors:
Just to give you an approximate idea:

If you have 5000 LPs, you would need about 63 “D” elements and that would cost you about 1700 Euro all told.

If you have 5000 CDs, you would need 166 elements “B” which would cost you 1162 Euro.

If you have 1500 LPs and about 2000 CDs you would need 19 elements “D” and about 67 elements “B”, which would cost you about 532 Euro for the LP elements and about 523 Euro for the CD elements. That comes to grand total of 1055 Euro.

I quickly designed a “wall” for 1140 CDs, 1280 LPs and 420 DVDs and came to a grand total of 1081 Euro. A setup like that would have a width of about 260cm, a height of around 195cm and a depth of 33,4cm. Although you can arrange the elements in any way you like, I “designed” it to keep LPs, CDs and DVDs together in one “block”. Hey, I’m German and like to sort things alphabetically, and stuff like that. Have a look: “max” wall.

There are also four examples on the website (sizes and grand total are on the right of the depicted shelf system, named “Kombi” 1 through 4).

Delivery: Within Germany, delivery is free and included in the price. Interestingly enough, the same goes for the rest of Europe because the extra cost is evened out by the sales tax that is saved. So, in short, if you live in Europe, the prices listed on the website are the prices you pay. There’s no information about getting these elements sent abroad, but I’m sure contacting the company will help you sort that out. Delivery will take about 2 to 3 working days from the receipt of your order until the elements appear at your doorstep.

Configuration: The company’s website sports an online configurator (German) which is easy to use, even if your first language is not German. Just pull the elements from the left (java script must be enabled) to the main area and go wild (that’s what I did). The price is adjusted with every element you pull over. If you placed too many elements, just pull them to the left again and they’re gone (and the price is adjusted). When done, you can simply hit “Zur Bestellung” (”order”) and … bingo.

Test Version: If you are seriously considering this system, you can order various “test versions”: Two elements “A” for Euro 20, two elements “B” for Euro 28, two elements “C” for Euro 35 or one element “D” for Euro 30. If you do buy additional elements, a smaller amount of this money will be reimbursed.

Summary: This system is cool, but a bit pricey. The best aspect is that you can build your own dream shelf system easily and, most importantly, you can expand the system whenever the need arises and you can easily reshuffle the elements whenever you need a new setup or have to place the shelf elsewhere. In a nutshell: “max” is a collector’s dream.

P.S.: If you need any help with the “max” website or with this system, don’t hesitate to contact me: deus[squiggly thingy]deus62.com.

Categories: (02) Store and Display
Tags: CD, CD Storage, Max, Regalsystem, shelf, shelves