Dec 12, 2016 6:21 AM

15 Groovy Gift Ideas for the Serious Vinyl Collector

15 items to help your record-collecting loved one enjoy their favorite tracks on those stacks of wax.

Michael Calore

Dec 12, 2016 6:21 AM

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When you take a vacation in a foreign city, you like to visit the museums, old historical churches, and possibly pop into a boutique or two. Your loved one, on the other hand, would gladly spend the entirety of the trip digging through dusty crates in some weird little record store. It's an obsession! But it makes them happy. In fact, the only thing they like more than collecting records is listening to them. Here's the stuff that will keep them in the groove.

Turntable Lab
01
Wesley & Kemp A-Frame Record Display Easel
Plop this [beautiful display easel](https://www.turntablelab.com/products/wesley-kemp-a-frame-record-display-easel-white) ($45) next to the turntable to show off the sleeve of whatever platter's currently playing. It holds up to four records, so it'll fit the afternoon's playlist as well.
Turntable Kitchen
02
Turntable Kitchen's "Sounds Delicious" Subscription Service
Turntable Kitchen has been pairing carefully curated vinyl selections with coffees, premium food ingredients, and meal recipes for a few years now. The outfit's latest project is the [Sounds Delicious](http://www.turntablekitchen.com/product/sounds-delicious-1-12-month-orders-2/) subscription service. Each month brings an exclusive, limited-edition record featuring a contemporary artist doing a song-for-song cover of a famous album. Among this year's picks are Death Cab's Ben Gibbard covering Teenage Fanclub's *Bandwagonesque* and Foxygen's Jonathan Rado covering Springsteen's *Born To Run*. The original artwork is gorgeous, the vinyl pressings are primo, and the music is out of this world. $25 per month, $300 for a year.

Fluance
03
Fluance RT81 Turntable
This is the best mid-priced turntable we saw this year: the Fluance [RT81](http://www.fluance.com/rt81-high-fidelity-vinyl-turntable-record-player-with-premium-cartridge-diamond-needle). Premium components—an accurate belt-drive system, a walnut cabinet, a nice preamp, and an S-shaped tone arm loaded with an AT95E cartridge—make it a steal at $250.
Pro Ject Audio Systems
04
Pro-Ject Audio Phono Box
Modern turntables can plug right into a home stereo system, but vintage models need their signals boosted by a preamp. The [Phono Box](http://www.project-audio.com/main.php?prod=phonobox) from Pro-ject Audio ($100) is a clean and sweet-sounding pre-amp that will make their '70s era record player sound noticeably better. Give them this so they can ditch the cheap "just good enough" preamp they bought on Amazon.

DK Vinyl Displays
05
DK Vinyl Displays
It's time to step up from storing those LPs in milk crates and fruit boxes. Artisan builder Damon Kelley makes every one of his [wooden record storage systems](https://www.etsy.com/shop/DKVinylDisplays) by hand, working to the exact specifications of each client. Kelley uses premium woods and laminates (no cheap Home Depot stuff here) and finishes them with gloss or matte stains and paints. You pick whatever configuration works best for your listening room. Really, anything is possible. He's a one-man operation and he makes everything with love—so order one now, because delivery can take a few weeks. Prices vary, but there are a lot of cool options between $100 and $400.
Stones Throw Records
06
Stones Throw x Tanner Goods 45 Bag
Vinyl singles are super-fun to DJ with. Your loved one knows this, because they've got a weekly funk/soul/R&B night at the local bar. Get them this [record carrying bag](https://www.stonesthrow.com/store/accessories/stones-throw/stones-throw-x-tanner-goods-45-bag) sized just for 45s. The travel case is a collaboration between LA-based Stones Throw Records and Portland, Oregon's Tanner Goods, and it comfortably holds 150 singles. $325

Eilon Paz
07
Dust & Grooves: Adventures in Record Collecting
Flip through [Eilon Paz's coffee-table book](http://www.dustandgrooves.com/) and you'll find dozens of gorgeous photo spreads documenting the home collections of serious vinyl junkies around the world. And of course, every record collector is full of stories about their most prized finds—those are in here too. Every record collector needs this book. Maybe also get them a bib to protect the pages from their drool. $49 and up.
Harold
08
Harold Queue
Some cover art is too good to keep sandwiched between other, inferior jackets. [Harold's wooden vinyl rack](http://www.haroldharold.com/shop/queue) ($100) lets you display it on the wall. Show off four LPs (or two gatefolds, or some combination thereof) at once. It's deep enough to hold a couple of records, so you can hide additional titles out of sight.

Rick McClendon/TEAC
09
Teac TN-400S Turntable
The brand has been a little quiet for the last decade, but Teac is still putting out some attractive, retro-fashioned pieces. The company's [new turntable](http://www.teac.com/product/tn-400s/overview/) ($400) has a walnut-finished MDF plinth, an S-shaped tone arm, a three-speed belt-drive system, and a high-quality phono preamp. There's even a USB-out for making digital copies of those LPs.
AM
10
AM Record Cleaner Box Set
Danish company AM made record-cleaning products in the early '70s that were well-regarded among collectors. Just last month, the brand re-launched with a whole new line of vinyl- and cassette-care systems. [This box set](https://cleansound.am/products/record-cleaner-box-set?variant=34570101959) ($37) includes an anti-static brush, a bottle of alcohol-free cleaning solution, a stylus cleaner, a pick-up brush, and a lint-free cloth.

Audio Technica
11
Audio-Technica AT-HA5050H Hybrid Headphone Amplifier
This is the last headphone amp they'll ever need for home listening—and for $6,000, it'd better be. The [HA5050H](http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/accessories/bd963a3646968df5/index.html) is the cream of Audio-Technica's already impressive crop. The hybrid system (tube pre-amps, solid-state power amps) can drive headphones of four different impedances: 0.1, 33, 82, and 120 ohms. That's enough variety to run just about any pair of headphones the discerning audiophile is likely to own. A plethora of inputs and the highest quality digital-to-analog conversion chips make this a true font of audio bliss. Buy them a clean pressing of *Wish You Were Here* to test it out.
Cera Hensley/Koeppel Design
12
Koeppel Design Engraved Horizontal A-Z Record Dividers
San Francisco designer Kate Koeppel makes gorgeous [wooden record dividers](https://shop.katekoeppel.com/products/engraved) for organizing vinyl collections. You can get sets to suit horizontal or vertical storage, and sets that divide up LPs by genre, or by good old A through Z. This set features the letters of the alphabet engraved into the wood. $410

Amazon
13
Spindle Lapel Pin
The jacket or sport coat you're making them wear covers up their favorite Zapp T-shirt, but at least they can still broadcast their passion with [this cute lapel pin](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002GXDSK8/). The design (and don't tell them you had to ask) is modeled after the little plastic disc you snap into the center hold of a 45 single so it fits onto the record player's spindle. $10
Lego
14
Yellow Submarine Lego Set
They like The Beatles, right? C'mon, of course they do. [This is a no-brainer.](https://shop.lego.com/en-US/Yellow-Submarine-21306) $60

Reel Art Press
15
Jim Marshall, Jazz Festival
Jim Marshall was a giant of rock photography. The list of artists whose likenesses he captured with his Leica is a roll-call of modern music's giants. Jimi, Janis, Bob, Jerry, Carlos, Neil, Joni. But everybody has the books with those photos. [This tome](http://a.co/8x0sSUK) highlighting Marshall's work shot at the Newport and Monterey jazz festivals in the mid 1960s is something that will surprise and delight any lover of jazz, photography, or American history. Marshall's vision is just as acute, and the names in this book—Duke, Monk, Miles, Mingus—are just as heavy. $75 for the hardcover.

Comments

Michael Calore oversees WIRED's coverage of consumer technology and internet culture. As a writer, he covers a range of topics including music, film, art, software, and underground culture. ... Read More

Director, Consumer Tech and Culture

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