Catalog your hi-fi gear

Pull the amplifier forward and look at the back panel. The plate near the mains inlet gives the model as the factory wrote it, the serial number, and the voltage it was built for. If there is an MK or a letter after the model, that is the revision, and a collector wants it down. Cataloging hi-fi on ctlgs starts with that plate.

The hi-fi catalog holds 13,859 pieces of gear from 1,661 companies, and one click adds any of them to your collection as a copy. The condition, the serial number and what you paid can wait until the unit is on the bench in front of you. You can also leave them out altogether.

Start with the rack you listen on, from the source down to the speakers. Look each piece up by the model on its back panel rather than the name on the front.

Find the exact model you own

Every entry is a gear entry for one model, with the brand, what it is and the years it was made in the headline. Technics alone has 438 entries here, and the famous deck is spread across them. The SL-1200MK2 and the SL-1210 MK2 each have their own page, with the same 1979 to 2010 run and a power supply switchable between 110 and 220 volts. The MK3, MK3D, MK5 and M5G sit beside them, each on its own page.

So when you add a copy, add it to the model on the plate rather than the first result with the right name. The Shure M44-7 is listed as a moving magnet cartridge on a half-inch mount, tracking at 1.5 to 3 grams, and 386 cartridges and 130 styli are cataloged alongside it.

Colour and regional versions of one model can be linked as variants of a main entry, which lists them all, so a black deck and a silver deck stay together.

Record the copy

Adding a copy opens a small form you can skip and come back to. The fields are the ones a hi-fi collector cares about:

• Condition, graded Mint, Excellent, Very good, Good, Fair or For parts. Condition grading explained says what each one means. For parts is a real grade for a unit that does not work.
• Notes, for anything that belongs to your unit rather than the model. The serial number goes here, along with a recap date, a replaced stylus or a missing dust cover.
• Location, purchase price and date acquired. These three are always private, whatever privacy setting your collection has.

You can also add fields of your own to the hi-fi catalog: Serial number as a line of text, Serviced as a yes/no, Voltage as a choice between 110 and 230. Only you see them.

Two units are two records. If you DJ with a pair of SL-1210 MK2s, each one has its own serial number and its own condition, and the entry page lists both in a row you can drag into whatever order you like.

Your wantlist

Beside the collection button is a wantlist button. It sits on the model too, so your wantlist can say you have the integrated amplifier and still want the matching tuner.

Your collection page

Your collection lives at one address, across every catalog. The gear in it shows as a grid you can search, filter by condition or location, and sort by title, date added, date acquired or condition. It exports to CSV, with your private fields included when the collection is your own, which is the inventory to keep for insurance. Collections and wantlists covers the lists in full.

Shelves are separate from the collection. A shelf is a list you make and publish, in your own order, with a note on each entry, and it can hold things you do not own. Every Technics deck from the SL-1200 to the SL-1200GR in date order would make one. See shelves. When you want to part with a unit, mark it for sale from the copy itself. Selling from your collection explains how.

When your model is missing

The common Technics, Pioneer and Marantz models are probably there already. A later MK revision, a regional voltage version, a small-brand cartridge or an accessory often is not.

Anyone signed in can add an entry. Copy what the unit says about itself: the model as printed on the plate, the brand as a company, the function, the years produced and the voltage as power source. Specifications, controls and connections take as many rows as the manual lists. Write the country the way other entries from that maker already have it.

The catalog came from Gearogs, which was split in two when it came here, with record playback and home audio in hi-fi and synths, effects and studio gear in music gear. What happened to Gearogs tells that story. If you had a collection there, it can be attached to your new account. The reasoning behind all of this is in what you own, down to the copy.