Just curious what the general consensus is with regards to keeping or getting rid of equipment boxes.
Some boxes are quite expensive, I know a Linn LP12 box is around £100.00 but boxes take up so much valuable space.
Yep…my loft is full of boxes, and a corner of the bedroom. My poor wife…
Trouble is, the boxes are near-essential for sending off for service, or selling on. A quandary…
PS I have two Linn boxes now - the old battered one from 1983, and a new one. And I’ve kept every damn lid! Sheesh… 
2 Likes
I keep every box if the thing inside it was more than roughly 500,-, closets full of empty boxes…
2 Likes
Keep, definitely.
When you want to sell or service your gear, working out how to move it safely is a real headache, and very expensive if you need to buy new boxes.
Can’t you break them down and store them flat to save some space?
3 Likes
£100 for an LP12 box?! Does it double up as a turntable stand too?
Most definitely keep. Mainly Naim boxes in my loft! 
4 Likes
If you expect ever to sell, then keep. Also useful if you have to send back. For repair (or anything requiring servicing). But is a permanent keeper with no expectation of service need then no need to retain box. However it depends on your storage capacity- I’d probably keep all if infinite space, but my house doesn’t have, so the above is the basis of my decisions.
For large speakers in particular the boxes are useful when moving home if you entrust to removal people, otherwise you have to make sumethi g to protect them. The trouble is the boxes are even bigger! I’ve kept mine, but flattened, with the packing separate, that way taking less space.
1 Like
Keep, definitely.
That’s why I bought a UQ2.
Small footprint.
2 Likes
Naim boxes if you need one are not much cheaper.
I keep all Naim boxes and some other important ones, but I disassemble and flatten the large ones. Still a lot of space but what can you do. I am blessed with a roomy (for an apartment) basement compartment. The speaker boxes are terrible, I kept them assembled so far and am lucky to have space on top of the basement shelf.
Would be nice if there was a way for dealers or manufacturers/distributors to keep a bit of stock for service shipments in a u-store-it, at least for boxes that are conveniently consistent like Naim (but maybe only Naim?) and speakers, but understandably it’s a cost factor. On the other hand, manuals routinely say that the orig. packaging should be kept, but it’s more than bordering on unrealistic for Naim with its many units in a system and for large speakers.
2 Likes
I always keep HiFi boxes. Pretty much a no-brainer.
2 Likes
Really! Fortunately Naim packed my old Uniti in a brand new box when it went for a service. Very generous if they’re also that expensive.
If you flat pack your boxes, what do you do with the internals? I find them just as valuable as the boxes themselves.
I keep mine all in the loft although they do get worse for wear due to the constant hot/cold/humidity cycling.
1 Like
Keep, its not a dilemma just a storage problem but you will need them.
1 Like
The innards are even more valuable so I keep them, but a stack of the innards of 8 Naim boxes plus flattened cardboard is still a lot less space than 8 assembled Naim boxes.
For some boxes like laptops you don’t gain much, so I leave them assembled, same with smaller boxes for the various electronics (e.g. stuff I will sell on like phones)
By the way, Rega’s P8 box is quite some origami, very cool
The cost to them is peanuts but yes it is good service
1 Like
Same here. I always keep the boxes in case I sell on or need to send off for any reason. When you come to selling I always think the buyer trusts you more with a box.
1 Like
The only boxes 
I didn’t keep were the speaker boxes , even for small bookshelf speakers they were far too big.
Also very useful for proving ownership in an insurance case ( along with photos)
2 Likes
I keep all boxes. I’ve even kept all the Fraim boxes, which will never be required for service! The original Fraim boxes were really quite large and take up a lot of space in my loft.
If anyone is throwing boxes away then a couple of 300/PS boxes can come this way.
1 Like
If it’s from Linn it’s a ‘Boks’
5 Likes
I’ve always kept all the original boxes for my Naim Olive Grove, and glad I did since I have had much of it serviced these last two years. The newer boxes are larger than the original boxes. All boxes are fully assembled and take up a considerable amount of space.
I am lucky to have a very large loft space which is used for storage only and Mrs. G. never goes up there. She’s just happy they are all out of sight.
2 Likes