DIY: Handy Holo Headshell Holders

Product: Do-it-yourself headshell storage adapted from nail polish shipping cartons
Producer: not for sale, TNT-Audio DIY design
Approx.cost: Ask your daughter, if you dare!
Author: David Hoehl - TNT USA
Published: March 2025

Mine may be something of an extreme case, but it's illustrative. As I've discussed more than once before, to get the best out of pre-LP records, ideally one should have a wide array of stylus sizes and profiles. Although they are all interchangeable, for moving magnet cartridges, I like to keep each of my stylus assemblies in a dedicated cartridge mounted on its own headshell, admittedly the most expensive approach but one that avoids undue wear on the cartridges' internal suspensions and undue risk that I'll fumble one of those little assemblies and wreck a cantilever. I have two graduated sets of such styli: six truncated ellipticals from Expert Stylus in England, ranging from 2.8 to 4.0 mil, fitted to Shure V15Vx cartridges, and five straight ellipticals fitted to Pickering XV15/625e cartridges, from 2.0 to 4.0 mil, the Rek-o-Kut set from Esoteric Sound that I reviewed for TNT-Audio here. Supplementing those sets are the LP Gear The Vessel A78SP cartridge that I reviewed again for TNT-Audio here, V15Vx carts fitted with the stock Shure and LP Gear conical "78" styli and a custom Expert stylus for Edison Diamond Discs, a Shure V15 III with its stock 2.5 mil VN78E elliptical 78 stylus, a Shure M44-7 with an oversized Expert stylus for Pathe sapphire ball cut records, and of course cartridges for LPs (Shure V15 III, V15Vx, and M97xE). Alas, this profusion of headshells-cum-cartridges has one drawback: as arrayed on a couple of open trays, they have tended to get all jumbled up, making each trial change of stylus a bit of a search-and-rescue exercise.

If you happen to have a kid (or grandkid!) of high school/college age who likes nail polish, see if the mail-order brand Holo Taco (created by a YouTube influencer named Cristine Rotenberg, who started with a successful channel Simply Nailogical (Wikipedia article here) figures in the equation. My daughter has a bunch of it, and I've discovered that the boxes in which it's shipped, although carrying a logo evoking CDs, with next to no effort can be adapted into close-to-perfect headshell trays. As received, they look like this:

Each box is black; has a hinged, locking cardboard lid; and measures about 7 inches wide, 4.5 inches deep, and a bit over an inch and a half tall. Opening the lid reveals a foam filler with four rectangular compartments:

A metaphorical fly does lurk in the proverbial ointment, however: at least in my case, there isn't enough clearance for the lid to close over the headshells' finger grips. On the one hand, that's good, as having the grips extending above the boxes eases handling the headshells. On the other, it means that the box lids are always open, taking up space and getting in the way. Accordingly, breaking out my trusty pocket knife, I amputated the lids. (That's actually a little trickier than it looks; the boxes are made of surprisingly tough cardboard, and I didn't always get exactly the cleanest of cuts. In retrospect, something like an X-Acto knife might have been a better tool for the job.) That done, for the first time, I have nicely organized storage for my assorment of headshells right next to the turntable. To keep things in order, I decided that labeling the cells at the same time would be a good idea, although those with fewer headshells to keep organized may not need to bother. Any number of ways would work, but I chose the time-honored Dymo labeling tape, opting for black to blend with the box color. At the same time, I applied a black marking pen to the raw edges left when I removed the boxes' lids. Here's the result, with Shure V15Vx cartridges dedicated to lateral cut 78s on the left. On the right are my Pickering cartridges; various Shures for LPs and vertical cut 78s; and the LP Gear “odd man out.”

One other potential issue has emerged in use: the foam inserts are held in place only by (very little) friction, and they tend to ride up as cartridges are swapped in and out. An easy fix is available, though: just apply a bit of adhesive from a glue stick on each side wall of the box and press the foam against it.

So far, I've found that sufficient; no need to smear glue all the way around the perimeter of the box. Don't try to put glue on the bottom of the box, as you won't want to risk getting adhesive on your cartridges.

Now, I've confirmed with the company that it can't provide boxes by themselves, and I wouldn't recommend buying a bunch of Holo Taco nail polish just to get them; even on sale, a set of four polishes runs in excess of $40, and my daughter tells me that individual polishes are $14 each, although they do ship in the same four-cell boxes, just with three cells empty. (And I certainly wouldn't suggest some devious subterfuge like buying a family member Holo Taco nail polish for Christmas, putting the individual bottles in the recipient's stocking, and absconding with the box. Ahem.) If someone in the family is already receiving the stuff, however, why not repurpose the cartons? Not only is it good environmental practice to conserve resources instead of trashing them; and not only is there a certain pleasure in taking a candidate for the trash can and turning it into something really useful; but I, at least, have had a blast seeing of my daughter's incredulous reaction to Dad's not only pressing her nail polish boxes into service for his audio fixation but then also writing about it. The look on her face alone made the whole project worth it!

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