“There was a time when I had to have everything,” Vic Wilburn explains, but he’s come a long way since, narrowing his collections—records by favorite bands, Frank Kozik concert posters and vintage stereo components—and displaying them in the meticulous music room of his Las Vegas home. “I’m retired and my two kids are grown up, so I’ve had a few years to set this up, really fine-tune it.”

One full wall of Wilburn’s suburban oasis stands in tribute to Kozik’s colorful 1990s artwork, featuring noise-rock names like Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers and Cows and vivid images of, for example, JFK’s head exploding and Huckleberry Hound with his private parts exposed. The room is also notable for its stockpile of old-school gadgetry, including mini reel-to-reel players, hand-held cassette recorders and a full-size Dokorder reel-to-reel machine Wilburn says retailed for $1,200 in 1971.

“Everything here’s in working order,” he explains, picking up an old Grundig tape player. “I’ll take this one outside and record the birds sometimes, and it sounds like studio quality.”

It’s Wilburn’s music collection, however, that makes this space most memorable—both for what’s in it (lots of outsider metal and other avant-garde sounds) and how uniquely it’s organized. Far from some simple Ikea shelving scheme, Wilburn’s setup has been devised through systematic trial and error, countless trips to the Container Store and hours of modification. In its present form it feels perfect—divided by format (vinyl, CD, cassette, DVD) and size (12-inch, 10-inch, 7-inch), with each set of shelves on casters to facilitate easy cleaning.

The filing system is even more personalized: Wilburn bins his records by how often he pulls them out to listen and by how many albums he has from a particular band. “This bottom shelf is for my heavy hitters, the bands I have to have everything by,” he explains, thumbing through a stack of releases by Boris and another by Skullflower.

Can he keep that all straight in his mind, put his finger on any record he’d like to hear? He’ll do you one better. “With anything in my collection, I could probably tell you where and when I bought it.” How about this one, Kilslug’s Sins, Tricks & Lies? “I bought that directly from the band, in 2011 or 2012,” Wilburn answers without hesitation. “It’s an 11-inch record that plays from the inside out, and the cover is textured like an old Bible.”