Some would say that this part of the year is ‘the most happiest time’ as kids are back to school and all those summer chores are slowly winding down. Well perhaps BUT there is also a down side as things like garage/yard sales are also coming to an end. Over this past summer, there have been some amazing finds by some of our customers and some even found a few ‘golden ticket’ items (like Josh finding a pair of McIntosh MC30 tube mono block amps IN A BARN – DIRT CHEAP!).

But now with all those summer activities waning, this leaves more time for our favorite passion – MUSIC!

Over the past year, the interest in vinyl has taken a huge leap forward and it seems everyone is jumping on the band wagon to cash in on this craze. Companies that normally sell hair and beauty products now have a vinyl section, where others that sell foodstuffs and meat products have also allocated a place to house their record choices. Although it sounds convenient, it can also be very confusing to the newbie record collector. Why? Because buying a record is no different than buying anything else. First, ALWAYS CHECK THE LABELS! This will tell you who and where the record was made. This is extremely important as some companies purchase master discs that are overused – usually REALLY cheap – and use this to press new “180 gram” on cheap vinyl. One listen can usually put off even a seasoned record buyer, which is even less fair to someone who really wanted to get into vinyl. So, the lesson here is shop smart and buy smart. There are quite a few really awesome record stores that specialize in this field and most offer listening stations to try an album first before buying. There is a reason these stores have survived the CD/DVD/Home Theater/Blu-Ray onslaughts by doing what they do best – by being true to the product and the customers that want good value. Do yourself a favor, and check out a few of these stores in your area. Just don’t ask them if they have a milk or shampoo section…

So, over the summer we have added a few new faces to our growing family and things here are really humming along great! We are also proud to announce that FINALLY our cartridge section is being addressed and we are currently re-stocking those items that people have been asking for! Yup, so over the next few weeks we are bringing in Shures, Grado’s, Audio Technica and more and yes, we are even taking orders on those really specialized goodies like Dynavector (there will be a 50% deposit needed on these orders first). We will do our best to ensure that these items will be part of our continuing stock, much like our record cleaners, fluids and Phono pre-amplifiers.

In addition, we have changed the way the ‘New Arrivals’ are processed. Every Thursday Susan will be updating all the items that have been processed through the week and update the website for Friday morning. At that time ALL new items will be put on to our New Arrival shelves for sale.

So that’s about it for now. As always, if there are any questions, concerns or inquires that you may have, please feel free to contact myself or Susan during normal business hours. Better yet, drop by and see what cool items have shown up since your last visit! If you’ve never made the trek in to the store, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the huge selection of equipment we have.

Until next month,
Gordon