An Audiophile's Dream
20 Years ago when Chad Kassem started Acoustic Sounds, the collectible LP market consisted mostly of pre-owned product. As modern-day audiophilia progressed, reissue labels went a long way towards diminishing the preowned market – at least as far as mail order was concerned. Acoustic Sounds grew to become the world’s largest dealer of LPs, and the bulk of our stock consisted of sealed reissues. Still, there are records that have never been reissued and there are many records where the original sounds better than the reissue. In fact, original LPs, when in Mint or Near Mint condition, remain the most collectible musical format.
Because we boast the world’s largest selection of audiophile recordings, it seemed only natural to us that we give rightful attention to choice pre-owned records. And so, as part of our expansion and move to an 18,000-square-foot warehouse, we allotted considerable space and staffing for our pre-owned collection. And now we want to let you know about what we’ve got.
For starters, Kassem purchased two incredible collections. The first came from a music industry celebrity that had 10,000 mostly pop, jazz and blues records, almost all of which were never played. What makes the collection special is that most of these records were first-edition pressings, many of them white-label promos. The second collection is an audiophile’s dream. It includes 18,000 of the most collectible reissues and originals ever released. We’re talking two complete sets of the Mobile Fidelities, all of the Mercury Living Presence, the RCA Living Stereos, the Nautilus half-speed mastered, the Sheffield Labs Japanese pressings, direct-to-disc and on and on. This is just the beginning. We plan to have a continuous flow of the most collectible LPs ever made.
The curator of this ever-expanding pre-owned collection is Paul Chester. He spends all week cleaning, grading and cataloging these records, and he’s available to help you find those gems you’ve had on your mind.
For a complete collection of used LPs and to order, go to http://store.acousticsounds.com/newyork