Thursday Becky and I traveled from the San Francisco Bay Area up to Rocklin California to see Steve Holt’s record store. He opened it a year ago, and it was very busy in the middle of the day on a Thursday. I first met Steve at an audio show. Steve has always been a guy that’s a lot of fun to spend time visiting. For around ten years he has been selling audio equipment directly and at audio shows under the name of “The Audio Nerd.”
Last year Steve took a big step and opened a brick-and-mortar store, “The Audio Nerd Record Store.”
He buys, sells, and trades LPs, 7 inch 45s, cassettes, reel to reel tapes, and audio gear. He also does some repair, and of course, he still sells the new equipment The Audio Nerd has been a dealer for over the years. If you go to theaudionerd.com, you can find the equipment and now loads of great music.
When Becky asked Steve how he acquired so many LPs, he answered that they just walk in the door with people who need money or just want them gone. He said sometimes it really surprising what people want to just get out of their house like the George Harrison signed Beatles LP he acquired last week. He said when he asked the lady if she knew it was signed, she said she just wanted all of them out of her house.
One of the real advantages of going to a brick-and-mortar record store is that you can listen to an LP to help you decide whether or not you want to buy it. Steve will also play CDs and reel to reel tapes for you.
Another real advantage is that you can stand there and flip through the music and pick them up, hold them in your hands and read the jacket if you would like.
You may also see something you didn’t even know you wanted when you walked in the door. That goes both for music and equipment. (add ANerd9) This is exactly what happened to us. Just a couple of weeks ago one of our best friends ask where they could find a CD changer these days and I told her would keep my eye for one. There in the shop, I saw what looked like a brand new Sony 300 CD carousel, and I bought and took it back for her.
Besides used equipment, new and use music, Steve sells new equipment from AudioEngine, Black Ravioli, Dream Vision, Electrocompaniet, Jolida, Lambert, Margules, Mircomega, MIT, Music Hall, and Siltec.