Thread: Brick and Mortar SACD shopping in NYC

Posts: 10

Post by Ubertrout March 16, 2010 (1 of 10)
Does anyone have a suggestion for places in NYC that are good for SACD shopping? Like most of you I do most of my shopping online, but I recently ambled around the Barnes and Noble by Lincoln Center and not only got some great deals (Vanska Beethoven set for $35 after sale and member discount), but had a lot of fun doing so. I'd like to do more of it, but Tower and Virgin are gone, and I've been seriously underwhelmed by Best Buy. Strand sometimes has SACDs (usually Pentatone) for cheap, but it's hit or miss.

Post by fafnir March 16, 2010 (2 of 10)
Ubertrout said:

Does anyone have a suggestion for places in NYC that are good for SACD shopping? Like most of you I do most of my shopping online, but I recently ambled around the Barnes and Noble by Lincoln Center and not only got some great deals (Vanska Beethoven set for $35 after sale and member discount), but had a lot of fun doing so. I'd like to do more of it, but Tower and Virgin are gone, and I've been seriously underwhelmed by Best Buy. Strand sometimes has SACDs (usually Pentatone) for cheap, but it's hit or miss.

J&R downtown in the City Hall area used to have a good selection. That was a few years ago, when I was working in the area. I'm not sure what they have now; it might pay to check them online before making the trek.

All my SACD shopping, and much else, is now online.

Post by Kal Rubinson March 16, 2010 (3 of 10)
fafnir said:

J&R downtown in the City Hall area used to have a good selection. That was a few years ago, when I was working in the area. I'm not sure what they have now; it might pay to check them online before making the trek.

All my SACD shopping, and much else, is now online.

Ditto.

Post by fotodan March 16, 2010 (4 of 10)
I buy almost all my SACDs at J&R (they're within walking distance of my apartment). They have a large selection of labels, including relatively exotic ones. And discs are on their shelves as soon as they are available in the states. Prices are low and if you watch for the weekly sales you can save even more. But beware that once the initial batch of titles has sold out you may have to wait a good while before supplies are replenished.

Post by Ubertrout March 16, 2010 (5 of 10)
You know, I'd forgotten about J&R, and I live really near it also. And they still have that separate room for classical, don't they?

Post by The Seventh Taylor March 16, 2010 (6 of 10)
As a record collector I loved shopping in Bleecker Street but I can't recall having seen many SACDs there (except perhaps at the now surely closed Tower Records store)

Post by canonical March 18, 2010 (7 of 10)
For those following Arnaldo's nice link above to J&R, ... you might have noticed that the very top listing that comes up (at least at the time of my writing) is:

Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 27 - Perahia --- > at the amazing price of $6.99


This is all the more delectable as this is out of print and generally unavailable.

Believing it to be too good to be true, I just checked with J&R ...

Although their web page states:

"This is a Super Audio CD playable only on Super Audio CD players"

... in fact, they have replied:

"We apologize for the confusion. There appears to have been a web error on the description of the CD. We have notified our Web group and the correction will be made. The  SACD version is out of print. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Post by Ubertrout March 22, 2010 (8 of 10)
I went there this weekend and picked up the Matsuev Rachmaninoff 3 with Gergiev ($15) and the Gergiev Mahler 4 ($12) along with the RBCD of Hindemith conducting Hindemith. Definitely need to go there more.

Post by Ubertrout April 9, 2010 (9 of 10)
I stopped by Academy Records on 18th between 5th and 6th this week and purchased 6 SACDs (Mahler 1 / Bernstein, Fischer Brahms 1, Mustonen Beethoven Piano Concerti 1-3 (2 discs), Archduke Trio / Kempf Trio). Under $55 total. They had SACDs in their own section, which was nice and convenient. Layout of the store hasn't changed in a decade, which was oddly nice.

I realized I need to get down to the Princeton Record Exchange sometime. And I feel like a fool for not stopping there when I had business in Princeton a few months ago.

Post by operamuso April 9, 2010 (10 of 10)
Ubertrout said:

I stopped by Academy Records on 18th between 5th and 6th this week and purchased 6 SACDs (Mahler 1 / Bernstein, Fischer Brahms 1, Mustonen Beethoven Piano Concerti 1-3 (2 discs), Archduke Trio / Kempf Trio). Under $55 total. They had SACDs in their own section, which was nice and convenient. Layout of the store hasn't changed in a decade, which was oddly nice.

I realized I need to get down to the Princeton Record Exchange sometime. And I feel like a fool for not stopping there when I had business in Princeton a few months ago.

I was in NYC this week and found Academy Records for the first time - I think it's the ONLY store I have ever found with a couple of shelves devoted to SACD - really nice, even if there was nothing there I wanted that I haven't already got at MDT or Amazon. Found some great BIS RBCDs though - Martinu & Stenhammar - at $2.99 each, which beats even the marvellous Gramex here in London. Great store.

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