A Visit To Acoustics Sounds, Inc.

tesseract

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A recent vacation put me in the neighborhood, so I asked Acoustic Sounds if they might have time to show an AV NIRVANA reporter around and was granted a private, most interesting tour of three key facilities, Acoustic Sounds, The Vinyl Vault and Quality Record Pressings.

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CEO Chad Kassem started this massive undertaking (plus the Blue Heaven studio, which I must visit someday) by purchasing used vinyl, flipping it by placing classifieds in Audio, Stereophile and The Absolute Sound magazines, eventually making way into international Asian and European markets. Investing profits back into the company, he hired two more guys to help catalog and package the massive inventory he had begun to acquire. Little did Kassem know the mountaintop he rolled this snowball down would foster an avalanche. Acoustic Sounds not only sells, but buys too, often from elderly former customers that are exiting the hobby. Compact Discs are becoming part of the collection as the decline of sales makes these collectable, as well.

Our first stop was The Vinyl Vault, where purchased collections are sorted, cleaned, listened to, graded, cataloged and stored. Here we are looking at part of the massive, 50,000+ Texas Collection.

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This is the graphic department where album covers are brought up to snuff, sometimes requiring fonts to be painstakingly re-typed. Catalog and marketing promotion is also born here.

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More of the Texas Collection. CEO Chad Kassem has also purchased The Mastering Lab from the estate of Doug Sax. Here are a pair of control room speakers awaiting restoration.

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On to a room of collected vintage audio. Recognize anything?

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Here, we enter another facility. Quality Record Pressings (QRP) is a division of Acoustic Sounds, Inc.

To begin the manufacturing process a lacquer Master is made, A and B side, two for one record, four for a double album and so on. This gets silver plated, then a chemical nickel bath, which creates the Mother and is used to make the Stamper, which can be used from 800-1500 times. Then you get your record! As it becomes dull, another Stamper is made from the Mother.



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If an album set only require 3 sides, a graphic is put on the 4th.

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Vinyl is shipped in from Thailand to a port in LA, then trucked to Salina.

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Labels get pressed into the Puck, which slides into the middle for final forming with steam, is cooled with chilled water, then loaded onto the spindle and stored for cooling before packaging the next day.

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Pressing machines purchased from Music Products in Chicago were rough and brought up to a usable condition. Retooling was needed and computer logic controls were added to bring the machines up to contemporary production standards, speeding up output while increasing quality.

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Once an hour, one record is grabbed off of each press and tested for quality.

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QRP is the pressing plant of choice for the estate of Jimi Hendrix (Experience Hendrix Limited).

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Seven tracks of Coltrane have been discovered and QRP is now pressing those out.

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Entering the warehouse.

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Packaging is above the board, solid shipping protection for the product.

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Our guide told us as we parted ways, "High-end audio is like the hot rod hobby. If you've got the system, QRP has the fuel!".

 
Here are random shots, enjoy!

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Can we post now? lol ... wow!!! That looks like it was a LOT of fun!

I've purchased a few items from them over the years.
 
It was a lot of fun. There is an annual Blues Fest at Blue Heaven that I MUST attend. Would love to sit in on a recording session!
 
Great write up Dennis... looks like a dream world!

That image of the white and gold discs over blackness... I'm assuming that's liquid vinyl?
 
Great write up Dennis... looks like a dream world!

That image of the white and gold discs over blackness... I'm assuming that's liquid vinyl?

Thank you and thanks for the assist, Todd. That video is cool

I'm not sure which picture you are asking about. I saw the process start with a labeled puck, but I did not see where the pucks are made.
 
:T

Pretty sure it's water ;-) Maybe for cooling?

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Oh, that is the plating process for the stamper and I do think that is water.
 
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