Which stores did you buy SACDs/DVD-As from in the "good old days" ?

[bracelis]

As the title says, which stores were your go-to places to buy SACDs/DVD-As (and DTS-CDs), before the age of ebay / amazon / discogs, etc ?
This will obviously depend on where you live(d).
These are the ones that I went to in the New York area:

(1) J&R Music Store, near the City Hall
J&R - Wikipedia

(2) Tower Records Downtown (4th Street and Broadway)
4th & Broadway: When Tower Records was Church

(3) Tower Records (West side)
West Side Rag » Throwback Thursday: Remember CDs?

Others (although they only had a few, they also had some that were not available in the stores mentioned above, so I also visited these although not regularly):
- Virgin Megastores (two branches: Times Square and Union Square)
- Borders Book Store at 57th street
- Several Barnes & Noble stores

I know some people mentioned Best Buy, but I don't recall seeing any at Best Buy (at least in the New York city area).
For those from New York, are these the same ones in your list, did I miss any ?

Also, I don't recall if they had a special/separate section for SACDs/DVD-As, but I recall finding them mixed with regular CD's that I literally had to browse the whole store to find them.

 

[weekendtoy]

Best Buy.

In the day, Best Buy's CD selection was really something. You would smoke a joint, head uptown for BB's new releases, and then downtown to the independent store to browse the used bins. Good times.

Best Buy's SACD/DVDA was pretty small but I picked up a lot of discs from them in the short span that they carried hi-rez titles.

 

[The Rang]

Vancouver:
A&B Sound
Adagio
Future Shop

Seattle:
Silver Platters
Tower
Fry’s

 

[vinylguy4]

Fry's
Tower
Lou's Records
Best Buy
Crown Books

 

[Mesozoic Mike]

Tower Records was my preferred store with Wherehouse Records And Tapes being second.

 

[salsdali]

Circuit City had a lot of dvd-a's when the format just launched. I regret now not buying a lot of them.

 

[Quadwreck]

In Portland, Music Millennium and Tower (Gateway). Fry's had a pitiful few.

 

[markshan]

Boston: Lechmere, Tower, Strawberries, Newbury Comics

Pittsburgh: Service Merchandise, National Record Mart

 

[Perp]

I started out at Tower Records. Then, it was Best Buy. Though, most of my discs came via the Internet stores.

 

[djstephan]

Back in the day in LA , Tower records on Sunset blvd was where I would shop regularly.. they had EVERYTHING literally.
Fry's electronics in Burbank also had a very good DVD-A section and I remember getting a few there as well.

 

[jaybird100]

Here in South Florida:
Spec's
Camelot Music
Borders
Virgin Megastore
Peaches

 

[H.A.L.]

I missed the heyday. I was into surround sound for movies, and had a computer setup with a large screen tv as its monitor, and a bulky Logitech 5.1 audio system (the subwoofer weighed a ton! It all went down when the controller failed, sigh). This served as my computer / tv / movie theater.

Then I went into "Treasure Hunt," an outlet for goods from bought-out businesses or fire sales. There before me were thousands -- I mean THOUSANDS -- of CDs! Rows and rows laid out flat and stacked two or three high. For two dollars each (!). Picked up about fifty of Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs, Peter Gabriel's multi collection, Pink Floyd's SACD of DARK SIDE, and on and on. Bought several SACDs and didn't even realize I couldn't play them, so when I went back again and again the next couple of days, I avoided them . But the Mobile Fidelities were a nice grab .

When my sound system died, and I moved into my current house, I went down the rabbit hole of buying a decent surround AVR / Klipsch speakers and of course a SACD etc. player. I still think about all those SACDs I bypassed for two dollars each! And I definitely paid for my mistake later on Discogs. . . .

 

[4_everyman]

In Portland, Music Millennium and Tower (Gateway). Fry's had a pitiful few.

Former Portlander here. For me it was:

* Music Millennium (I really miss that store)
* Fry's (in Wilsonville)
* Border's Books (in Beaverton)
* Best Buy (also in Beaverton)

I spent untold sums of money at the two Tower stores in the Portland metro area, but I can't recall if I ever found any SACD or DVD-A discs there.

 

[GOS]

Best Buy
Circuit City
Laser's Edge

 

[asolomi]

Circuit City. I recall They had $10 cd sales once a year or so. Included SACDS. Bought about 10 sacds and didn't even have a player back then for them. How I wish I'd sought out every rock SACD they had in stock......

 

[4-earredwonder]

Used to buy brand new SQ/QS and CD~4 Vinyl at a local E J Korvettes for $3~4 each and when CDs emerged, I had a buddy at Crazy Eddies who used to give them to me for a buck a piece and when I started buying laserdiscs, similar deal....then Crazy Eddies went bust and I bought them from Ken Cranes. When I went hog wild with DVD~A ....... can't recall the mail order guru ... but they were about $14 each. Came late to SACD and at the time actually AmazonUS was a good source .....free s/h if you spent $35 and NO sales tax at the time. Always found Tower Record's prices expensive [usually ABOVE list price on DVD~A/SACD] but once in a blue moon they'd have good deals.

And currently, seems ironic we have to pay [sometimes] $100 and more just to get the coveted surround disc......and hold our breath that it's a decent remix.

 

[vinylguy4]

I forgot about Ken Cranes, I got lots of dts cds and early surround discs there.

 

[cbmmm3]

I bought online from BestBuy, Circuit City and Tower Records

 

[zabble]

Ahh...the good old days when you could walk into the following stores and browse DVD-As and SACDs:

Best Buy
Tower Records
Virgin Records
Circuit City
Rolling Stone Records
Rock Records
(I’m sure I’m missing a few)

 

[Oldie]

J&R, Tower, Virgin were my favorite places for browsing new CDs. Especially Virgin at Times Square since they were open until late night. Tower was open until very late night (1 or 2am - I remember that when Elton John issued his rewritten single "Candle in the wind" they put it on sale at the date of issue at midnight and sold thousands of copies before other stores opens).

But regarding DVD-A there's no competitors with Best Buy. They have dedicated stall with discs labelled "Will not play on regular DVD player" (many customers just run away from there) and that's where I bought "Brain salad surgery" (being claimed as first commercial DVD-A those times, can't find the proof nowdays), and many others during 2000-20002. I still remember the girl at the counter who asked me "Is this stuff of any good?". The problem with Best Buy is that they have no idea how to market this new product.

Nowadays we are very limited in our choices. The last time when I bought multichannel disc at the store it was bookset "Minstreal in the gallery" at Barnes&Nobles (and the salesman was happy to find an idiot who is ready to buy unsaleble item). Later when I try to buy SACD "Wish you were here" at the same store and come to pick it up, I saw the remark "shipping only".

Well, the world is changed. Now we are forced to buy anything online. Here in New York just only 2 shops remains which offer you new CDs - Barnes&Nobles and Circuit City (for both of them CDs are not main items of trade) No more old good shops with educated sellers. I clearly understand that world is changed. Just want to say that it was changed for no good.