PMC monitors find favour in both audiophiles’ and audio professionals’ circles, whether working in recording studios, watching movies in a home theatre or simply listening to music. Recently a further category joined the list when an innovative vinyl record store and coffee shop recently opened in Hove, East Sussex.
Capsule Records aims to appeal to new and experienced vinyl collectors with its collection of vinyl classics, re-issues and new releases – from jazz, soul and funk to disco, dub, house and electronica. At the heart of the shop is a team of music lovers, who will help customers to identify their musical ‘sweet spots’ and guide them toward new LPs or labels. A handful of curated record collections is also available, each containing up to 35 albums that hang together on the basis of musical style, artist connections or the label they are on.
Eventually the shop also plans to develop its large basement area and into a listening room that people will be able to hire for private events.
‘We want to bring real joy to new music discovery,’ says Lawrence Bleach, who co-founded the shop with Sarah Hennessy and Simon ‘Skev’ Skevington. ‘The LPs we’ve chosen and collections we’ve curated include some surprises and relatively unknown beauties, which sit alongside more established releases. We want to help customers expand their collections by recommending new artists and labels we think they’ll love – think Spotify mixes and playlists in vinyl, but curated by humans, not algorithms.’
Capsule Records is now equipped with a sound system comprising four wall-mounted PMC Ci30 loudspeakers in its main retail area, and a further two in the café area at the rear of the store. Designed for playback of stereo and immersive formats, Ci30 speakers out-perform speakers twice their size, delivering high definition reproduction from 47Hz to 25kHz. The system was chosen for Capsule Records by sound engineer Max Gilkes who worked with the management team to ensure the shop delivered exceptional audio quality.
‘Matt advised on sound proofing and acoustics, as well as monitoring,’ Bleach says. ‘He recommended PMC loudspeakers because they deliver the clarity and quality we wanted. The first time I listened to them I was blown away. I knew they were so much better than anything I had heard before because the sound was so rich. They made the music sing. Whether you are in the shop or the café, that goosebump feeling isn’t far away.’
‘We aim to offer a welcoming musical sanctuary to our customers, and we also plan to encourage, mentor, educate and support local people who want to be involved in the music industry,’ Bleach adds. ‘Capsule Records isn’t just a vinyl store – it is a destination for vinyl lovers and for everyone who wants to expand their musical horizons.’
