Acoustic Sounds, Inc. is a mail-order business specializing in the sale of audiophile vinyl LPs, SACDs, Reel-To-Reel album reissues (Analogue Productions Ultra Tape),

DVD-Audio DVD-Audio (commonly abbreviated as DVD-A) is a digital format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. DVD-Audio uses most of the storage on the disc for high-quality audio and is not intended to be a video delivery format. The ...

s, high-quality CDs and high-end stereo equipment. Located in

Salina, Kansas Salina is a city in and the county seat of Saline County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,889. In the early 1800s, the Kanza tribal land reached eastward from the middle of the Kansas Territory. In 1858 ...

, United States. The business is owned and operated by Chad Kassem and as of 2016 employed 98 people.

Company history

Kassem started Acoustic Sounds in 1986. In 1991, Kassem scouted out a 3,500-square-foot former dance studio in this mid-sized Kansas downtown. In 1992, Kassem launched a reissue label called

Analogue Productions Analogue Productions is a record label specializing in the manufacture and distribution of reissue LP record albums, CDs and SACDs that primarily include jazz, blues, rock, folk and classical styles of music. The company is a division of Acoust ...

. Kassem contracted with

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

s – majors and independents – and licensed the original analog

master tape Master recordings, or simply masters, are the original recordings—including Mastering (audio), post-recording mixes and Record production, production edits—of audio performances, from which all analog and digital copies of the audio are derived ...

s of choice recordings. He then had those titles remastered and pressed on a superior grade of vinyl and then offered the finished product for sale through his Acoustic Sounds catalog and to wholesale accounts around the world. Analogue Productions now has more than 450 titles in print. Also during this time, in 1993, Kassem began APO Records (Analogue Productions Originals), an original record label focused on recording authentic, living blues artists. APO’s first title –

Jimmy Rogers Jay or James Arthur "Jimmy" Rogers (June 3, 1924December 19, 1997) was an American Chicago blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player, best known for his work as a member of Muddy Waters's band in the early 1950s. He also had a solo career and ...

/Blue Bird – won the 1995 W.C. Handy Traditional Blues Album of the Year. APO Records as of 2011 had 43 titles available.

Recording studio in Gothic-style church

By 1994, Acoustic Sounds had again outgrown its space, and Kassem found a warehouse. In the meantime, Acoustic Sounds further branched into new musical endeavors with the addition of

Blue Heaven Studios Blue Heaven Studios is a recording studio located in a gothic-style church in Salina, Kansas. The studio is a division of Acoustic Sounds, Inc., founded by music entrepreneur Chad Kassem, and is the home of a yearly blues music festival — Blu ...

. In 1996, Kassem purchased an old Gothic-style church in downtown Salina, and also built a studio/concert hall there. The studio is also available for anyone to book session time and additionally is available for weddings.

Record pressing plant launched

Kassem was photographed for the cover of

Billboard magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized in lowercase since 2013) is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to th ...

, a leading publication in the music industry, in a profile written by Chris Morris for the Aug. 17, 2002, issue titled "Audiophile Labels Put a New Spin On Vinyl." In 2011, Acoustic Sounds launched Quality Record Pressings (QRP), a modern record pressing plant. QRP operates record presses equipped with pioneering modifications, including adding

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor (computing), processor for which the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit (IC), or a small number of ICs. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, a ...

s to the presses so that they will cycle based on temperature rather than the less accurate cycling by time. Today, QRP presses more than 1 million records each year, bringing legendary labels and artists — such as Verve, Impulse, Atlantic and Contemporary Records, to John Coltrane, Steely Dan, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and The Doors — as they’ve never been heard before to fans worldwide. All of the Analogue Productions reissues and the APO Records titles are now pressed at QRP and the pressing plant is also the exclusive manufacturer of LPs for the historic Jimi Hendrix catalog. QRP has also produced LPs for anniversary editions of the most revered music catalog of all time — The Beatles.

SuperHiRez DSD/PCM download site launched

On August 28, 2013, Acoustic Sounds launched SuperHiRez.com, an Internet site selling mainstream title high-resolution album downloads from major record labels, produced using

Direct Stream Digital Direct Stream Digital (DSD) is a trademark used by Sony and Philips for their system for digitally encoding audio signals for the Super Audio CD (SACD). DSD uses delta-sigma modulation, a form of pulse-density modulation encoding, a techniqu ...

(DSD) as well as

PCM Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to Digital signal (signal processing), digitally represent analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio application ...

audio formats. Uncompressed DSD technology results in music that is as close to the master recording as possible and is the same technology employed in the manufacture of SACDs. Kassem said publicly he expected the service to offer as many as 500 titles by year-end. On September 4, 2013, Acoustic Sounds announced an agreement with

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

to provide the company's new digital download service with albums that have been produced or remastered in

format. The deal followed an earlier agreement reached with

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

. On December 31, 2020, the decision was made to shutdown Acoustic Sounds Super HiRez digital downloads service after seven years due to streaming continuing to eclipse downloading.

References

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External links