Record Listening Booths

 

By Doug Boilesen, 2019

Private listening booths and demonstration rooms were designed to focus the customer's listening experience when shopping for a new machine or record. As such they were another way the phonograph was advertised and supported in its promotion of records.

The following advertisement and others from The Talking Machine World gives some testimonials regarding increasing profits in selling machines, advantages of such rooms, and reasons to buy a Unico Design.

 

Installation for The Aeolian Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, The Talking Machine World, February 15, 1915

 

Installation for L. K. Beach, Design Number Two, Columbus, Ohio, TMW 1915

 

 

The Talking Machine World, February 1915 - Installation for Fulton Music Company, Waterbury, Conn. - The Talking Machine World, May 1915.

 

 

Silverstone Music Company's Concert Chamber "devoted exclusively to the exploitation of the Edison Diamond Disc." "This concert chamber is on the first floor and easy of access, besides five other spacy booths devoted to the demonstration of the Diamond."

"The peculiar construction of this hall produces ideal acoustics, due to the fact that the roof and ends are oval shaped, lending an artistic and esthetic appearance to the eye. The color scheme is white enamel and tan with a background of art glass, specially designed in which the word "Edison" shows in an upper pane and the instruments, the Lyre, Violin, and Flutes designed in contrasting colors of art glass representing musical art." Edison Phonograph Monthly March 1915

 

"Is Your Stage Setting Harmonious?" - Unico's "ADAM" design - The Talking Machine World, May 15, 1919

Fletcher's Music Store record listening booths, circa 1920's Courtesy City of Victoria Archives, Victoria, BC

 

The New York Public Library Phonograph Booth, Mortimer Cohen, Staff (From New York Public Library)

 

Record Listening Room, Saturday Evening Post, April 19, 1952

 

 

The following photos are from a delightful series of photographs titled c. 1955 Vinyl listening booths Sampling the hits -- and a cigarette by Alex Q. Arbuckle.

 

Listening Booths, HMV, 1955 (Courtesy Alex Q. Arbuckle) - Nov. 24, 1955 IMAGE: JOHN DRYSDALE/KEYSTONE FEATURES/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

 

Listening Booths (Ibid.)

The listening booth featured in a 1959 7-Up ad shows that the booth could be more than a place to preview records before purchasing one.

 

These listening booths were shown in a 1960 Winston cigarette ad on the backcover of TV Guide.

Listening Booth in Record Store, "Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation" ©2015 Paramount Pictures.

 

Sonos’ concept store has cabin-shaped listening rooms - Covent Gardens, London 2020.

 

Lisa Simpson listening to records in record store.The Simpson's.

Listening Bars

On the July 5, 2026 CBS TV show "Sunday Morning," one segment was devoted to listening to LP's in specialized listening bars designed for that purpose.

In Japan, listening bars (often called jazz kissas) started gaining popularity back in the 1930s. But similar venues have exploded in the U.S. in recent years, popping up everywhere from Minnesota (like noma hifi in Edina), to Missouri (XO HiFi in Kansas City), to Colorado (ESP HiFi in Denver).

"Seattle's Shibuya HiFi is a listening bar. While guests can chat and sip cocktails in the lounge, they leave behind their drinks, and their shoes, as they settle into the back room to enjoy full-length albums in a communal setting. An evening might feature anything from Bjork to David Bowie." (CBS Sunday Morning, July 5, 2026).

WATCH "Reclaiming the lost art of listening to music", Sunday Morning, CBS, July 5, 2026 for more details.

Devon Turnbull's installation, "HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3," at the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City. The exhibit features rotating playlists of jazz, classical, ambient sounds and other genres. (Courtesy CBS News, July 5, 2026.