Inside Hong Kong’s listening bars, which balance a love of vinyl with culinary culture
Amid the global vinyl revival, 3 Hong Kong venues are betting that good sound is worth the investment – but what’s the financial reality?
Kung Chi-shing adjusts the needle on a Lionel Hampton vinyl, and suddenly a gentle vibraphone rings out over the chatter of afternoon cafe-goers at Coda, a 520 sq ft space in Sai Ying Pun.
Kung learned this the hard way. He tried playing a Beethoven vinyl at Coda. “People talked so loudly,” he recalls. “I printed a sign asking people to speak more quietly, but eventually I stopped.”
He now sticks to jazz – a genre that’s historically paired with conversation, smoking and drinking – a compromise he has made his peace with.
Unsurprisingly, like the purist Japanese versions, at Coda, music is the protagonist. Everything else – simple salads, croissants, wines – plays second fiddle.
Vintage Technics speakers and a turntable welcome you at the door. They sit opposite a wall of vinyl records that customers are encouraged to browse on their own, as a deliberate gesture towards a “communal” listening experience. “A customer stashes his collection here, fresh every other week,” Kung says, gesturing to the shelves. “He’s basically our biggest supplier – as if we could afford to buy new records ourselves.”
