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Listening booths, those all-but-extinct, soundproof rooms where record-buyers could sample their prospective purchases right in the store, are staging a mild comeback thanks to the technology of the compact audio disc.
William Camarata, owner of the Maximum Compact disc store in North Olmsted, is building two listening booths he plans to have in operation this month as part of his new discs-only store. Mr. Camarata is following the lead of Dennis Koury, owner of two Music Box compact disc and audiocassette stores and eight Record Den stores. Mr. Koury has operated a listening room since opening his downtown store a year ago.
Not quite going the booth route is Pittsburgh-based National Record Mart Inc., which is negotiating to put one of the 80-store chain's Waves compact-disc and audiocassette stores in the Galleria at Erieview shopping center downtown. Waves stores feature at least two disc players in the shop so that customers can listen to the discs through headphones, said Frank Fischer, National Record's president.
Listening booths disappeared from record stores by the late 1960s for a number of reasons, although interpretations vary.
"One word explains it:...