Sikora’s Classical Records

I just went back today after 8 years absence from collecting vinyls, I’m still impressed. I never come here with anything specific in mind because you will always find something you like. Pricing is very good here, I never felt I paid more on anything. However, PRICE is not everything, I enjoy the excitement that when I found the record I didn’t except to see and just can’t wait to go home and play it.

While there are many mail order options available online, I contact Sikora’s Classical Records for Opera DVD, along with the vast selection of recorded music regardless if it is deep catalog or a new release. The staff are extremely polite on the phone or via email and will research a particular title that may not be readily considered by other specialty stores. Even though I have 3 streaming and download music services, I highly commend the staff for their efforts and always look forward to contacting them.

Most of the records are classical and would have liked to have seen a larger jazz section. The prices were much higher than i thought should have been. It was nice to look around but I can buy the same albums online for half the price.

Very good store to find Classical records of course, best in the city really
but also one of the few to have a decent selection of Jazz and Blues.
The staff is very helpful and knowledgeable.
Prices are very fair and in line with current market trends.
It is also a pleasant place to shop in general, with a good atmosphere.

The best selection of classical music, very and too good. I had no trouble finding some stuff for some friends and got some suggestions for myself. A little bit of organization in certain sections are needed, however, over all a very good experience.

Large, well organized, with an immense selection of music other stores would be happy to shove onto a far shelf.
I was floored by the number of classical records they had in stock, and walked out with two albums I hadn’t been expecting to find. It is much bigger inside than you expect from the outside.
The staff are attentive but not pushy, and the prices are very fair. I will be returning. :)

I wanted to buy a Sun Ra LP today, walked into Sikora’s, they had four. Sealed, all 180gram, all $ 14.99. Sold. I will return for the others. Service was solid and sweet.
Rad reissues, lots of what you would expect, but in a clean and inexpensive shop. Miles, Monk, Pharaoh, Coltrane, and I didn’t even check out the classical. They do have Janacek in the window, so I’ll be back for that as well.

Many, many months after saying they’d keep an eye out for that Barber LP, they called and told me that one had come in. Again, I hadn’t placed an order — merely chatted with two of the employees and they said they’d keep a look out.
They somehow remembered, they called me, and I picked up the record for about $ 5. That is all extremely cool. I am high-​fiving this place in my mind right now.

This store has been around for a long time, is very well known, is very clean, very organized, and has a large collection of works you wouldn’t find other places. It’s exactly the kind of place I like to support, but I won’t be back.
I was browsing casually and I bought a bluegrass CD. Really loved it; enough to check out the merchandise available in the artist’s store to see if I could get any more of his stuff. I find out that he’s selling the CD for almost half the price I paid in the store… for only a few dollars more than I paid in the store, I could have gotten the CD, an immediate digital download, AND a full-​length vinyl LP version, which I would have loved to have for that price. The worst part? The artist’s merch store was NOT having a sale, and I was in Sikora’s on boxing week.
The only way a place like this can stay competitive is to computerize somehow to keep track of what their stuff should be selling for… I just don’t feel comfortable going into the store to buy things now, unless I want to have my iPhone with me making sure that what I’m buying isn’t retailing for 40% or 50% less than what I’m paying. Honestly, I don’t know how they should keep track of it — but I don’t own a music store, so I don’t have to figure it out. All I know is I want to support local stores, but I also want to pay fair market value for my music.
Also, considering the size of the store and their claim to fame being vinyl, when I asked to see the 7″ record section, I was shown exactly 8 records behind a glass case and told that classical music was barely ever recording on 7″… huh, right, I guess that’s why I already have 2 dozen titles, just from casual thrift shopping (and I don’t even buy every title I see).

I was last in this store to browse for stuff that most of the other stores will not carry three weeks ago. They really do have quite a selection and the staff is quite knowledgeable.
A while back I was looking for Bach orchestral transcriptions by Leopold Stokowski of the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor with the BBC Philharmonic on the Chandos label.
They had it. I bought it.
This store is the last of its kind. I hope it survives.

Sikora’s has always been one of the best spots in the city to track down classical and jazz music recordings. With the upcoming closing of the HMV at Robson at Burrard, it will soon also be one of the last.
Fortunately this store boast an excellent, well-​organized collection, and the intelligent, knowledgeable, and helpful staff are available to help track down or order anything you can’t find in the store.
The staff are always open to conversation as well, and are always happy to make new recommendations based on the composers and artists you enjoy. Through these dialogues I have discovered recordings I would have never heard otherwise, and for which I am extremely grateful.
It is this last element that distinguishes the store most for me, and that we stand most to lose, as our brick and mortar stores with helpful staff, shift to online sites with suggestive algorithms.

This is a classical-​music dedicated CD and LP store, both used and new. The selection is large and deep, and the CDs especially are well-​organized by composer, soloist, or instrument. The LPs aren’t organized as categorically, but are still separated by composer alphabetically. One cool thing was that new-​old-​stock sealed LPs had their own section. I’ve never seen that before in a used LP shop and thought that was pretty swell.
Occasionally, some of the prices were eye-​poppingly expensive to me (mostly on certain hard-​to-​find but still new CDs), but on the whole the pricing seemed fair, especially for the used stuff and for the LPs. I would love it if another place like this were in NYC. Looking forward to returning the next time I’m back in town!

First of all, I’m not a classical music fan. Sure, it does sound impressive that I happen to received my music diploma from
Trinity College of London. That doesn’t mean much if your heart and soul is not into classical music.
However, I have a few friends that are fans of classical music.
And I wanted to buy something for them. It has plentiful of selections. It places 2^nd in terms of collections, next to Princeton.
I spent a lot time looking through the vinyl records. They have CDs, operas, DVDs, and books. Canadians don’t need to go far to search for classical music.

Amazing store. Best place to buy jazz and classical CDs and records in Vancouver, hands down. Staff is knowledgeable on every type of music and you could spend hours looking through great cds!