Visiting Chennai: Good place to buy CD's?

Enna_Solven · Post by **Enna_Solven** » 22 Mar 2009, 09:35

Will be visiting Chennai in a couple of months. I would like to get recommendations for a good music store, especially one that sells old masters' recordings. Would you recommend any specific place? I will have limited time as I am also planning to visit many places/temples down south; I might just have a few days to do CD shopping. I appreciate any suggestion.

Also, would you recommend any must have CD's? Is there a thread like that? Search didn't bring up anything useful.

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 22 Mar 2009, 11:21

A visit to Mylapore would not be complete without a visit to the music section of Giri Trading!

The there is the big shop next to (but not obvious from the street) Shankara Hall in TTK Road.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 22 Mar 2009, 13:48

tribute · Post by **tribute** » 22 Mar 2009, 14:22

I suggest you look in Shankara Hall. You get almost any CD there at any time of the year!

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 22 Mar 2009, 15:23

Thanks for the name, cool. Would you believe I only discovered that place this last December? Well, it is very well hidden.

Tribute, Sankara Hall itself is used for all different exhibitions during the year, usually handicrafts. In Decvember they have a huge CD/DVD sale there; the shop is at the side of the hall.

You probably know that, but a stranger to the city might very well see the handicrafts and miss the shop completely. I did for all these years!

Enna_Solven · Post by **Enna_Solven** » 22 Mar 2009, 19:01

Thank you all. I purchased about 100 CD's online from celextel.com many months back and got them sent across the world

Their pricing, shipping and overall response are excellent. The problem is that they carry only a limited selection of masters: only two CD's of MVS.

I will visit these shops. I have bought only handicrafts from Shankara Hall!

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 22 Mar 2009, 23:10

You can do some home work at Giri trading's web site and also check with them ahead of time if they have them in stock.

http://www.giritrading.com/category.asp ... CDs&dept=2 ( CDs by giri trading )

http://www.giritrading.com/category.asp ... CDs&dept=2 ( CDs by other companies )

Enna_Solven · Post by **Enna_Solven** » 23 Mar 2009, 01:37

Thanks VK.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 23 Mar 2009, 11:48

Landmark also has branches at Nungambakkam High Road (about 5 minutes walk from Gemini, just beyond Park Hotel and the Church) and at Citi Centre - Radhakrishnan Salai, close to Kalyani Hospital. The Nungambakkan unit was just a 10 minute walk from my house and I've spent many happy weekend mornings browsing around...these are things one sorely misses in Mumbai!

Giri Trading has a good collection but is poorly organized. The store salespersons are usually unable to help with the masters...in any case I prefer a well-laid out store where I can browse on my own...

AVM Sound Vision is OK too but has a poor to non-existent HM collection.

I prefer Landmark - esp the Nungambakkam outlet which is less crowded than its counterparts at Spencer's and Citi Centre. I wonder if there are any other good stores in Chennai...

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 23 Mar 2009, 13:12

vasanthakokilam wrote:You can do some home work at Giri trading's web site and also check with them ahead of time if they have them in stock.

Giri Trading also offers a download service too where they will copy songs onto your flash drive or ipod/mp3 player or a CD/DVD. Not sure of the legality of this or the rates.

karthikbala · Post by **karthikbala** » 23 Mar 2009, 13:30

mohan wrote: Giri Trading also offers a download service too where they will copy songs onto your flash drive or ipod/mp3 player or a CD/DVD. Not sure of the legality of this or the rates.

These are available through their ADD Kiosks at various locations. Apart from Giri outlets, there is/was one at the Chennai Airport. Ought to be perfectly legal. Giri Trading's content accumulated over the years should be quite extensive.

For searching songs and rates, see:
http://www.addkiosk.in/search.asp

e.g. A 7-minute TNS rendition of "AKILANDESWARI" is priced at Rs. 16.00

Enna_Solven · Post by **Enna_Solven** » 24 Mar 2009, 06:25

Thanks for the suggestions.

I am 'fixated' on CD's. I decided not buy any more mp3's after buying quite a few from emusic.com. This trip is actually to replace many mp3's with CD.

Also, buying an mp3 album for 161.00 (BJ - Listeners' Choice Inreco IP 5022) does not make sense when I can buy the CD for not much more (except when I can't go in person.)

Rasikas forum folks have always been very helpful. Thanks again.

preetha_carnatica · Post by **preetha_carnatica** » 03 Apr 2009, 09:50

Sir, you are also welcome to visit Samskriti, Carnatica's albums outlet located at: Jammi Bulidings, No. 60, Royapettah High Rd, Mylapore, Chennai - 4 (located right beside the Royapettah flyover, service lane on the Sanskrit College side). Phone: 45535576 / 94440 18270

Enna_Solven · Post by **Enna_Solven** » 05 Apr 2009, 03:29

preetha_carnatica wrote:Sir, you are also welcome to visit Samskriti, Carnatica's albums outlet located at: Jammi Bulidings, No. 60, Royapettah High Rd, Mylapore, Chennai - 4 (located right beside the Royapettah flyover, service lane on the Sanskrit College side). Phone: 45535576 / 94440 18270

Thank you. I will visit.

Enna_Solven · Post by **Enna_Solven** » 28 Jul 2009, 04:51

Thank you all. I visited all the shops you good folks mentioned and bought quite a few CD's. I had gone prepared with a list songs/albums that I already have; that helped a lot as I lost mental track of what I bought or not after a few days.

One small shop at Adyar junction (New Music India) on LB Road has a surprisingly large collectionof albums. In fact I bought most of my stuff there.

I noticed that many companies have chosen to sell burnt CD's instead of pressed CD's to save cost. Inreco is the worst. Most of their CD's are burnt and still priced the same as Amudham/Charsur.

Again thanks to you all.

PS: I am flabbergasted by the volume of traffic in Chennai; and everyone drives/rides aggressively. I was returning after a gap of two years and it seems to have gotten much worse. I wonder how you go from concert to concert in December.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 28 Jul 2009, 07:12

Enna_Solven wrote:PS: I am flabbergasted by the volume of traffic in Chennai; and everyone drives/rides aggressively. I was returning after a gap of two years and it seems to have gotten much worse. I wonder how you go from concert to concert in December.

Enna_Solven, what can I say!! One has to jump into an auto and trust one's life to that guy!! I don't think they've lost a rasika yet!

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 28 Jul 2009, 07:25

chalanata · Post by **chalanata** » 28 Jul 2009, 11:37

this is a lesser known non descript. this is on the first floor opposite kerala jewellers in Luz. remarkable collection of old masters' mp3s.

Enna_Solven · Post by **Enna_Solven** » 29 Jul 2009, 00:21

chalanata wrote:this is a lesser known non descript. this is on the first floor opposite kerala jewellers in Luz. remarkable collection of old masters' mp3s.

Thank you chalanata. Perhaps next visit; I have left Chennai.

jananee · Post by **jananee** » 10 Aug 2009, 08:54

I was going to suggest the shop on LB Road to you Enna Solven. Glad you found it.They have a very good collection!