In 1933 a twenty-year-old called Mamoru Yoshida opened a coffee shop in Noge, Yokohama, and spent somewhere between a third and 40 per cent of his wages importing jazz records from America so that other people could sit and hear them. He called it Chigusa. The point was not the coffee. Almost nobody in Japan could afford a record collection, and here was a room where you could rent one by the cup.
The war took the shop and about six thousand records with it. Yoshida came back from the army in 1947, found another thousand, and started again. That is the whole idea of the listening bar in two sentences, and it has not changed in ninety years: a good system, a person choosing, and a room that asks you to shut up.
Japan built more than eight hundred of these after Art Blakey toured in January 1961. Then home hi-fi got cheap and most of them died; about four hundred are left. Dig, in Tokyo, banned talking and turned the lights down. Eagle still will not let you speak before six in the evening. The rules were not a style. They were the product.
The export took half a century. Two brothers opened Brilliant Corners on Kingsland Road in 2013 with four 1970s Klipschorns in the corners of a former bank. Paul Noble put £350,000 of Living Voice speakers into Spiritland at King's Cross in 2016 and played a classic album at six every evening. Public Records opened in an old animal shelter in Gowanus in April 2019. By 2024 Time Out could list eight in London alone, one in Stockport, and one in Manchester that had already closed because the bills were too high.
“The vision was always to keep the space simple and humble, and not distract from the mission of the sound system.”
Amit Patel, Brilliant Corners, to The Spaces, November 2023
Why now is not a mystery, though people keep writing it up as one. Vinyl in the United States passed a billion dollars in 2025, the nineteenth straight year of growth. Britain sold 7.6 million LPs and has lost nearly a third of its clubs since 2010. People own records again and have nowhere good to play them. "Most people don't have access to really amazing systems," Rosie Robertson of Jazu told Time Out, which is the Chigusa argument with a negroni.
There is a backlash, and it is partly fair. Derrick Gee, who DJed at Spiritland, called the whole thing "surprisingly formulaic" as early as 2023: the obligatory Japanese menu, the shiny new system, the culture kept as decoration. In August 2026 a What Hi-Fi? writer sat in a central London listening bar where nobody was listening and worried in print that this is where it ends.
“We don't end up with listening bars where nobody is actually listening.”
What Hi-Fi?, 10 August 2026: the worry it closed on
Which brings us to Thailand, where the same argument is being had in a different accent.
Bangkok did not get this second-hand. Devon Turnbull, whose OJAS horns are in Public Records, built the speakers for Siwilai Sound Club on Charoen Krung in 2020. Maft Sai's Studio Lam, above a record shop on Sukhumvit 51, ran twelve years on Thai molam and a tube amp before closing on 28 February 2026 with a 49-night wake. "Spaces matter, but people matter more," he wrote. Since then the city has filled in around the gap: a container building off Sukhumvit 36 where every album plays to the run-out groove; a 77-year-old shophouse in Nang Loeng that kept the nickname of the grocer's it used to be, Grandma's; and that bar's owners opening a second room behind a big blue door in Silom this year. Out in Bang Bon, a long Grab from anywhere, somebody turned an empty dormitory into a listening bar with ten beer taps.
Chiang Mai's first listening bar was opened against demand, on purpose. Mum Pimolpud and Laurens Brouwer started Deaf Shop inside the old city walls in May 2022, after Brouwer had found the Japanese rooms on tour. "No one was waiting for this," he said, "but we felt it was what the city needed." Their motto is the same four words In Sheep's Clothing uses in New York: hear more, say less. The difference is that Deaf Shop gives Thursday to listening and Saturday to dancing and tells you which is which. That is a more honest answer to the London problem than London has found.
“No one was waiting for this, but we felt it was what the city needed.”
Laurens Brouwer, Deaf Shop, to Time Out Chiang Mai, August 2025
What follows is one page per room, fourteen in Bangkok and six in Chiang Mai, each with what we could verify and nothing we could not.
The rooms
Twenty rooms, one page each
Each page has the room, the people, the night, a Know-before-you-go box with the date it was checked, and the sources folded underneath. Nothing on them is from memory.
Bangkok 14 rooms
For the practical version of the same rooms, with what is open tonight: The Bangkok guide: hours, nearest BTS, three crawls and a map.
Freaking Out The Neighborhood
LISTENING ROOM · ALBUMS WHOLE
A container box off Sukhumvit 36 where the album plays to the run-out groove and the card on the table asks you to keep it down.
The room →Alonetogether
LIVE JAZZ DOWN, VINYL ROOM UP
A jazz bar on Soi Sukhumvit 31 with a band five nights a week, and a quieter room of rare pressings up the stairs.
The room →Modern-Day Culture
RECORD BAR · SOCIAL
An Ekkamai record bar run by friends who have collected for twenty years, where the drinks are built from Thai herbs and the record is chosen to match the glass.
The room →Club Salva Record Bar
RECORD BAR · THE SECOND ROOM
The Modern-Day Culture team's second door on the same soi, red this time, with crates of jazz, house and disco and drinks built on vinegar.
The room →OBi Record Bar
LISTENING ROOM · JAZZ KISSA LINEAGE
Japan's jazz kissa given a Silom address: a big blue door, dark wood, rare Japanese pressings, and a host who is not called a DJ.
The room →SIWILAI Sound Club
AUDIOPHILE BAR UP, LIVE ROOM DOWN
Devon Turnbull's OJAS horns, a Urei 1620 and a McIntosh amp in a Central Group heritage building on Charoen Krung. The same speaker builder as Public Records in Brooklyn.
The room →Lennon's
HOTEL VINYL BAR · SOCIAL
Thirty floors up the Rosewood, a vinyl bar built like a 1970s home studio, with more than 6,000 records, a weekly programme, and the only dress code on this list.
The room →Sober Record Bar
RECORD BAR · BALCONY DJ
Third floor of a hotel on Song Wat Road, where the DJ plays from the balcony and the old riverside street goes gold underneath. Opens at four, which makes it the afternoon room.
The room →Yayyyyy Record Bar
RECORD BAR · BRING A RECORD
One shophouse wide in a 77-year-old building on the edge of Nang Loeng, named after the grandmother's grocery it replaced, where the DJs bring their own crates and might put your record on.
The room →Clutch, The Warehouse
CLUB · WHERE THE NIGHT GOES AFTER
Not a listening room. A hangar of a warehouse bar in Talat Noi where RomRom and Bangkok Community Radio run the big nights. On these pages for the crawl, not the test.
The room →Long Play Music and Bar
RECORD BAR · PROJECTOR AND JAZZ
A dark second-floor room inside Josh Hotel in Ari, with a wall-sized projector, rotating vinyl DJs, and live jazz on Friday and Saturday.
The room →Soulmate Listening Bar
LISTENING BAR · HOMELY
An old house off Soi Lat Phrao 41 turned into a wood-lined front room with a garden, records in the evening and not many seats.
The room →Japhoochonpak
SHOP, BAR AND STAGE
One collector's records, books and memorabilia around a small bar across the river in Bangkok Noi, with secret indie gigs and a resident cat called Nong Khom.
The room →aftersun Listening Bar
LISTENING BAR · 1970S DORMITORY ROOM
A small dark-walled room made from an empty dormitory out in Bang Bon, past the ring road, with a different vinyl DJ every night, ten beer taps, and a crate to dig between rounds.
The room →Chiang Mai 6 rooms
For the practical version of the same rooms, with what is open tonight: The Chiang Mai guide: Deaf Shop's nights, the Old City crawl and a map.
Deaf Shop
LISTENING BAR · NIGHTS BY MOOD
Chiang Mai's first listening bar, inside the old city walls, where Thursday is for listening, Saturday is for dancing, and the house tells you which.
The room →Fung Record Bar
RECORD BAR · ALL ANALOGUE
Up a wooden staircase in a converted traditional house on Prapokklao Soi 1: analogue all the time, good speakers, a Beatles-themed highball, and ninety metres from Deaf Shop.
The room →John Lemon
BISTRO WITH A VINYL LOUNGE
A burger bistro on Samlarn Road, inside the western wall, where the slogan is Food, Drink, Vinyl, diners pick the record, and the owner tells you to bring your own next time.
The room →Thirty Records
RECORD SHOP · HI-FI LISTENING WALL
Half record shop, half sound system: Pioneer CS-77A and Diatone DS-36BR speakers across the back wall, sofas in front, and the owner hosting listening sessions. Daytime only. Not a bar.
The room →The Toys Club
CAFÉ BY DAY, DJ BAR BY NIGHT
East of the river on San Pa Koi Road: a café by day, a cocktail bar by night, retro consoles everywhere, and DJ Bird's First Press collection on the decks almost every evening.
The room →Noomtaofire Record
RECORD SHOP · BENCHES TO LISTEN
Khun Ae's second-floor shop above a clothing boutique on Charoen Prathet Road, near the Night Bazaar: secondhand and sealed LPs, benches to sit and listen, drip coffee. A shop, not a bar.
The room →FAQ
Questions people ask
What is a listening bar?
A bar built around a sound system and a person choosing the records, where the room asks you to keep your voice down. The form comes from Japan's jazz kissa, coffee shops that from the late 1920s let customers hear imported jazz records they could not afford to own.
Where did the listening bar start?
In Japan. Music cafés appeared in the 1920s, Meikyoku Kissa Lion opened in Tokyo in 1926, and Mamoru Yoshida opened the jazz café Chigusa in Noge, Yokohama, in 1933. More than 800 jazz kissa followed Art Blakey's 1961 tour; about 400 remain.
Which listening bars in Thailand are strict about talking?
Freaking Out The Neighborhood in Bangkok plays every album first track to last and puts a card on the table asking for low voices. OBi Record Bar in Silom is built for listening or quiet talk. Deaf Shop in Chiang Mai keeps Thursday and Sunday for listening and gives Friday and Saturday to dancing.
Is Deaf Shop in Chiang Mai open?
It is on a break after its four-year party on 10 October 2026 and reopens on 30 October 2026, according to Time Out Chiang Mai. Its page has the hours and which night to go.
Sources (24)
- In Sheep's Clothing Hi-Fi, Jazz Café Chigusa, 30 Apr 2024
- National Geographic, Mastering the art of deep listening in Japan, 5 Feb 2026
- Tokyo Weekender, A love letter to Japanese listening cafés, 27 Jun 2025
- The Spaces, Brilliant Corners, 21 Nov 2023
- Gasholder, So what on earth is Spiritland all about?, 27 Oct 2016
- Time Out UK, How listening bars took over the UK, 10 Oct 2024
- Wikipedia, Public Records (venue), checked 20 Oct 2026
- DJ Mag, Quality time: the new era of hi-fi listening bars, 6 Jun 2024
- Analog Planet, RIAA 2025 year-end report, 17 Mar 2026
- Digital Music News, UK vinyl 2025, 31 Dec 2025
- Derrick Gee, Are hi-fi bars the new tapas bar?, 1 Apr 2023
- What Hi-Fi?, This listening bar experience made me question whether the trend has gone too far, 10 Aug 2026
- Mushmouth, Why is everywhere a listening bar?, 22 May 2025
- Mixmag Asia, Siwilai Sound Club, 27 Oct 2020
- Mixmag Asia, Studio Lam announces closure, 7 Jan 2026
- Time Out Bangkok, Studio Lam's 49-night farewell, 1 Jul 2026
- Time Out Bangkok, Freaking Out The Neighborhood, 24 Jul 2026
- The Standard, Yayyyyy Record Bar, 23 Aug 2024
- The Standard, OBi Record Bar Silom, 13 Jul 2026
- Time Out Bangkok, aftersun Listening Bar, 24 Jul 2026
- Time Out Chiang Mai, Inside Chiang Mai's vinyl revival, 1 Aug 2025
- Mixmag Asia, Chiang Mai's first vinyl listening bar, 13 Jun 2022
- Time Out Chiang Mai, Deaf Shop listing, 18 Aug 2025
- Time Out Chiang Mai, four years of good music at Deaf Shop, 9 Oct 2026
Every fact in the feature comes from one of these, read on 20 October 2026. Each room page folds its own list.