Arts & Culture MUSIC
T
he wooden counter sits low and runs across the middle of the venue, almost like a sushi bar. Under the natural light pouring in from the ceiling window stands the day’s selector,
A look into the city’s fast-evolving hifi listening club scene Listen Closely
working the turntables where records spin and get flipped. Sounds radiate through vintage 1980 Klipsch Heresy speakers seconds later at a level perfect for quiet conversations about the music that fills the air. Owned by Gibrán Huerta, Longplay HiFi is spinning more than vinyl records: It's composing the lyrics to a new song—one that tells the story of a niche music community growing in San Diego. To be clear, this isn’t the first high-fidelity listening club to make noise in town. While it’s hard to pinpoint which establishment started the trend here, we do know Huerta was the first to play with the concept of spinning records and gathering people for it. It started as a traveling, pop-up vinyl event led by Huerta in Tijuana and San Diego under his creative agency Longplay Studio in 2016. While streaming live DJ sets on Twitch and traveling to Japan yearly, Huerta officially named the project “Longplay HiFi” in 2020 and gave it a physical home in Sherman Heights that August.
BY ROXANA BECERRIL
ABOVE Longplay HiFi founder Gibrán Huerta started with a love of vinyl and plastic crates at his pop-ups. TOP RIGHT Cushy comfort and crystal clear sounds at Convoy Music Bar. BOTTOM RIGHT Coffee and cocktails go with Huerta’s 1000- plus records at Longplay HiFi.
32 DECEMBER 2022
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