Vinyl, vintage hi-fi and a workshop that brings tired turntables back to life — Exarcheia, since 2008.
“I brought my father's 1973 Garrard 401 to Mimis with a seized bearing and a snapped idler wheel. Eight weeks later it came back rebuilt to factory spec, with a written report and a measured wow-and-flutter of 0.04%. The first record I dropped on it was my dad's copy of *Kati Allo* by Tsitsanis. I cried in the shop. Yannis poured me an ouzo.”
“I have been hunting a clean Greek Columbia pressing of *Reflections* for fifteen years. Maria called me on a Tuesday morning, said one had just come in from a collection in Kifisia, graded NM minus, original gatefold. I bought it that afternoon. Maria knew exactly which insert was supposed to be inside and which was missing. That kind of knowledge does not exist on Discogs.”
“Yannis sold me a restored Thorens TD 160 with an SME 3009 and an Ortofon 2M Black, set up on the bench, packed in a wooden crate and couriered to Heraklion. It arrived perfectly aligned. I have called the shop three times since with stupid questions and Maria has answered all three with patience. They are not selling a turntable — they are taking on a customer for life.”
“I went in for a new stylus for my Rega Planar 3 and left two hours later with a coffee, a cleaned copy of *Mingus Ah Um* and a five-minute lesson from Mimis on why my anti-skate was wrong. Charged me for the stylus and the record. The lesson was free. I have been going every Saturday for two years.”
“My grandmother passed and left a collection of about 800 LPs — mostly classical, some rebetiko, a few Greek folk first pressings. Yannis came to Patisia in his Citroen, sat in her flat for four hours sorting them with respect, valued the collection at €4,200 and paid in cash the same day. He even kept aside the records he thought I should keep for myself. I would never trust this to anyone else.”