Sacramento’s first hi-fi bar debuts with tracks pressed to vinyl

By Katerina Graziosi | Solving Sacramento It’s a quarter to 2 p.m. when Purple Disco Machine’s “Devil in Me” fills a bar on the corner block of 4th and L Streets in Downtown Sacramento with a rhythmic funk-house beat.& & The sound is crisp, enveloping a growing crowd with a quality and precision rivaled by live music. Abs One is at the decks of the newly minted booth where 14 DJs — including DJ Fooders, Vinyl Honey, DJ Epik and others — set to spin vinyl records until midnight at the grand opening of Legend Has It, the city’s first hi-fi bar, on Sept. 14. Short for hi-fidelity audio, hi-fi bars are spaces that prioritize the listening experience, particularly of pressed music, over all else. Popularized in Japan during the 1940s and ’50s, these intimate venues made use of postwar goods entering the country by sourcing top-notch audio systems and curating “cultural lifelines” for audiophiles and community alike to gather in the wake of a shortage of social events and the shuttering of businesses forced by World War II. The concept of a Japanese jazz kissa, or kissaten, is mirrored here at 410 L St. with its cozy, modern furniture,...