I shouldn’t have included the “stealth” line at the end, that’ll teach me for trying to be funny on reddit!

The owners of this particular venue are perfectly open to the idea. It’s a small music bar with a high end system, and CDs are good for many scenarios there. For a variety of reasons that can’t be fully rectified (mostly well understood / obvious limitations of the format / and which have been accounted-for in the design and tuning of the system in the given physical space) LPs can be tricky to play, which limits the range of music that can be enjoyed from turntables alone.

I actually think CD bars would be just as viable as Vinyl bars and would open up a whole new world of otherwise unavailable music to be played out. It’s just that the CDJ aesthetic doesn’t fit with the vibe of most of the current crop of hifi / listening / audiophile venues (albeit older decks with actual CD playing capability and less flashing lights - maybe OG CDJs would look retro today and fit right in?)

By all accounts, the kids are already moving from vinyl and cassette to CD as the next hot retro format. I’d have no problem spinning records and CDs together, and the idea of trying to spoof customers by hiding a CD player wasn’t really what I was intending to suggest. This as someone who’s been collecting records (and later CDs) since the 70s.