Siren Records McHenry — Local services in McHenry

I had a turntable that I purchased as an estate item, and needed help understanding why my LPs sounded distorted... thank God I found Bill @ Siren Records! Turns out that the stylus that was on the turntable was a "DJ stylus" used to groove and scratch records! Bill hooked me up with the right cartridge and stylus, explained what this stylus would have done had I continued using it, and aligned the cartridge for a reasonable fee. But the plot thickens. I was using this turntable with a newer-generation receiver, and the sound was far too quiet. He advised me that the combo of that receiver and my surround sound speakers would require essentially turning the receiver volume all the way up to listen to LPs, but that chances are I would forget I had it all the way up and when the family switched over to Comcast or a Blu-ray, I would toast my surround speakers; rather than make that mistake, he advised that I use an older receiver (he had many for sale), which I did have. Even then, my sound was too low with the powered speakers that I had. Bill told me to bring in the turntable, the receiver and the speakers, and he would walk me through the setup to make sure that I didn't damage anything - at no charge. Today, he walked me through everything, and it turns out that my powered speakers were "fighting" with the receiver, and would ultimately damage them if I continued to use an amplified signal with these powered speakers. He proved it to me by using his unpowered speakers, which had great, appropriate modulation. I ended up getting a great deal on a pair of his used bookshelf speakers to use with my turntable and amp, and couldn't be happier. All of this while talking me through things via IM and phonecalls as I struggled with my equipment. Nobody provides that kind of expertise or almost all-hours service anymore. Anywhere. If you have ANY audio equipment service needs, Bill is a wealth of information and does things at a very fair price, explaining his work along the way. Not to mention the awesome records and CDs he has in the store. Every genre, and the records are professionally cleaned and fairly priced. Get there!

UPDATE: Last week, I went in and had my 11 of my LPs ultrasonically cleaned. Wow, what a difference! A couple of them remain noisy (these are clearly bad pressings), but all of the rest sound 10x better! Very little, if any, noise - even during the quiet passages. Before you give up on noisy vinyl, bring your LPs by for a cleaning. They only charge .50 a...

Reminder: The rule is 1 exclusive record per person, not if your friend wants to buy you a gift and also wants one for himself you are going to get yelled at.

Did not allow my friend to buy me a record and in turn one of us was not allowed to have a record we waited in line for since 5 am in the snow. Woman handled it horribly and started yelling at us for have 2 of the same records. After I explained no he is buying it for me she accused us of reselling. I was mortified and did not want my friend to lose the records he had picked out because clearly she has a SHORT fuse so I just put it back. Super disappointed not only in how it was handled but the fact that she accused us of going to resell a record. I just was getting one and my friend was getting one (I was home from South Carolina and he was visiting from Wisconsin). The other worker then took it to the back… Don’t recommend this shop horribly disappointed. Wasted 3 hours freezing in front of a record shop as the record I waited in line for was stanched because my friend was going to pay for my record.

Also accusing 2 young adults of reselling when 50+ year old men who can’t even name one song on the record is wild. I recommend going to absolutely any other shop. Trying now to buy myself the record and now they’re reselling for $100+ I am horribly damaged and disappointed. This was my first record store day and I am so upset.

How can one quantify couples to sibling? couples to friends? And that is a very unclear policy as 1 title per person is ALL that is posted! Nothing about couples, siblings, friends, etc. And the point in a whole was missed we are not a couple, now because of you poor “policy” I did not get a record after waiting for hours in the snow😭 As a someone who is living in South Carolina the snow was painful and ended up not even being worth the...

Edit with update. The stores owner remembered the albums I was looking for and was able to secure me two vinyls that were on the top of my list to complete the year with. These people are fantastic and pays attention to their customers. It sets them apart! My first time going to this AMAZING store was on Black Friday RSD. A) The store is big and open with a HUGE selection of albums B) Jenny at the register was efficient, friendly even with the store in chaos (we just got in and people were running to find the vinyls they wanted) she was also on fire at the register and she still found time while handling the register to talk to me C) Jenny’s husband told us to call back on the Monday after to see if another Vinyl came in. So I did, but the item didn’t arrive. So I had asked about other vinyls, and I honestly didn’t think I would get a call back, but they ordered the vinyl I was asking about! D) I get a call from Jenny to tell me the vinyl was on its way!!!! I ended up asking for a couple more vinyls and she said “my husband is looking it up now will order if available” but we won’t know if it will come before Christmas. If I had called anywhere else, I promise I’d get scoffed at, like I did with Anvil Cat aka LoveJoy. They have got me as a customer for life. I’d rather support Indie Stores than UMG hands down. Thank you both so much for not only being kind, friendly as well as being reliable. I would give...