Echo Room ATL — Atlanta’s Vinyl Listening Revival
By Rafi Mercer
New Listing
Venue Name: Echo Room ATL
Address: 725 Echo Street NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30318, United States.
Website: echoroomatl.com
Instagram: @echoroomatl
In West Midtown’s unfolding landscape of creative venues and repurposed warehouses, Echo Room emerges as something both nostalgic and new. Set inside the broader canvas of Westside Motor Lounge, Echo Room is a dedicated vinyl-listening bar, a space where analog warmth meets high-fidelity detail and the DJ’s primitive craft is honoured rather than consumed.
You arrive and the night’s momentum is tempered. The exterior hum of the city fades as you enter through the Motor Lounge complex. Inside, Echo Room opens up: a room of 1,750 sq ft, modest in size but generous in intention. The décor nods to studio basements of decades past — warm wood, angled walls, acoustic treatment, vintage aesthetics intertwined with modern comfort. You feel the room in your bones before you hear it.
This is a listening room rooted in principle. Inspired by the Japanese jazz-kissa tradition (where record playing was treated as ritual), Echo Room brings that ethos to Atlanta: conversation softened, mobiles silenced, focus turned outward to groove, texture, tone. Their website states as much: “a new vinyl listening bar … Atlanta’s premiere listening room.”
The sound system is key. Curated by Atlanta DJs / audiophiles — Kai Alce, DJ Kemit, Salah Ananse and Mike Zarin — the gear is vintage-studio grade, sourced from hi-fi collectors regionally. Resident Advisor reported that the space opened with an Alpha Theta Euphonia rotary mixer plus studio equipment by JBL. On Thursday to Saturday nights (typically 6pm–midnight) the room fills with deep house, soul, jazz, funk, Latin and global grooves.
The bar side matches the fidelity of the sound. Cocktails are crafted with the same care that goes into a good record drop — neat, clear, flavourful. The menu is set inside Westside Motor Lounge’s broader offering, but Echo Room evenings pivot the spotlight. Drinks, food, ambiance: they all align to listening rather than distraction.
The crowd feels calibrated. It might include audiophiles who travel for sound, local selectors dropping deep cuts, creatives looking for late hours without the club assault, and friends who simply want to hear records in a room. The vibe is intentional but inclusive. The electric energy of Atlanta nightlife is present but filtered through restraint.
Walking back outside into the wider Motor Lounge precinct you realise something: Echo Room has held you still in a city that doesn’t stand still. It doesn’t fight Atlanta’s rhythm but recalibrates it. Records land, drinks linger, conversation threads through groove, and you leave hearing differently than when you arrived.
Rafi Mercer writes about the spaces where music matters. For more stories from Tracks & Tales, subscribe, or click here.
