Bop Street isn't so much a store as it is an experience. Of course, you would not know it from the store's non-descript exterior. Located in Cowman Campbell Paint Company's former warehouse, a simple sign above the door and sandwich board on the street corner are the only evidence of its existence.

As you enter you see one thing, records. Bins, shelves, and boxes bulge with thousands upon thousands of records, ranging from the rare to the commonplace to the bizarre. Bop Street is well-known for the quality and quantity of its inventory. The website claims that the store has the largest inventory of records on the West Coast.

"I've been to stores across the world, and Bop Street is on a whole other level," said Rob Christensen of Queen Anne. Christensen, a local musician and record collector, found out about the store by word of mouth from other collectors. "The first time you go to the place, it just blows your mind."

Fortunately there is a secondhand, faux-leather couch to sit down on. And next to those are turntables and headphones.

"People spend all day there," said Christensen. "Everybody who's there is a serious collector."

That is the atmosphere that owner Dave Voorhees is trying to create.

"[Bop Street] is just a place where people can spend hours and hours looking for records," said Voorhees. He keeps the store just organized to prevent chaos, but not so organized that you won't have to leaf through a few records to find what you are looking for.

"I've always loved vinyl," explained Voorhees, nimbly moving his 6 foot plus frame amidst bins and piles. "It's a tangible thing; you can smell it."

He is in his element among the records, enthusiastically asking customers what they are looking for and digging out a copy for them.

Autographs of visiting musicians adorn the brick-red walls of the main room. Signers include the members of Radiohead and many of the acts that play at the adjacent Tractor Tavern. Radiohead visits whenever they are in town.

Many of Bop Street's customers are musicians who go for inspiration.

"It's humbling," said Joey Veneziani of Seattle-based Daylight Basement. "I remember things I had forgotten about."

In 1979, Voorhees bought a used book store and opened shop with a few thousand books and records. Since then he has amassed an estimated inventory of over 600,000 records. According to Voorhees, an appraiser from PBS' show Antiques Roadshow visited Bop Street when the show was filming in Seattle, and told him it was the best store of its kind in the country.

Vinyl aficionados collect records for a variety of reasons, according to Voorhees. For some it is an album's artwork, and for others it is the history or rarity of a particular pressing are all reasons, but for many, it is the sound.

Unlike a CD, which breaks the audio down into separate elements and then reassembles them, a record's audio is monophonic. This gives it a fuller, richer, if not clearer, sound.

"The reason I sell so many records is that's how collectors feel," said Voorhees.

Records are not only for collectors and fans, though. Vinyl is used for sampling and on turntables by DJs and recording artists.

Sampling is using a portion of existing audio as an element in a new composition, and is widely used by hip-hop, electronica and dub recording artists. DJ Ethx, co-host of KEXP's program Street Sounds, likens sampling to "the way collage artists use photographs, newspapers clippings, and so on to create new images."

DJ Ethx shops at Bop Street, in part, for its eclectic and rare stock. Among the records he has found there was an audio Spider-Man comic book, which he sampled in his own music.

Improving mixing hardware and software are threatening vinyl's role in sampling-based music.

"You've heard of the death of vinyl before and this is it," said Veneziani.

Of course, Bop Street likely will not be affected. It has witnessed the advent of CDs and digital music, and has only grown over the years.