[PaulFolbrecht]

In NY tonight and tomorrow, some spare time, where to go??

Thx!

[Bemopti123]

I can only think about two or three shops that might have interesting stuff:

Off Union Square Park West, on 16th Street, there is Lyric Hifi?  They have Rega, JM Labs etc...

When you walk down Broadway from there, walk maybe about 5-6 blocks, you will hit West 4th Street, close to NYC, to the left, across what was the old Tower Records (ask someone), between Broadway and another street, you will find In Living Stereo.

When you continue down Broadway, one block away from Houston Street, check out Stereo Exchange (a shadow of what it used to be.)

Those are the only ones I can think of...

Ah, if you are near 28Th street, on Park Avenue, there is Park Avenue Stereo.

To be such large city, there ain't many famous brick and mortar stores that NYC people like to check out, all the time.

PS:  If you are into Vinyl, there is some Vinyl in the basement of the Virgin Megastore, on 14th Street. 

Good Luck!

[JoshK]

Off Union Square Park West, on 16th Street, there is Lyric Hifi?  They have Rega, JM Labs etc...

That is Sound by Singer, Lyric HiFi is on the upper east side on Lexington Ave in the 80s.  I personally would skip Sound by Singer unless you are just browsing, but that is a topic already discussed. 

There is also Innovative Audio in the low 40's on the East side.  Its a pretty decent shop and I have found the guys there friendly.

[JoshK]

http://www.innovativeaudiovideo.com/
http://www.lyricusa.com/

Then there is High Water Sound which is a friend of Tito and some of the other guys...
http://www.highwatersound.com/

A couple I just found on the internet...
http://www.earsnova.com/
http://www.avantgarde-usa.com/news_nycphile.html

This lists a ton of shops...
http://www.citidex.com/56.htm

[Levi]

I have to agree with Josh.  Also try Harvey's Electronic around 47th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue, they let you play and browse to your heart's content. 

I personally would skip Sound by Singer unless you are just browsing, but that is a topic already discussed. 

There is also Innovative Audio in the low 40's on the East side.  Its a pretty decent shop and I have found the guys there friendly.

[PhilNYC]

There is also Innovative Audio in the low 40's on the East side.  Its a pretty decent shop and I have found the guys there friendly.

Innovative is actually on East 58th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenue).  I agree that the guys there are very friendly...

[JoshK]

I was going from memory...  It aint what it used to be. 

[Antman27]

I have to agree with Josh.  Also try Harvey's Electronic around 47th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue, they let you play and browse to your heart's content. 

Think Harvey's is on 45Th  If ya stop in there walk down the street closer to 6th and check out sound city
Stop in and see Stereo Steve tell him Anthony HBO told ya to stop in Great guy store is OK

[Levi]

Stereo Steve went out of business.

[Antman27]

Stereo Steve went out of business.

Stereo steve is a guy that works in sound city

[Levi]

Sound City went out of business.

[PaulFolbrecht]

Well, I visited Sound by Singer and Stereo Exchange (by accident - passed it by!) and will post my experiences/thoughts soon...

That's all the time I have in the city, unfortunately.

[Antman27]

Sound City went out of business.

Nop I buy stuff from them all the time for work
I was in there Monday

[Levi]

Hmmm...interesting.  I was looking for their shop a few stores next to Harvey's and couldn't find it.  Did they do a renovation or something?

Sound City went out of business.

Nop I buy stuff from them all the time for work
I was in there Monday

[Antman27]

Yea they did renovate about a year ago but its still in the same location much closer to 6Th than 5Th
Harveys is much closer to 5Th
Sound City still has a large display window with Plasmas and speakers cant miss it
Harveys is a much nicer store

[PaulFolbrecht]

Finally here to post my experiences.  Both were brief and not terribly positive, but here goes.

In both cases, I decided to be honest and introduced myself as a "visiting audiophile from the midwest" who - in so many words - was not very likely to buy anything.  I suppose I might consider it fortunate that either shop elected to demo gear, but OTOH, there's always a chance, I told them, as well as (should be assumed) the possibility for positive word-of-mouth.

Sound by Singer required me to be with a saleman in order to enter any of the listening rooms.  I was told that the room with the Grand Utopias - which I'd wanted to hear - was basically off limits.  Oh well.  I then asked to here the Focal/Burrmeister setup in another room.  Sales guy let me alone in there for as long as I wanted, which was nice.

These were a mid-sized floorstander, $8K, with a $6K CDP and $17K integrated.  This is some real money.  Underwhelmed by the sound.  Smooth, extended, great soundstage, and all the audiophile buzzwords in abundance - except, I suppose, for dynamics and immediacy.  I must be spoiled/colored by my high-eff/SET experience at home because all the typical low-efficiency multi-way speakers I hear sound rather undynamic and unrealistic to me almost all the time (except for the Green Mountain speakers I also own and which work wonderfully with SET).  I listened to five tracks, thanked the salesman for his time, talked a bit about Lowthers (which he'd never heard of), then left.

I passed by Stereo Exchange by chance on the way back to the office and stopped in.  Here, when I introduced myself in the same fashion, the reception was not warm at all.  They had some B&W 802s with McIntosh SS gear that I asked to hear - was told "not possible" as it was cold.  I told him I'd give a couple points for the gear not being warm and that I'd really love to hear it.  He agreed rather reluctantly.

I have never been a big fan of B&W speakers (boy am I asking for the flames here) and this visit was not an exception to my experience.  They sounded fine, even great, if you want bass, treble that sounds like great treble (i.e, separate from the music) and like you're listening through a blanket.  That's what I got.  Very dead sound, IMO.  Note that these were 1200W monoblocks.  HOWEVER - volumes were kept low - no more than 80dB, I'd say - and that makes it more difficult to make an evaluation.  However, I'm quite positive that my SD/SET system sounds faar more alive at such volumes.

I can't and don't blame either shop for not being enthusiastic about demoing gear to a guy it's obvious isn't going to buy anything. 

Both systems had many good qualities but neither is my cup of tea anymore.

[SET Man]

Hey!

     I see the Stereo Exchange still haven't change their way of customer service

   Paul, your experience with both Stereo Exchange and Sound By Singer pretty much reflect what I've been treated back when before I got in to DIY and visited them occasionally.

    Stereo Exchange is probably one of the worst in this. As for Sound By Singer... well, that's depend  on who you run into. I've bought a thing or two from them a while back and back then there was a very nice and very knowledgeable guy I always ask when I visit the store.

    I find it funny that the sale man at Sound By Singer that you were with doesn't know about Lowther. He probably think it is an chappy paper cone speaker

    Anyway, as a fellow Hi-ef Single Driver and SET amp user I'm totally understand why you found those system that you've heard sound the way you described.

  Or maybe just that you and I are used to what other consider distortion of the SET amp and limited range of Single Driver speaker.

Take care,
Buddy