Headphone shops in Montreal?

hey dude,

Don't have time right now but I'll get you a few names. Unfortunately there are some slims pickings here in Montreal, and a few of the higher end audio shops aren't downtown. Anyway, I'll get back to you

BDA_ABAT,

the only stores I've found in Montreal that have GOOD headphones available for auditioning are the Audio Centre and Layton Audio.

Audio Centre: it's in the middle of nowhere and the staff are pretentious jerks who smirk when you ask: "Do you carry any high-end headphones?" They do in fact carry high-end headphones: Grado SR60, SR80, SR125 and the SR325. They also carry Sennheiser's, though I forget which ones (it's been awhile since I was there and I ain't going back!). The time I was there none of the headphones were connected to anything and the guy helping me made a big production of how hard it is to plug them into a source blah blah blah.

Layton Audio: very nice people. It's downtown, good location. They carry the same Grado's mentioned above, as well as Denon, Sony, and Sennheiser (no HD580 or 600 though). You can audition all of those phones as well without too much of a hassle. No headphone amps to speak of unfortunately.

Layton Audio is at 1170 St. Catherine St. W. I forget the cross street but I can give you directions if you want. St. Catherine is the "main drag" in Montreal - you can get anything there, from fridge magnets to plane tickets to nipple piercings to a lap dance

There's another place I've been meaning to check out but I have no idea where the street it's on is. it's called "Filtronique" - they carry Antique Sound Labs headphone amp the MG Head. Unfortunately they sold their demo not long ago so they don't have any to audition at the moment . No idea what their headphone situation is like, but where there's smoke, there's fire. Or in this case: where there's headphone amps, there's headphones their number: (514) 389-1377

hope this helps.

glad you had a good time, and congrats on your new cans!

Sweet! I will for sure be going to Layton Audio store. I have been looking for a descent place to audition some headphones before I actually purchase some. There is just such a limited selection in the "high" end audio in Montreal.

Expert grave digger sighted.

Just saw this post. I did a tour last year and found the following stores.

 

I tried the Sennheiser HD800 at Audio d'occasion: http://www.audio-occasion.qc.ca/ They also had Goldrings and Grado (most audio shop have Grado).

 

Son Idéal had some Beyers and Grados. It's also quite close to the next one.

 

Layton Audio has a great selection and high prices to go with them. Try there, but check prices elsewhere before buying.

 

Near the previous two, you can also check the Apple store for the B&W P5 and a few others.

 

Moog Audio sells several studio and DJ headphones, most notably AKG, Fostex and some Seenheiser and Audio-Technica. You can easily try them. They also offered price match on any amercian prices last time I checked, but I haven't been recently. If you want one of their headphones, bring proof of lower prices.

 

Futureshop (a chain) sometimes stock Shure.

Audio Shop is very close to Layton audio... its on de la montagne and they are very nice and helpful. You could easily go to both.

 

Currently Audio Shop has Stax, Grado, and Beyers.

Awesome. I'm for sure going to check out the stores mentioned above. Future shop had very poor selection when I went earlier today, glad there are a couple (much) better options available.

 

Update:

 

I just went to both Layton Audio and Audioshop.

 

Layton Audio had an impressive set up, yet three of the headphones weren't working properly (two of which I was very interested in). The staff was accommodating but far from friendly and just seemed to disregard my interest in finding a set of descent headphones. Overall it was a slightly underwhelming experience although it did allow me to compare some low end headphones with some much higher quality cans. 

 

Audioshop was by far a better experience. The guy working asked how he could help me and I told him I was looking for some entry level high end gear. He asked for my budget and if I had any models in mind and presented me with three models that based on my description would fit my needs. He then set me up in a listening room and allowed me to audition the headphones for a good 20 minutes. We then talked about the cans and had a good discussion about different entre level audio equipment. Overall it was a very good experience and I was actually introduced to a new set of cans that I wasn't even considering that are now top of my list. 

 

Either way, thanks for the advice for the different stores.

Edited by Yekrut - 11/3/10 at 9:15pm

Very nice post. I'll probably be going downtown soon so I was wondering if someone could post the addresses of those places so I can get directions to them.

layton
1170 St. Catherine West
Montreal, Quebec, QC H3B 1K1
(514) 866-1578

moog audio
3828 St-Laurent
Montreal, QC H2W 1X6
(877) 284-7434


son ideal
1409 Bishop St, Montréal, QC H3G 2E4
(514) 842-9596 ‎
Edited by GL1TCH3D - 5/4/11 at 9:24am

Audio Shop:

 

1193 Rue de la Montagne

+1 514-871-0091 ‎

There's a new one next to Chinatown's new mall.