Store in New York

headphones? go to B&H. It's on 34th and 9th I think. You can try out a bunch of of the top of the line stuff but it's not properly amped and you don't have a choice of music but it's better than nothing. You might be able to get something at AC Gears but I'm not sure. I saw one on 8th and 6th I believe and there were some headphones there but I didn't go in to see..not sure what they have. Outside of that not much else really..if you want iem's not much luck there

I agree about B&H having the widest selection in the city.  They usually won't allow you to try them out with your own equipment without buying first (they do have a very good return policy though).  There are other places, like the Stereo Exchange on Broadway north of Houston, but they usually only cary one or two brands at a time.

Well that's the best you are going to get. It's either you take what they give you or don't audition them at all.

Audio Cubes has store located in NYC and there you can audition ESW9 and many others brand headphones(also try to arrange meeting with some head-fiers).

Audio Cubes is called AC Gears here.

No one recommended J&R? I'm surprised. J&R Music World has a pretty good selection of headphones. Right off the Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall stop from the 4/5/6 train too (like two blocks).

Second J&R. Best prices overall should you buy, too, and they negotiate.

I thought about J&R, but I didn't think their selection was better than what B&H has to offer.  Also, to the OP, if you go back to B&H they have tons of headphones in stock but not on display. 

J&R lets you demo headphone as long as you want to. They just don't give a damn lol

yeah, the poor girl behind the counter will just take it out and let you play with them

yeh, NYC's retail scene is honestly lukewarm... J&R has the selection but their 'wall' means you can only use their equipment and music.

I've never been to J&R except to test out a netbook and such. If I'm ever in the area I'll have to check out their headphone section but I've never bought any audio related purchase trying it first so I'll take the stuff at J&R, B&H, AC Gears, etc wall and all. Unless you live in Portland where you have 32 ohm audio most of us don't get to audition stuff before buying in the USA at least. Japan, Singapore and some other countries have stores like Yobadashi, Jaben, etc where you can try more stuff but here you take what you have :P A wall with headphones is better than a wall with display products inside their retail packaging.

I frequent both J&R and B&H and think that between the two, if you're looking for higher-end headphones (HD800, AH D7000, etc), B&H's audition display has a better selection.  Also, while it isn't much, they at least allow you to adjust the volume on the individual cans.  But I do have to agree that this city is not the best place for headphone auditioning—though it's lightyears better than any other place in the world that I've lived in (I'm looking at you EU and the ME).