[mralexosborn]

What stores will allow to demo headphones? I am in the Northern Virginia area.

 

[mralexosborn]

Please help if you know. Are there any chain stores that I can check if they are in my location?

 

[Asr]

The only national-chain store I know of that sells decent headphones and lets you try them out is Guitar Center. Aside from that your best chance to hear anything close to a wide number of headphones would be at a meet. The Meets forum is here: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/list/24
 
The meet closest to you geographically that's next coming up looks like the North Carolina Canfest on 8/14, if that's not too far away for you. If you're remotely serious about auditioning headphones though, I think you'd find attending any kind of meet to be a very worthwhile experience, even if you have to travel a little bit to get to one.

 

[mralexosborn]

Thanks man. I will try Guitar Center.
 
The Canfest does not seem practical for me. I am 14 and would have to ask my parents to drive all the way down to NC. I know the answer already...

 

[kingtz]

Guitar Center is OK, but they won't have any higher end stuff. They generally have stuff that around $250 or lower, and the stores I've been to don't have any demo models, but they do let you try out the brand new stuff.

 

[mralexosborn]

I looked what they have in stock around my area. Just the Shure 240, 440, 840, and maybe a few Senns. Maybe worth the trip to see the 440s. This really is a niche isn't it?

 

[Uncle Erik]

Well, a NC meet would be a little tough to get to. However, there are meets in the DC region. When one turns up, hit your parents up to take you along. This might be easier with your father, because there's a fair chance he'd geek out over the gear.

Also, parents would be very welcome at a meet. I haven't met a Head-Fi'er I didn't like and I'm sure they'd be welcomed. Have them bring some favorite CDs and they'd have a great time listening.

 

[mralexosborn]

Eh, my dad is not so into tech stuff unfortunately but maybe I would be able go. So what is it like? What is the set up like?

 

[tdockweiler]

Best Buy is the place to go. They only have the highest quality headphones available, such as those from Bose, Monster and Skullcandy. Anything they don't have is not worth selling because it's just not any good or has poor sound quality. If it doesn't work out of an Ipod, it's not worth using because no other source sounds better. Those in the know understand that Monster makes the best headphones available and they are TOP NOTCH with OUTSTANDING BASS that other companies can't match! They are also better then the low prices would suggest!

 

[kingtz]

Quote:

Best Buy is the place to go. They only have the highest quality headphones available, such as those from Bose, Monster and Skullcandy. Anything they don't have is not worth selling because it's just not any good or has poor sound quality. If it doesn't work out of an Ipod, it's not worth using because no other source sounds better. Those in the know understand that Monster makes the best headphones available and they are TOP NOTCH with OUTSTANDING BASS that other companies can't match! They are also better then the low prices would suggest!

I just threw my HD650s in the trash. OMW to Best Buy!

 

[mralexosborn]

Haha. Thank you tdockweiler! Such great advice! 
Love the sense of humor. This place is great.

 

[portaprokid]

I doubt you'll be able to find most of the headphones talked about here at chain stores.  Local audio and/or video shops are probably your best bet.
 
I used some Google-Fu and found Audio Visions and they carry the Grado line and a portion of the Sennheiser line. If you Google map them, they have three locations around central Virginia, hopefully it's not too far out of reach for you.  If it's a bit of a drive, you should probably ask the store to if they even have them there for you to try out and save yourself a trip.  Another thing you can do is contact the companies themselves and they could probably tell you who their nearest dealers are to you.  Best of luck!

 

[broski]

Quote:

I just threw my HD650s in the trash. OMW to Best Buy!

hahahaha he might have been kidding but still a hilarious ass comeback, i just laughed out loud at work and got a couple weird looks

 

[mralexosborn]

Well I went to the Sennheiser website and checked what my local dealers are. Guitar Center, FYE, and stores in my local airpot. 

No headphone stores for me. That will show me to be a consumer. Hmph.

 

[tdockweiler]

I wish they had a store here that had dozens of headphones to try out. I think such a place exists, but definitely not in Michigan! My wallet would definitely suffer if I ever stopped in. They should make a list of stores online that have lots of headphones to try out. I'm sure they exist in big cities like Chicago, New York,Tokyo etc.
 
Guitar Center here is nice. They will let you price match an online website as long as they are an authorized dealer. They won't let you demo headphones though, but sometimes it's nice to just walk into a local store and not have to order online. For some strange reason my local store has a no returns policy due to health reasons?! I think that's just them saying they don't want to take returns. Their excuse was that Michigan laws don't allow them to take returns on headphones!
 
But seriously though, Best Buy does carry a few good headphones. I was in there yesterday testing out the Monster Beats (don't ask) and saw they also had a pair of Koss UR-55s and some Sennheiser headphones to demo. That's about it.