Where in San Jose CA area can I demo cans?

[kramer5150]

New to the forum...
Where in the south SF bay area can I demo cans? mainly interested in Grado, beyer, sony or any others that dont absolutely need amplification.

Frys has the mid-fi sony demo board but nothing worth listening to there...

thanks!!
Garrett

 

[sbatth]

i'd also be interested in this... i'm a bit further north, palo alto. any suggestions?

 

[kramer5150]

PA is not that far from SJ... I used to live 2 blocks off University Ave, right near Spago's.

Great place to live IMHO

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Too bad Gpalmer is out of town...

 

[yyoo]

Cambridge Soundworks in Palo Alto (on University) has some of the lower-end Grados (up to the 125). Magnolia Hi-fi, also on University, has some of the mid-fi Senns. They even let me open the packages on a PX100 and a PX200. They also had the HD600, but it had disappeared from their demo board the last time I checked. The Good Guys on El Camino in Sunnvale has some mid-fi Sony's and Senns. Don't know of any place in the Bay Area, outside of SF, where you can try the higher end stuff.

 

[ayt999]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iron_Dreamer Too bad Gpalmer is out of town...

ya, that's what I was thinking.

I did hear that utep10 was thinking about doing a meet... it has been a while since we had the oakland meet in early september. of course, if all goes well, we may have a huge norcal meet sometime in november. don't know if that's going anywhere though, at least it doesn't look like it is from the way that thread is going.

 

[zdogg]

There's another high-end place in Mountain View right before the San Antonio shopping center called San Francisco Stereo & Theater Systems. Here's a clip from their website directions:
"Our Mountain View store is located two blocks south of San Antonio Road at 2478 West El Camino Real.
Phone: (650) 917-1099
Hours Mon-Fri: 11-7; Sat: 11-6; Sun: 11-5 "

They've got Grados up through the RS-1's, they also sell X-cans V3's and have a lot of speaker based systems that are cool to check out. They're also very cool about letting you listen to anything, bring in your own stuff, etc.

The Audible Difference near university also has Grados but they're not as user friendly.

 

[pedxing]

SF Stereo has a lot of grado and musical fidelity stuff. Call before coming because their staffing is limited. They sometimes close the store for private customers with appointments, especially on the week ends. My friend had to wait two weeks before he was able to get an appointment to audition some Musical Fidelity amplifiers with some Dinaudio speakers. However, I doubt you will need to make an appointment to look at some headphones, just to make sure the store is available to the general public.


For those in San jose, there is Paradise Audio near REI and Century Stereo:

870 El Paseo de Saratoga
San Jose, CA 95130
Mon 11:00am - 6:00pm
Tues-Sat 11:00am - 8:00pm
Sun 12:00pm - 5:00pm
Tel: (408) 378-3220
Fax: (408) 378-7231

You should call them and see if they have grado's in stock. The last time I went there, I only saw low end Grado's.

 

[sbatth]

thanks for the suggestions everyone! i will definitely check these places out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by yyoo Cambridge Soundworks in Palo Alto (on University) has some of the lower-end Grados (up to the 125). Magnolia Hi-fi, also on University, has some of the mid-fi Senns. They even let me open the packages on a PX100 and a PX200. They also had the HD600, but it had disappeared from their demo board the last time I checked. The Good Guys on El Camino in Sunnvale has some mid-fi Sony's and Senns. Don't know of any place in the Bay Area, outside of SF, where you can try the higher end stuff.

what are a couple of good places in SF?

 

[pedxing]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbatth what are a couple of good places in SF?

SF Stereo's web site has the following information about their SF store' location:

Our San Francisco Store is located at 2201 Market Street (at Sanchez) in the Center of San Francisco, convenient to public transportation and the freeway.
Phone: (415) 861-1044
Hours Mon-Fri: 11-7; Sat: 11-6; Sun: 11-5

 

[Supsup]

anyone know places in San Diego to demo cans?

 

[vienna]

www.cokecola.com

\
should have some stores near you

 

[pedxing]

In San Diego, I demo some high end Senn's here:
http://www.stereodesign.com/

That was long time ago, so I don't know if they carry Senn's anymore. Give them a call.

 

[Wilson]

In Palo Alto or perhaps in Menlo Park there used to be a high-end store called "Audible Difference" carry brands like Magnepan speakers, I bought my Grado there years ago. Haven't been there for quite some time, heard that there was ownership change, don't know whether it is still around.

In south bay there is BayArea Audio in Saratoga selling high end items like Audio Research and Thiels, it is on DeAnza Blvd. As I recall they used to have headphones, cables, audiophile CD's aside from equipment. Haven't been there for many years.


Cheers,
W

 

[yyoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbatth what are a couple of good places in SF?

You can try Senns (including the HD650) at Harmony Audio on West Portal at Van Ness. There's also Audiovision and San Francisco Stereo, but I haven't been to those two myself.

P.S. The Good Guys in Sunnyvale is redecorating and their demo board has disappeared.