Latest Thread Images

Featured Sponsor Listings

Yodobashi Camera in Akihabra

May 18, 2011 at 9:39 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 21
FlyingBear

FlyingBear

New Head-Fier
Joined
Apr 20, 2011
Posts
43
Likes
10
This store has been mentioned before, but I wanted to show you their current display. Yodobashi Camera has an enormous store right next to Akihabara station in Tokyo. Akihabara itself is a geek-out heaven, with a lot of tiny specialist market stalls, small stores, and megastores, all focused on electronics of various types.
 
Yodobashi Camera has an acre-sized floor dedicated to audio, a big chunk of which is high-end audio. Tubes, cables, speakers, amps, turntables, you name it. They have a "mass-market" headphone wall with literally hundreds on display, with the ability to use their sources or your own; neat, huh? The also have a high-end headphone area. It's a little noisy, but you can sit and listen to your heart's content. If you're into Stax, see my post in the Stax thread..... enjoy!
 

 
May 18, 2011 at 10:00 PM Post #4 of 21
I'm going there this summer and after seeing that, I cannot wait. I already have a list of headphones I want to try out. I'll probably spend at least an a hour in there.
 
The sentence above, does not express how hyped I am right now. Even caps wouldn't do it justice.
 
EDIT: Is this your picture? Anyone know if it's usually crowded?
 
May 18, 2011 at 10:41 PM Post #5 of 21
@2enty3 : The headphone stands on the picture are in the high-end section. They are usually less crowded than the rest of the floor, but you will only find the most expensive there (including Stax as stated by the OP). The rest of the headphone models are in the middle of the floor, and you have to stand for your listening session. This section can be much more crowded, and is also noisier. But anyway it's worth the trip for any audio enthusiast visiting Tokyo.
 
May 18, 2011 at 11:16 PM Post #7 of 21
Hi there,
 
Yes, it's my picture from Tuesday evening this week, around 7pm local time. As frenchbat says, the main headphone section is noisy and crowded, but you only have to wait a minute or two to audition your headphones. The "mass market" section includes some audiophile favorites, such as high-end Denons and pretty much Sennheiser's entire range up to the HD650 (the HD800s had their own amp and display in the high-end section).
 
An hour is NOWHERE near long enough, seriously
normal_smile%20.gif
. Yodobashi Camera alone is enough for 2-3 hours of listening pleasure, never mind browsing the cables, tubes, tube amps, speakers, turntable, fuses (!!), by-the-meter cables, .... oh my. Then Akihabara itself has dozens of little stalls in a covered area near the station, selling all kinds of stuff including tubes, plus well over 100 stores of various sizes. When I visited in the 90s, there were superstores like Laox (still there, but much smaller) with a dozen listening rooms stacked with high-end stuff. Nowadays it's more Mac/phone/manga, but still well worth a long visit. A full day is about right. Your best bet is earlier during a weekday.
 
May 18, 2011 at 11:17 PM Post #8 of 21
 
Quote:
Hong Kong would like to have a word with you
Click to expand...

 
So would Singapore. The Adelphia (sp?) mall is almost 100% high-end audio stores, including an enthusiastic headphone "outlet".
 
May 18, 2011 at 11:28 PM Post #11 of 21
It sucks that the only real headphone store here in Qingdao is a tiny little corner of a big electronics mall filled with cheap crap.  They do have things like Grados, AKGs and some Shure headphones...but it's like a 10 square meter corner of a huge complex. :P
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top