I'm off to NY soon for a much needed holiday for me & the missus. Does anyone know of any good AV retailers in Manhattan? Hopefully not far from the theatre district Cheers, Tim.
In terms of general electrical gadgetry, J and R (City Square) is big and has loads of stock. I didn't find the prices that sensational TBH. There are various others Circuit City on Union Square is worth a look. I don't know about specialist HiFi and AV stores I'm afraid. I would strongly recommend spending the valuable time in NY taking in the sights and giving your missus a good time, rather than shopping for electrical goods.
Aye, I agree. If you want to get cheap deals, find a friend in the US and have stuff posted to them if possible as the US Internet deals are often very good. Then you can pick the stuff up from them in NY and be done with it. J&R is good to go to but the prices are not that great.
If she can shop for clothes, I can shop for AV. Fair isn't it It's more about having a look. If the Toshiba HD-A1 was out, that would be a different matter
New Yorkers can be very pushy with their sales technique. I am very embarrased to say it, but the other year I popped into a camera shop, near Columbus Circle, to just browse and ended up buying a cheap zoom lens for a camera I hadn't yet got (and still havn't). How daft is that? Somehow the salesperson got me into a kind of hypnotic state.
You have to be careful about buying AV gear in the states. Yes, we're all aware that their power voltage and frequency are different (and many now auto-switch), but it doesn't end there. Their AM frequencies are spaced differently to ours. Their FM transmission spacings are different. They use NTSC, not PAL. Their RDS is different to ours, and they don't have teletext. Their TV transmission frequencies are different too. Make sure you're clued up about all the American/UK differences before you go, because American salesmen won't have a clue about European standards. P.S. The American equivalent of Comet is called Circuit City - they have a website which you can study before you go, but bear in mind that many prices will be internet prices, not store prices.