Best Places to Buy Headphones and Gear

Off-Topic
1

@M0N can you make the below post a wiki?

I’m curious if there are any more good sites I’ve still been overlooking. I was on this site for like a year before learning about many of these. Everyone feel free to add and improve this list. Also feel free to create EU or Canadian equivalents of this post.

2 Likes
2

──Primarily New Gear──

Amazon

  • Generous free returns for 30 days.
  • Be careful when buying from 3rd party sellers. You may not get warranty support.
  • CamelCamelCamel is useful for checking price history or setting up price drop alerts.

APOS Audio

  • Price matching option.
  • Free shipping and no sales tax
  • Unclear/Unlikely if it ships internationally
  • 45 day return policy. 20% fee after 8 days though

Headphones​.com

  • 365 day return policy for items kept in like new condition
  • Often has good deals on open box items

Audio Advice

  • Physical Locations in North Carolina
  • Occasionally has great deals on open box items.

(Mass)Drop

  • Exclusive Seller of some great gear (58x, 6xx, 95x, Elex, etc.)
  • Discounts on many hot items. But they’re only available for limited and infrequent time periods.
  • Shipping for exclusive, stocked items is average at best, shipping for 3rd party items is slow, “estimated shipping dates” for new collab product launches are an audiophile community joke

Moon Audio

  • Probably more known for their cables than anything
  • Sells a few hard to find accessories (ex: replacement Focal Earpads), though at a premium.
  • Multiple shipping options. Fairly easy for international shipping.

Linsoul

  • CHIFI R’ Us
  • Slow shipping

China Hifi Audio

  • Wide selection of amps and speakers. Lots of tube options and tubes.
  • Seems to be rising in popularity among other shops and reviewers like Zero Fidelity and NextBestThing Studio. Link above came from ZeroFidelity (I believe in the ZUnboxing for the Jungson, Adorama vouched for them)
  • Poor website design. Makes it look sketchy by nature.
  • Weird Voltage options at checkout.
  • SLOW Shipping

Adorama

  • Fairly Decent Selection across the price range
  • (unclear on what applies) but the option to prepay duties seems to be available for some items.
  • Pro and Hifi gear

Crutchfield

  • Okay selection
  • Has a dedicated canadian site for canadian shoppers
  • Home Theatre Focused for the most part

Sweetwater

  • Free shipping.
  • Mostly Pro gear

ZenPro Audio

  • Free shipping
  • No sales Tax

Bloom Audio

  • Free shipping
  • NYC Location

Audio46

  • Runs some decent deals during Can Jams
  • Decent Selection
  • Free shipping
  • NYC Location

Upscale Audio

  • Good tube seller. Most other stuff is high end.

HeadAmp

  • International Shipping. Lots of Options.
  • Bespoke Audio Gear.
  • Wide Variety.

Vinshine Audio

  • Only place to get Denafrips items

────Used Gear────

Ebay

  • Costs more due to fees and tax.
  • New Listing notifications are very useful

Reddit AV Exchange

  • Highly active but not easily searchable

Head-Fi Classifieds

  • Only Headphone Gear
  • Requires membership for 1 month and 20 posts
  • This Site can be used to search and filter the listings: devbrada.com

US Audio Mart

  • More geared towards speakers and traditional HiFi setups

Audiogon

  • Mostly high-end gear

────Cables────

Hart Audio Cables

  • Known for their modular cable interconnect system
  • ~$?? typical price per cable
  • Braided Nylon Sleeve style cables.

Periapt Cables

  • ~$70 typical price per cable
  • Braided Nylon Sleeve style cables.

Audiophile Ninja

  • ~$70 typical price per cable
  • (ONLY Black) Braided Nylon Sleeve style cables.

───Canadian Shops───

Headphone Bar

  • Decent Selection
  • Pretty good value

Studio Economik

  • Wide Selection of Pro and Hifi Gear
  • Only place you can buy Bryston or PMC without having to go in store
  • Seems to Ship internationally

Simcoe Audio and Video

  • Wide selection
  • Decent Prices
  • Amazon webstore presence

Planet of Sound

  • Eclectic Curation of items
  • Lots of Sales
  • Future unknown due to Covid killing their store presence. No new items since it started.

Executive Stereo

  • Eclectic Selection
  • lots of options for all things analog
  • requires you to be in store for some purchases
  • Sells PSAudio
  • not cheap
  • Not the fastest shipping

Alltronics Stereo 2000

  • Wide selection of HIGH end gear
  • Specific Curation
  • No web presence must be in store

Bay Bloor Radio

  • Decent Selection across the price range
  • Does shipping within Canada and HT installs if needed. Will drive larger items to your house if you live in Toronto.
  • Decent Return Policy
  • If they Carry a brand they will order items they don’t carry on stock custom order for you in exchange for prepaying half in advance
  • Extremely Friendly Staff who are really helpful

Liquid Sound

  • Wide Selection
  • Sells things like Harbeth
  • Not Always Cheap

Hifi Headphones

  • Free Shipping over 100 CAD
  • Wiiiide Selection
  • Sells Some PS Audio Items

Headfone Shop

  • Curated Selection

TTAUDIO

  • Portable High-end audio (expanding to desktop later)
  • Custom Curated selection (email suggestions)
  • Rewards program, Fast Shipping, good customer service
  • 90 day warranty
  • No sales tax

DESK[H]ERO

  • Fancy Keyboards and Audio
5 Likes
3

Done, should be a wiki now

1 Like
4

I guess it’s worth mentioning here that I purchased my open box 64 audio u12t from headphones.com and they actually sent me a brand new sealed u12t.

1 Like
5

UK Audio Mart

6

I should point out that moon audio is also good for some more obscure items like Replacement earpads for Focal Headphones

7

I expanded and added a few locations if that’s okay

1 Like
8

Thomann for EU. They also ship worldwide afaik

9

Europe, new

Thomann

  • EU-wide, based in Germany
  • Free shipping > 25 EUR
  • 30-day returns with shipping paid

Projekt Akustik

  • German-only site

Audiophonics

  • French, English site
  • Has lots of chi-fi and monoprice stuff

Monoprice EU

  • Probably not as well-stocked as the US version, but better than Schiit

CMA Audio

  • Germany
  • More DACs and amps than headphones

Hifi Suite

  • German-only site
  • Can ship test articles for 7 days, if available.

Magna HiFi

  • Netherlands
  • No open-box returns?

Hifiheadphones

  • UK, does have items with EU power plugs too

Cable makers

Forza

  • Poland

Oidio

  • UK
  • Free shipping over £75

Custom Cans

  • UK
  • Also do mods and pads

Cosmic Cables

  • UK

Audioverse

  • Germany
  • Almost as cheap as Hart
5 Likes
10

@M0N, could you please make this a wiki as well?

11

The whole point of making the 2nd post a wiki is so others can edit it lol, so just add your suggestions into the list is what I would say. But I do think it’s probably a good idea to differentiate between NA, Euro, and Aisa to keep things somewhat organized, so I’ll make it one as well for now

1 Like
12

You can actually edit marcgii’s post and add it to the list yourself. I’ve been doing that a bit

13

Yeah, that was my point. Keeping the European stuff separate to make things clear

14

Added Canadian Stores

1 Like
15

Added a few stores

16

Added Drop to US list - it is a sort of store.

Also, I’m thinking the list should be alphabetized so it’s easier to find everything. Thoughts?

1 Like
17

I added a section for audio cables. I was trying to figure out what Hart audio cables typically cost but apparently nothing is available right now lol

Should we pin this thread? I think it will also be a good idea to also pin the formatting guide thread as well
Formating & Forum Advice Thread

18

Hart prices are showing up for me. Approx. $30 each + $15 for interconnects

1 Like
19

That can also very if you decide to go custom, though it is detailed in the custom shop
Custom color: $2
Custom terminations: $10
Custom length: can very dependent on length and cable design

20

Damn guys thank you