Chicago Stereo Shops?

cmy330go

Myself and some friends are spending the next few days in Chicago, and I was curious if anyone in the area could suggest some good shops to visit.

We will be downtown for the next day, and then be out in the 'burbs: Schaumburg, Elkgrove, Hoffman Estates area.

If anyone has some suggestions I would really appreciate it. I'm not tied down to those immediate areas. If there is something that is a short drive or train-ride from any of those areas that would be fine too.

Thanks!
Dave

hoosier21

Saturday Audio Exchange, greatplace, never been there, but I have bought from the website. Check the hours they are open, they have better than bankers hours (not much)

heiney9

Simply Stereo, I'm pretty sure is in Hoffman Estates. Wait for DKG999 to chime in, we were having a conversation about that one time. Been a long time since I window shopped for stereo equip in DT Chicago.

Lemme think awhile

H9

cmy330go

Thanks for the tips so far guys! Just got back from the Auto Show. Wasn't quite as good as last year. But still consistently the best auto show I've been to.

Anyway that Saturday Audio Exchange looks really cool. I can't believe that I have never heard of them before, and I saw Simply Stereo listed on a dealer page somewhere and thought I'd check them out but couldn't find a web-page with more info. Guess I'll just have to try them and see.

Well if anyone else has some suggestions let me know.

Thanks Again
Dave

halo

You may want to visit some of these hi-fi shops (courtesy of F1nut):

Symphony Sound

Decibel Audio

High Fidelity Systems

Saturday Audio

Audio Consultants

Quintessence Audio

I popped in to Decibel Audio and they were cool - they didn't bother me once - no sales pitches - no pressure

dkg999

Halo has most of them. Saturday Audio Exchange - nice people, good store, just limited hours. Decibel Audio is very nice. Simply Stereo is not nearly as extensive, however nice people and sometimes some good used gear. They are on Hwy 72 (Higgins Road) about a mile NW of the Higgins/Golf Rd intersection in Hoffman Estates. They are right past the Hoffman Estates high school. There is a pretty good audio store around Lake in the Woods, they are on the Rotel site as a dealer. I can't remember the store name at the moment. I need to do more exploring around Chicago and the burbs for audio stores. Doug.

cmy330go

Decibel looks pretty cool. Pretty nice selection of brands too. I'll probably check them out tomorrow for sure.

Thanks

BTW. Is anyone else having trouble with e-mail notifications? I have not received a single notification on this thread. I checked my subscribed threads list and it is there with instant notification selected.

Joey_V

Glenn Poor... by far, very high end.

I went to Decibel Audio, they just relocated and are kind of not in good audio condition. Dirty and messy at the moment.

cmy330go

Well the long weekend in Chicago has come to an end.

In the time I spent shopping for gear this weekend I think I have decided that a CDP upgrade is my next step. I was quite impressed with the sound of the Cambridge Audio 540 and 640. Might be ordering on later this week once I do some more research on the new Ver. 2 models.

As a side note...I stopped briefly at Tweeter in Schaumburg to take a look at the Sonus Fabers. Unknown to me they no longer have SF and have replaced it with Focal. Not having spent much time listening to Focal I figured I would take a few minutes to try them out. I started by firing up their Cobalt 806S powered by the top model Pioneer Elite AVR. As soon as I turned them on I could tell they were out of phase. I quickly checked the back of both speakers just to find they were wired properly. So I then tried switching receivers figuring it was wired wrong. However I got the same results. So I finally just switched the cables on one of the speakers. After a minute of listening I switched over to the LSi9s right next to them. Surprise....Surprise...Also out of phase. I then did a quick run through a few more speakers, and YES, they were all out of phase. The real crime here is that the room contains the entire LSi Series. I'll bet that makes them a little more difficult to sell. I was going to say something to the employees, but the ones that were not already busy didn't look like they would have even known why one wire has a red end and the other has a black.

I feel like I owe it to Polk to inform them of this injustice. Does anyone know who I should contact regarding this?

Dave

F1nut

Call 1-800-377-7655, ask for Al Ballard. If he's not the right guy, I'm sure he can you connected.

dkg999

If you were at Tweeter in Schaumburg, you were within a block of my office! And yes, the Schaumburg Tweeter store is a joke. Anything they sell has to be purely by accident, or the intersection of equally unknowledgeable buyer and seller.

cmy330go

dkg999 wrote:

If you were at Tweeter in Schaumburg, you were within a block of my office! And yes, the Schaumburg Tweeter store is a joke. Anything they sell has to be purely by accident, or the intersection of equally unknowledgeable buyer and seller.

Yea we spent the majority of Saturday and Sunday in that area. My wife and her friends love the mall there. I wish my checking account could say the same. While in the area, myself and a friend stopped by Simply Stereo. Man could that place use a face lift. It looks like it was previously a Pizza Hut? Anyway the guy we spoke with there was pretty nice, and seemed rather well informed. But we just didn't find anything of major interest there. You are DEAD ON about that tweeter. It was like walking through Best Buy. Only real difference was the sales people had ties on. The highlight of the weekend for me though was Record Breakers. Seems like I can always find a few gems there, and the sales people are always very friendly and knowledgeable. You just don't find music stores like that anymore. Every time I step in there I can't help but think of Empire Records or High Fidelity.

Thanks again to everyone for the suggestions. Gave me an oportunity to hear some new things, and gave me some things to look forward to on the next trip.

Dave