Two weeks ago I was in Tokyo, Japan on business but took part of one morning to visit high end audio dealers in downtown Tokyo. One was Dynamic Audio and near by was the other that I can't remember right now. Both stores were several floors high with at least one person to help on each floor. Dynamic was by far the best of the two. I had along someone to translate but really never got to far with any conversation. They were polite and let us look but not much interaction which was a little upsetting. I also could not take any pictures - sorry.
Each floor in both locations had better hardware as you went up with one floor in each building pretty much just for used equipment. Most single floors had more equipment then I have seen at any stores or dealers locations here in the states. Keep in mind I've only visited a couple in the Chicago area and none on either coast. But needless to say they had a ton of hardware along with many many LP's but curiously few TT's and did not see any reel to reel either. The manufacturers most represented were dCS, Esoteric, Focal probably the complete line of these manufacturers, some McIntosh, Wilson and YG. Tons of interconnects mostly Clearaudio from what I could see. Dynamic had one great listening room that I think they just move stuff into for potential customers to listen. You could also listen on each floor but I think that was more to just get an idea as the rooms were way to crowded to do any critical listening. On one floor they had two sample systems with cost - one was in the 500k range the other 750k in US dollars. They also had some pictures of some of the home listening rooms - pretty sweet they sure know what they are doing.
No ML speakers. I'm thinking the homes are pretty small and with electrostatic taking up more room they are probably not a good fit for this country. So it was interesting to just see how in a totally different country audio is sold.
Each floor in both locations had better hardware as you went up with one floor in each building pretty much just for used equipment. Most single floors had more equipment then I have seen at any stores or dealers locations here in the states. Keep in mind I've only visited a couple in the Chicago area and none on either coast. But needless to say they had a ton of hardware along with many many LP's but curiously few TT's and did not see any reel to reel either. The manufacturers most represented were dCS, Esoteric, Focal probably the complete line of these manufacturers, some McIntosh, Wilson and YG. Tons of interconnects mostly Clearaudio from what I could see. Dynamic had one great listening room that I think they just move stuff into for potential customers to listen. You could also listen on each floor but I think that was more to just get an idea as the rooms were way to crowded to do any critical listening. On one floor they had two sample systems with cost - one was in the 500k range the other 750k in US dollars. They also had some pictures of some of the home listening rooms - pretty sweet they sure know what they are doing.
No ML speakers. I'm thinking the homes are pretty small and with electrostatic taking up more room they are probably not a good fit for this country. So it was interesting to just see how in a totally different country audio is sold.
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