Lyric HiFi In NYC Is Gone

David's store was the best when it was a small storefront, packed to the gills with used high end, often discarded for the new flavor of the month gear. David did not pretend to be an audiophile; he was a businessman who hired audiophiles to work for him. I knew audio before I came to NY in 1981, so I didn't need the sales pitch. Sometimes, in that old small store, you could see bits and pieces of the history of hi-fi. That, in itself, didn't drive me to buy from him, but it added to the allure of visiting. And every once in a while, he'd have some cast off from somebody that I'd want- I got a pair of Decca ribbon tweeters from him that I still have (though they need to be repaired) and bought quite a bit of gear from him in the early '80s and periodically thereafter. Eventually, I landed/arrived in the horn/SET camp and wound up dealing with Bill Parish of GTT, who would make house calls, had Lamm at the time, along with some other interesting gear.
I'm a pretty loyal customer to a dealer that knows how to service a customer. I don't mind paying for that level of service, which is rare today.
By comparison to NYC in the heyday, Austin--where I live now-- is kind of an audio retail wasteland. Which surprises me, given the amount of new money floating around here these days. Maybe that will change. If I were 15 years younger, and willing to deal with retail, I'd do it, but I have neither the patience nor the energy to devote to such a business at this point in my life.
I'm glad I came up when I did, reading the early Stereophile and the first issues of The Absolute Sound, experimenting with tube gear in the early '70s and really doing a deep dive into hi-fi which I would occasionally take a break from, but never left.
I do think there is a new generation that is into, or aspires to, the high end. Remember, for that type of business, equipment and clientele, buyers with disposable cash are essential. I think in some ways (maybe I'm just being optimistic), a lot of people have learned that having things at your fingertips, digitally, to call up on demand, is less fun than all that comes with the more traditional vinyl based system. Some people attribute this to a fad, but it's been 'au courant' for more than a decade now and the vinyl revival shows no signs of abating. The kids who have little money and somehow manage to buy records and enjoy them will eventually have jobs that pay them better, some may go into the professions and earn. That's the real customer base- not the idle rich. It's regular people who derive pleasure from the gear and the music and are willing to sacrifice, save for and aspire to upgrades that make up what is probably the majority of customers of hi-fi. The uber stuff may be accessible to a handful, but those are not the largest customer base. Hi-fi has been struggling for years and still survives-- I think it will remain niche but will hang on.
NY-- it's already showing a bounce in certain housing prices-- when price is driven down, buyers act. It will take time, but hopefully, the worst is behind us regarding the pandemic and its economic impact. There are signs of life here in Texas-- Austin is nowhere as busy as it usually is, tourists aren't coming in droves yet (this is, apart from the tech base which is really where the money is, and the draw of UT, at its core a tourist town).
I plan to attend the Record Show here in early May, with a couple of guys a little younger than me, and one thirty-something who is really into music and has been buying records. It gives me hope for the future.

 

Anyone in the NYC / Long Island Area.
Audio Store & Home Automation Solutions
Audio Den in Nesconset is rather Great!
They are always growing.
Sales people are cool.
They Lend Gear for home auditions.
If you're on the Island or not far its worth the trip.

 

Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion of course, but I find the misplaced empathy for retailers who don’t adapt their business to changing times while simultaneously treating interested customers like they have a disease kind of hilarious. It reminds me a lot of what it used to be like shopping for Harley Davidson in the 90s… They would act like they were doing you a favor selling a motorcycle to you, for thousands over retail. Now if you walk into one of those dealerships they treat you like a long lost brother.

New York City is changing constantly because of the ridiculous rent demands, i’ve been living and working here for 35 years and so many places I’ve loved have disappeared. Restaurants, bars, clubs, record stores… and a few high end audio dealers. Many of these places were pushed out through no fault of their own. Those who were extremely rude to customers and ignored commercial realities do not fall into this category.

 

You are certainly right about ridiculous rent demands, it has driven a lot of places either out of business or into 2nd nor 3rd floor space were there is no walk-in business.

 

Both Harley dealers in Edmonton are still like that. Wouldn't consider another harley for that reason alone.

 

Screw ‘em. They’ve probably done more to harm the hobby with their elitist actions than help it.

 

Same with San Diego (although there are only a couple left). All of the stores had great customer service back in the day. I could hang out at Stereo Design all afternoon popping into other people's listening sessions.

 

Yeah. I count as middle aged, and neither I nor anyone I know aspires to a giant setup. Part of the reason may be the cramped quarters we have here, but even if I had a spare room for audio I'd still want the room to do other things too. For example, my current listening arrangement is in a library, where even medium-sized floor-standers are just too big: visually, if not sonically.

 

Before Andy Singer moved to 16th Street I went into his store. I think it was on 30th Street. Anyway I bought some upper end Monster speaker cables. Not the Best Buy stuff but far shy of the real high end wires. Andy Singer helped me and I was young, right out of college.

I said to him sheepishly, “I wish I had enough money to buy the good stuff.” He very politely told this is “the good stuff, everything we sell is good. We try to give you the best sound you can get for the money.”

He then told me they were getting ready to move to a bigger location and let me pick out a free audiophile CD. He told me he didn’t want the schlep all those CDs anyway. A super nice guy and when I got ready to drop a few thousand I went to see him again. He was a little more reserved but never rude.

Lyric Manhattan never acted nice. As recently as 2019 when I went in they snubbed me and now I’m a middle aged guy that might have some loose cash in my pocket.

The attitude they had hastened their own demise.

 

I'm always bummed to see independent NYC shops close of any type, there are so few left these days. But all of the shops named were pretty awful to me back in the 90's when I was first getting into audio gear. If you think it's bad being a young guy in a snobby shop, try being a young Black man. Some of the worst retail experiences I've ever had. Good riddance.

 

This thread has made me realize that I've been in the city for 35 years, so I've been there long enough to see a lot of cultural loss - it's a shame to see them go. As carbonati mentioned, this doesn't bode well for small businesses and the uniqueness that shaped NYC. The store had some history - I remember reading that Cat Stevens used the Maggies in the Lyric Showroom to check mixes on Catch Bull at Four and Tea for the Tillerman.

 

When I was in full high end audio fever in the late 90's, and doing a search for new speakers, I did a pilgrimage to NYC. I hit all the well known emporiums and remember Lyric's reputation even before I went in. Sure enough, the service was so indifferent, bordering on surly, that I actually had to stifle chuckles because it was so cartoonishly "in character" from the reports I'd heard. It sucked though since they had some gear I was actually interested in.

This reminds me of a local experience of the classic snobbish high end audio store. My brother in law who made it rich while pretty young (in his thirties) was visiting us. He was in to great audio and was looking for a new set up for his new apartment. We did some rounds of audio stores and ended up at the most "high end" store at the time, the one that sold giant Wilsons, Krell, Wadia etc.

We wandered around looking in the different rooms, with a salesman just looking warily at us and offering zero help or interaction. There was a small pair of Wilson speakers, and Sonus Faber (as I remember) in a room and we had to get hold of the salesman's attention to ask for a listen. My BIL explained that he was looking for new speakers and an amp and CD player. The salseman looked completely indifferent and put off, no doubt because we were dressed in jeans and weren't middle aged. It was like pulling teeth to get any information out of him. Finally he said sorry we couldn't hear those speakers "because the CD player isn't hooked up at the moment." We were incredulous and said "Well, would you mind hooking it up so we could give a listen?" He just waved us off saying "No, not today guys." Basically shooing us out of there.

Leaving the store my BIL, who could have easily afforded ANY of the most expensive items at that store was livid as was I at this treatment.

He went right out and bought expensive Sonus Faber speakers, Krell amps and Meridian CD player from another place. And we heard from other audiophiles similar stories of that store.

At the time I knew a writer for a Canadian hi-fi magazine and this story came up. He too was livid and said that kind of **** has gone on too long. He wrote his next article about this type of attitude turning off newer audiophiles and wrote about my experience that day in that store (mentioning it by name), including how these guys overlooked a rich customer who went and spent a ton of money elsewhere instead.

Well...that seemed to shake them up. The next time I had occasion to go to that store (for some audiophile records) a look of recognition came over the salesman's eyes and he left, his boss and owner of the store replacing him, and the owner came up to me and apologized profusely for my previous treatment and asked if there was anything at all I would like to hear. (I did, just for fun I got to listen to their big Wilson set up).

So, not all bad deeds go unpunished

 

My impression is that the pandemic was a big boon, but a very temporary one. Rather than hastening their demise, it probably prolonged the inevitable.

 

I've been to most of the high-end stereo palaces in NYC over the years but never really felt welcome. I miss Manny's/Sam Ash/We Buy Guitars and the mecca that was 48th street much more. John at Audio Connection down the road from me runs his business with a different approach, not like some guy who thinks he's a rock star because he marks stuff up.

I did used to frequent a little place in the Village called Electric Workshop when I was in school and they were very cool.

 

I went and auditioned some speakers at In Living Stereo and they were super friendly and welcoming. I didn’t buy from them because I went for a different brand of speaker, but the vibe was great. I will definitely buy gear from them in the future.

 

That's really surprising to hear, I thought those days were long gone....

 

I think my experience with hi-end dealers might be of interest. In 2002 I bought my first "hi-end" system ( or at least I thought it was hi-end ). I was still working and we had just bought the house we are living in. I bought most of it from Audio Nexus in NJ and got a system discount. It consisted of a VPI TNT-HR, c-j tube amps, preamp and phono preamp, AP Virgo III speakers and Kimber Select cables. I also bought a Sony SCD-1 from J&R. I retired in 2011 but my wife ( who made more money than I did ) continued to work until September 2017. We had the house paid off and we have no kids so even though I was retired we were saving money. Around 2014 I realized that given my age and family history that if I was going to upgrade my system one more time, it had to be now. So in 2015 through 2017 I did a lot of audio shopping in NYC.

What a difference having a reasonably good system makes. I would go to hi-end audio stores in NYC, tell them what I was using for audio gear at home and that I wanted to upgrade everything. I would be ushered into their best listening room and offered sparkling water, wine or champagne ( which was just domestic sparkling wine, but it was still nice ). At one place where I was seriously considering big Wilson Audio speakers I told them that I wanted to bring my own music for a serious audition and that I would be playing SACD's. The dealer said he did not have an SACD player in the store but if I came back in a week he would have one. I came back in a week with my SACD's and he had an Oppo to play them. I found out that he had one of his salesman bring in his personal Oppo from his home system. The poor guy has to schlep it from his place near the Bronx to mid-town on the 6 train. Two dealers offered to come to my house in Westchester to see how my system was laid out and be sure that there would be no problems with bigger speaker in my room.

It was like I had landed on a different planet.

 

In no way was I defending a poorly run business because there is accountability and consequence for how they conduct themselves. But yes in looking at the bigger picture, Manhattan is a less vibrant place if independent specialty shops like high end music playback emporiums are being winnowed from the consumer landscape.

I dunno, it must be something about the culture of audiophile retail, there's always a hint of wariness bordering on condescension until a customer has established their bona fides with a high end audio salesperson. It is reasonable for them to know a little so they can gauge the level of their discussion but how the attitude changes when you can drop the correct names when describing your current system components. Every shop named in this thread has done it with the exception of Audio Den whom I visited years ago when I lived in Nassau County. Must be mellower out in the 'burbs. It's not just audio, bike shops do this too if an inquiry is made on certain racing bikes in the line they carry - usually fixed by telling them you use Campagnolo. But a TOTL Trek racing bicycle is $13K now so audio and bikes play in the realm of expensive toys.

Most brands of components are available only at a particular dealer within Manhattan, unlike say McIntosh which has lots of authorized dealers to shop from. So if a specific brand is what you seek, even if that dealer is nettlesome, you gotta work through the BS to get where you wanna go. Hopefully in the new retail reality there's less BS, but it is also New York City which means there's always somethin'.

 

That's in Verona right? It's been over 30 years since I lived in Montclair but I think he was around then too? Way back when, I used to go to CSA Audio in Montclair.

 

That's the one, I think he's been there about that long. I remember CSA as well.

 

I think you are painting with an awfully big brush here. Many high end dealers are friendly and customer-focused. NYC in general can be intimidating and not typically a bastian of customer service but that's just one city. I have been to many stereo dealers and in my experience most are very friendly.

 

Lee what’s the High End Audio scene like in Atlanta? Do the shops greet customers with that infamous “southern hospitality?”

When I lived in NC we had both types of stores, the welcoming good ole boys and the snooty elitists. But back then Stereo equipment was still “cool” and there was a lot of competition.

 

For those who enjoyed the shop and relied on them for equipment, I feel sorry for you. It's never good to learn of another hi-end store closing its doors. Having said that, it sounds like many won't miss them. I am much more saddened when I hear about quality places like Jerry Raskin's closing their doors.

As the saying goes..."just because you exist, doesn't mean you are necessary."

 

Before moving to Southern California, I lived in Manhattan (NoHo to be exact) from 1998 to 2004 during law school and the first few years of my career after. I wasn't into HiFi then - my biggest audio expenditure was buying a mini Aiwa system for my 10'x12' studio apartment from one of the generic electronics stores along Broadway that were there at the time. I both chuckle and shake my head at the horrible customer service stories that have been conveyed in this thread. I experienced the same treatment at countless other retailers in all sorts of industries during my time there. Clothing stores were the worst offenders. That kind of pervasive vibe was one of the reasons I decided to move away.

I still have a lot of friends in the NY metro area though, so I try to visit regularly. My last trip was January '20 (pre-Covid) and I had tried to line up some appointments with dealers to check out some items. I was happy to see some retailers be very welcoming (at least over the phone). The other half of the dealers I contacted gave me the same old snooty vibe and didn't want to give me the time of day unless I could verify I had six figures in my bank account. It's a shame because these businesses are missing out on new generations of customers who are vital to keep the industry going.