Head Phones

The Turntable Lab also sells headphones, records and other stuff

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I just recently stumbled upon the Turntable Lab in the East Village in NYC. The shop was established in 1999, and the company also has brick-and-mortar shops in LA and Seoul, Korea.

The NYC shop may not have a huge selection of goodies on display, but I was very impressed with the range of products offered. Store manager David Azzoni stressed that customer service is "attitude-free" and totally avoids the snooty vibe sometimes associated with high-end hi-fi shops. For example, if you're new to vinyl and need help picking out and installing a new phono cartridge on your turntable, someone will show you how to do it (when the shop isn't super busy). Cartridge prices range from $39 to $200; non-DJ turntables go from $129 to $399; headphones from $49 to $399.

You can audition some headphones at the NYC shop, but Azzoni estimates that 90 percent of the customers buy based on the staff's recommendations. They're not interested in selling a headphone or turntable that's not in line with your price range. Customers can listen to the shop's LPs, and I was surprised by how much space was allocated to underground dance, disco edits, funk, soul, and fringe hip-hop LPs. Azzoni explained that fresh music keeps drawing DJs in to see what's new, and they're the 'Lab's core constituency. The shop is a destination, and it's a nice place to get headphones and phono cartridges.

Ex-movie theater projectionist Steve Guttenberg has more or less successfully hitched his future to home theater, but he still pines for the clickity-clack of 35mm projectors and all the stale popcorn he could eat. Between projectionist gigs, he worked as a high-end audio salesman and produced records for an audiophile label. Oh, and nothing annoys Steve more than being confused with the other Steve Guttenberg, the Police Academy actor. The wordsmith Guttenberg writes for a number of magazines and Web sites, including Home Entertainment, Tone Audio, and Stereophile. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.

AKG K3003 Stainless Steel In-Ear Headphones Will Cost You 1000 ...

Well for starters, AKG has billed the K3003′s ”the world’s smallest true 3-way supreme audio earphones,” and the stainless steel housings are reportedly handmade, which could account for the exorbitant price tag. The in-ear headphones are also supposed to be using “a new hybrid technology for great sound” and should be able to seal out surrounding sounds through passive noise reduction.

They won’t be officially launched until the IFA electronics show, which is in September, but they are available online as a sneak peek, although we highly doubt people will be rushing out of their homes come September to drop $1,435 on a pair of in-ear headphones, or will they? Perhaps $1,435 for a set of really nice speakers makes more sense, but to spend that much on a pair of in-ear headphones? What do you guys think? Any audiophiles out there who think that the 1,000 Euro price tag is justifiable?

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