Audio Systems

No, I did not buy a cartridge. I am totally shocked to hear from you MARK (the guy whos never there). Its a shame when you walk into a Hi Fi store and you get Stuart (the Pit bull) and Rice (Mr personality of a wet dish towel) they are suppose to be the PAID professionals and they offer LITTLE in the way of actual advice, instead you get «listen for yourself» or «is it worth the money to you» Blah Blah Blah vague garbage. Its the people that make the Hi Fi hobby what it is. And these two act like there mad or bored to death if you walk in the store. First off I walk in on a Thursday afternoon and the place is DARK all lights off, no stereos playing anything. Then Stuart comes lurking out of the shadows. I ask «is the store closed» and he looks at me like I’m insane and says «no, were not closed». Odd place because ODD people work there. And I bought a ADCOM 555 amplifier and speaker stands from there. That’s it in 20+ years. I’m amazed you keep the lights on ! (O that’s right you don’t) I give 2 stars only because I like some of the brands they carry. Get in and out don’t ask questions and your good. I hope this is a lengthy enough review for you MARK.

I don’t know where some of these past customers were visiting but it surely wasn’t Audio Systems. I have purchased all of my equipment from them since 1999 and they have always been nothing but professional and helpful. They have great insight not only to the brands they carry but to Audiophile equipment in general. It’s to these two guys, Rice and Stewart that I receive my best information and advice on my upcoming purchases. They are also very patient and work well with your budget no matter how big or small it may be.

I bought a pair of PSB X2T speakers, NAD amp and Sonos connect from this store.
I spent several hours at the store listening to various speakers and speaker/​amp combinations.
I had several long email exchanges with the owners as I was asking for advice about components and they showed great patience with me, as a beginner to the hifi world.
Fantastic service, great products. You won’t be disappointed.

These guys are great — I didn’t feel any sales pressure or snootiness at all.

This store was a surprise find for us. Our BOSE system that we had mixed feelings about croaked without a warning leaving us cold in the middle of the large unknown landscape that is the universe of audiophiles.
We are both very particular about music, and we listen to a wide gamut of music ranging from lots of classical to alternative to a bit of rock as well as bubble gum pop. One has to have variety, that’s life — at least our life.
I had noticed that I was not getting anything out of listening to my classical CDs through the BOSE theater system. As years went by the classical CDs were filed away due to this reason. This was very sad but when change happens gradually you do not realize it.
We went to another Austin home theater establishment that observed what we were listening to and without hesitation recommended Audio Systems to us.
We left the big fancy store and headed towards Koenig with some reservation as neither of us remembered seeing an audio store on this street before. But surely enough there it was, as promised, at the address given to us. When we arrived there was no one in the parking lot and we were very happy thinking oh yey we got the place to ourselves. Boy we were wrong. This store gets plenty of traffic believe me.
Audio Systems is no Best Buy, no Circuit City and definitely no Fry’s mega store and that’s a good thing. Well organized cozy listening rooms are populated with a selection of speakers of various sizes from various companies as well as a variety of sources such as Vinyl, CD, DVD, streaming music players etc.
A previous reviewer complains about snootiness in this store. I felt no such thing. Yes one of the associates was very quiet and the other one was very friendly. We also got the «well listen to the speakers and your music and let your ears guide you» but I never thought of that as being snooty. In fact it was a huge relief to be able to sit and just focus on the music and focus on hearing what each speaker offered. There was no pressure, no sales pitch, no attempt to sway us in any direction.
We spent close to four hours at the store between the two weekends we went there to listen. What’s awesome is they already had tons of music to play on the systems they have available so our first visit (we did not bring any music with us the first time) was not wasted.
When we asked questions, the answers were not just informative they also were very educational and in depth. These people know their products but believe in letting people choose what they like based on experience rather than on specs. If you’re here to talk about specs, Audio Systems crew will be able to match you and engage you in a meaningful discussion about the technical details too.
We are the kind of people that you really can not sell stuff to as a salesman. You can inform us, you can provide support but we never get pressured into buying things and furthermore most of the time we walk out if at all we feel like we’re being sold to.
Both of us are obsessed with checking prices, reading all the reviews online for anything with a large price tag. We do our research. The prices in Audio Systems matches Crutchfield and other online resellers. The only difference in price is the sales tax we had to pay and we were glad to buy from a local business that clearly cares about what they sell rather than an impersonal online reseller.
We are very happy with the pair of speakers we chose and bought from Audio Systems.
I am happy recommend Audio Systems to audiophiles as well as those of us who are not pros but have a keen interest in music.

I never thought that I would notice the difference between my Sony mid 90’s boom box and my boyfriend’s HIFI set up when I moved in. I have never been so wrong! I first was introduced to PSB speakers– I heard parts of my favorite song I had never heard before! That’s when I really got into this. Next was the subwoofer and amp… and we just can’t stop. The knowledge the employees posses here is endless and they will help you pick out exactly what you need for the right price– if only I could budget some of their nicer products! For now, I will just wander in from time to time and dream.
Oh! And if/​when you give this place a shot bring in your own favorite CD– you will understand what I mean when you star hearing the songs in a completely different light!!!

if you are an audiophile, be warned: they have some very nice audio equipment here, the salesman will be so nice as to set up a configuration for you, perhaps even borrow some equipment to try at home. And then you will be hooked and working hard to justify to yourself your wallet-​draining purchase of a fine little Audio Research amp.