Canada Home Theater Retailers


Just about every city in Canada has a hi-fi shop, a store devoted to high end audio gear with everything for home theater. Anyone shopping for Home Theater gear in Canada should give these stores a chance to compete against the big box stores like Best Buy and Future Shop. Staff at these stores are knowledgeable and usually have a love for the products they sell and should be able to make educated recommendations for your price range. Even if you feel out of place in a store with speakers costing more than a car you should present your price range and stick to it.
Manufacturer's you won't find at the warehouse outlet including; Arcam, NHT, Carver, NAD, Adcom, Rotel, Energy and B&W all make equipment aimed for the mainstream market. From these manufacturer's you get standards of engineering that has produced the finest equipment available, but in their lower cost offerings you can enjoy similar quality in a less expensive package. Canada's own Energy are makers of some of the finest high end speakers available, but their Take and XL lines are moderately priced for mainstream audiences and provide performance far beyond their price range. The best thing about the small hi-fi shops are the "used" rooms in the back of the store. Here you'll find a lot of good quality equipment brought in on consignment or traded in by audiophiles addicted to upgrades and sold for reasonable prices.

Nobody can deny the draw of the big box stores. Not only can you find the $40 DVD player but they'll often change their own price to beat a competitor. Plus, while you shop you can check out all a wide assortment of new DVDs and CDs to feed your machine. Most of the stuff sold at the big box stores are sold so cheaply because of tiny profit margins for most of what they sell, they buy in bulk from their suppliers practically guaranteeing the best price in town. But that doesn't mean you can buy everything at the big retail chain with confidence it's the best deal in town, certain products are sold at a high mark up. Beware of those products the sales staff are pushing the most, be wary of displays demonstrating the quality of certain products the store would like to push on consumers especially Future Shop's "Monster Cable" display. Always compare with prices elsewhere especially when sales staff seems eager to get you into a particular name brand or product. Appliance stores like Brick and even Sears compete with electronics shops like Future Shop to sell you TV sets. Take down the model number of any TV you're shopping for and look it up on the web to see what consumers are saying about it. Check the model numbers carefully when comparing prices at different stores. Model KP50XAW is a completely different animal from the KP50ZAT and should never be dismissed as the same thing. Remember that the first numbers on the model number is probably the size of the picture. If possible, consider a front projection TV. Front projectors are small and can be shipped from the US for relatively low cost opening up the web for viable competition.