I have spent the last ten days in Dubai, and had the opportunity to visit a few shops that specialize in audio and video. I had no plans to make any purchases but was generally looking around for a DAC, a CD Player, a monitor, hard drive, and sound cards. My son was kind enough to drive me around and take me to various places.
The biggest retail outlet is Sharaf DG which is an electronics supermarket. They have a number of outlets and the one in Times Square is the largest and best stocked. Sharaf pushes Onkyo, Cambridge Audio, TViX, and a number of speaker brands such as Focal, Wharfedale, Definitive Technology, etc. They also stock Pioneer DVD Players (220 and 440) as well as the Panasonic 60 Blu-Ray player. The Times Square outlet has an excellent HT demo room with high end Epson projector, Onkyo amplification, and in wall speakers from Focal. Saw a few minutes of Fantastic Four that was really impressive. That room has equipment alone worth 100,000 DHS.
Took time off to visit Dubai Audio Centre (DUBAI AUDIO CENTER INDEX) on Sheik Jayed Road. Supposed to be one of the top five audio shops in the world. The shop manager guessed I was just window shopping, but was pleasant enough to make me nearly buy a Naim CD Player. He demonstrated a NaimUniti connected to a pair of Sonus Faber speakers. The system had the capacity of instantly disappear and fill the room with beautiful music. The Uniti alone costs somewhere around 12,000DHS (1,56,000INR).
I also heard a Linn Unidisk 1 connected to Linn Klimax Pre/Power and Katana speakers. The shop manager played the same 'America' album. I felt the Lin combination was shallow compared to the Naim combination.
Dubai Audio centre is a good place, well equipped and has knowledgeable people.
I also visited Audio Visual Lifestyle (http://www.audiovisuallifestyle.com/new/home.htm) near the airport. I spent some time talking to Gautam Duseja, a very pleasant man who delighted in telling me about his company. AVL started as a retailer and ended up doing a lot of residential and commercial products. So they took up distributorship for a number of products such as CA, Anthony Gallo, Vincent, and others. They retail their products through Sharaf DG. I had hoped to listen to the new 650C CD player, but that is not expected till end of February. Gautam wanted me to listen to the 840C amplified through the 840A. Unfortunately AVL only had the small Anthony Gallo speakers and the demo was a real let down. I did not have the heart to tell Gautam what he was doing wrong, and left at at that.
There is a building in Bur Dubai that has two floors of computer retailers. Most of the shops are run by Keralites and Sindhis. There are a few shops run by Chinese. The bulk of the shops are pushing laptops with a few shops selling Mobos, graphic cards, and such. Hard disks are available aplenty. These shops only seem to have low end monitors. And none of the shops have ever heard of sound cards from Asus !!. The knowledge level of most of the shopkeepers were very low.
I finally ended up buying a Samsung FullHD monitor (2450HD) from Samsung's showroom. Though the knowledge level there was also low, I had done my homework on the Net, and was looking for a specific model.
Cheers
The biggest retail outlet is Sharaf DG which is an electronics supermarket. They have a number of outlets and the one in Times Square is the largest and best stocked. Sharaf pushes Onkyo, Cambridge Audio, TViX, and a number of speaker brands such as Focal, Wharfedale, Definitive Technology, etc. They also stock Pioneer DVD Players (220 and 440) as well as the Panasonic 60 Blu-Ray player. The Times Square outlet has an excellent HT demo room with high end Epson projector, Onkyo amplification, and in wall speakers from Focal. Saw a few minutes of Fantastic Four that was really impressive. That room has equipment alone worth 100,000 DHS.
Took time off to visit Dubai Audio Centre (DUBAI AUDIO CENTER INDEX) on Sheik Jayed Road. Supposed to be one of the top five audio shops in the world. The shop manager guessed I was just window shopping, but was pleasant enough to make me nearly buy a Naim CD Player. He demonstrated a NaimUniti connected to a pair of Sonus Faber speakers. The system had the capacity of instantly disappear and fill the room with beautiful music. The Uniti alone costs somewhere around 12,000DHS (1,56,000INR).
I also heard a Linn Unidisk 1 connected to Linn Klimax Pre/Power and Katana speakers. The shop manager played the same 'America' album. I felt the Lin combination was shallow compared to the Naim combination.
Dubai Audio centre is a good place, well equipped and has knowledgeable people.
I also visited Audio Visual Lifestyle (http://www.audiovisuallifestyle.com/new/home.htm) near the airport. I spent some time talking to Gautam Duseja, a very pleasant man who delighted in telling me about his company. AVL started as a retailer and ended up doing a lot of residential and commercial products. So they took up distributorship for a number of products such as CA, Anthony Gallo, Vincent, and others. They retail their products through Sharaf DG. I had hoped to listen to the new 650C CD player, but that is not expected till end of February. Gautam wanted me to listen to the 840C amplified through the 840A. Unfortunately AVL only had the small Anthony Gallo speakers and the demo was a real let down. I did not have the heart to tell Gautam what he was doing wrong, and left at at that.
There is a building in Bur Dubai that has two floors of computer retailers. Most of the shops are run by Keralites and Sindhis. There are a few shops run by Chinese. The bulk of the shops are pushing laptops with a few shops selling Mobos, graphic cards, and such. Hard disks are available aplenty. These shops only seem to have low end monitors. And none of the shops have ever heard of sound cards from Asus !!. The knowledge level of most of the shopkeepers were very low.
I finally ended up buying a Samsung FullHD monitor (2450HD) from Samsung's showroom. Though the knowledge level there was also low, I had done my homework on the Net, and was looking for a specific model.
Cheers