Hippo’s Home Entertainment

Hippos is a upscale audio and home theater store in Stuyvesant plaza. This is the kind of audio store where you can audition quality stuff. The staff is knowledgeable and polite although they will steer you to certain products.
On one hand I love this type of store and want to support them. On the other hand their mark up is sometimes just too extreme. Case in point I was buying a pair of speakers a couple years ago. They were selling the model down from what I wanted for $ 1400. I ended up buying the model up in an NYC store for $ 1000. Since they were the only place to go and audition the speakers locally I wanted to give them the business but couldn’t justify the price premium.
There aren’t many of these audiophile high end home theater stores around. The alternatives include the Magnolia store in Best Buy in Crossgates and Town TV in Rotterdam. Check out my reviews of those for more details.

Paid $ 100 and waited for over three months for an estimate. The owner apologized, refunded the money, but had no explanation for «why» we never received an estimate! Customer support, from the owner down, is very disappointing.

I had a nice buying experience here on Christmas Eve. A busy day, but as I walked in I was greeted and asked what I had in a bag from a toy store. A nice exchange followed the result of which I bought something I had been exploring online for a long while.
The showroom is well appointed with lots of goodies to see and hear. My salesperson was knowledgeable and friendly and spent a lot of time with me (even though what I was considering was relatively small potatoes). I liked that he spent as much time getting to know what I wanted to do with the gear as he did discussing the features and specs of the many offerings.
Hi end audio and tv is something you really should audition in person. It is only fair that once you’ve benefited from a positive audition that you give them your dollars. That is if you want them to be there for your next visit.

I purchased a television from Hippo’s based on their supposed reputation as a quality establishment. After 10 days, the television stopped functioning. A call to the manufacturer informed me that the television I was sold is an older model. A service call would not be scheduled until I proved that the television was a recent purchase. Hippo’s return policy states that items may be returned within 30 days for a store credit. Hippo’s will nor honor its policy.
I was sold a defective, older model television. Hippo’s has said, essentially, «Tough luck.» I now have to schedule a manufacturer’s service technician to come to my house, lose a whole day to waiting, and feel uncomfortable that I own a television that failed with less than 15 hours viewing time.
Beware of Hippo’s stated policies and guarantees. You might get stuck with a $ 1,000+ lemon.

Called looking for something specific that’s a little hard to find. I know product details and I know what I’m looking for but thought I’d try to buy local. Asked about the product and got a snooty «Let me ask you this… Did you see this at Bestbuy?» No buddy… I didn’t… I don’t like buying from Bestbuy because I don’t like buying from people who know less about products than I do. Not really thrilled about being treated like an idiot by pretentious A/​V people either. Same reason I steered clear of the Apple Store for the first 5 years it was in Crossgates.
Anyways Looking for the Bravia EX521 Internet TV that sells for $ 200 bucks less then the EX523 which is the same in all ways minus the EX523 comes with Wi-​Fi built in and the 521 comes Wi-​Fi ready. They sell the EX523 and the gentlemen on the phone repeated himself twice clarifying to me this is an Internet TV with Wi-​Fi when I tried to explain that I don’t need the Wi-​Fi and that I know its an internet TV but its also Ethernet capable.
I know these guys market themselves to a higher end customer, but anyone who knows a thing or two, knows Ethernet is the way to go if its readily available. A product isn’t necessarily inferior if its missing features that aren’t needed and I don’t need snotty questions and pretentious attitude when I’ve done countless hours of homework on products.
If you’re looking for expert opinion they’re probably your best source in the immediate area. Don’t let that go to your head guys.