Hionfi Vintage Stereo Store — Attraction in Town of De Witt

They may be good at what they do, but they're rather subpar in other regards. I get the haughty attitude, it's part and parcel with audiophiles, but beyond the experience of being in the presence of experts, I feel there's not much here to recommend. Frankly, there's either a problem with the initial intake process or when the equipment is handed back. They took money readily enough, but when I went to pick it up little was said other than "can't fix." I was handed my item back with little comment, as though I had wasted their time. I don't know, maybe their repair guy spent forty minutes carefully inspecting every inch of things after removing the two screws I had left in place for ease of access... perhaps he did nothing at all. It would be nice if there was at least some sort of generic checklist filled out by the technician, letting a customer know what was tried and possible reasons why "can't fix." Or if it's what they'd considered crap equipment, have the skill to recognize this up front and tell the customer (tactfully, it's not hard) and don't waste their money and time. I understand what the fee is for and how it works, but as it stands it was very poor value for money, akin to paying $50 up front for a meal and being brought a dinner roll on a paper plate. I was excited about the potential of getting my equipment up and running again, budgeting in a fair amount to do so (and telling them this,) but the experience just left me feeling unwelcome. I don't often write reviews and I'm not using this as an opportunity to vent, so much as provide thoughtful constructive criticism to a service that's already straddled...

After years of disappointing audio equipment and poor FM radio reception, I took a chance on HIONFI. I learned that stock can vary from week to week and there are units that are for sale that have not yet been vetted by the tech and once purchased, go to the bench with the guarantee that if it cannot be made perfect, money is refunded. I picked one of those units, a Sansui 5000a. I wanted simplicity and an old fashioned analog radio dial with excellent reception to hear my WCNY Classic FM station. It took a few weeks but my receiver amplifier was finally ready and "was getting a shine put on" . On my way over I was hoping to also find some speakers there. I had Bose 501s many years ago so I thought a smaller shelf version would be better for me now. I didn't expect to walk in and see an absolutely perfect pair of Bose Séries 2 right up front. Both those and my Sansui 5000a came home this afternoon. After hanging up my FM antenna, I am hearing WCNY 93.1 with absolutely no frequency interference at all! Not in 5 years here in Syracuse have I been able to hear that station, on the low end of the dial, so perfectly. And the Bose speakers, with all the dials in mid range, are letting me feel the vibration of the bass, cello and Viola. I am looking good forward to gorgeous mornings filled with music and great coffee. Thank you to all you guys at HIONFI for loving great vintage equipment and having such pride...

I found out about Hionfi from a chance conversation that concerned a store in a shopping mall in Syracuse that did vintage stereo. My wife and I visited their prior location in Shoppingtown. It was a neat idea but I wasn't ready to replace my vintage gear. Then I heard they moved....

So when again in Syracuse we visited the store and lucky for us the owners were out on a pickup. And we met Mike. We both were taken by his sincere interest in the equipment. He loves music reproduction machines.

Fast forward to this year. My cousin's widow told me that she thought his classic Marantz was not repairable because my cousin had tried to get the tuner cord working properly with no luck. They were told it couldn't be fixed. I shipped it from California to the Albany, NY area and in shipping it was damaged. It lost its volume potentiometer shaft.

Mike fixed the Marantz in several different ways - replaced the pilot lights with beautiful modern bulbs - cleaned all the contacts and pots - in short it functions like new. (He tested it and power-wise it beats its original advertised specs!)

Mike is one of the best and most sincere repair technicians on the planet. It was worth two five hour round trips to Jamesville to allow Mike to bring the Marantz back to life.

Thank...