Hippo's

"For our new home, we wanted to set up a top-flight Media Room in our basement and place a Frame TV on the wall above the fireplace in the Family Room. While we could have resorted to conducting our research and purchasing equipment piecemeal, there is much to be said of a “Professional’s Hand”! After shopping for other vendors, we settled on Hippo’s for a number of reasons. Their Albany showroom is clean, well-organized, and staffed with some truly amazing folks. The owner, Tony H. and consultants Josh and Erik, are fantastic in their own right. For our project, we worked closely with Josh who really showcased his passion and knowledge of Theater and Media Room Design, A/V equipment, and Smart Homes. Suffice to say, after our first meeting at Hippo’s, we knew that we were working with the right company. We also appreciated Josh for educating us on technical terminologies, design ideas, and budgeting for this project. There was no typical salesman stuff going on – no shoving expensive equipment our way and no over-promising. He was always available for questions, even after-hours. And, rather than make a quick sale, he treated our encounter as a long-term relationship where we will continue to call up Hippo’s for future projects. The ”Professional’s Hand” is symbolic of professionals who knows how to design acoustical spaces, understands the A/V technology that fits within both spaces and budgets, and executes delivery beyond expectations. No amount of YouTube videos or “professional amateurs” can substitute for the “Professional’s Hand”. At Hippo’s, the professionalism, the passion for designing and building out a dream audiovisual space, and the execution of the equipment setup has truly exceeded our expectations. We now have a fully-blown Dolby 5.1.2 Media Room where we can watch sports during the daytime and movies at night. And I mean literally, MOVIES! The experience is so stellar that we should charge people to watch because it feels like you’re in a state-of-the art theater. The space is clean with high-end speakers hidden in the walls. Room lighting arrangement, home networking equipment for fast and direct Ethernet, even a universal remote that controls everything from Apple TV to the PS5 was selected and installed to perfection. Our installer, Mike, and his team did an amazing job of fulfilling Josh’s design. Let me add another useful nugget: We trusted Josh on incorporating Dolby Atmos. Before this install, we never heard Atmos. Now that we have it, we wish we had more space to add more Atmos speakers. In addition to the media room, Hippo’s also installed our Samsung Frame TV over our fireplace. We were apprehensive because typically TVs over the fireplace are associated with neck issues from tilting heads backward. Well, after examining the space, Mike determined the optimal installation height distance from the fireplace that allows for comfortable viewing without the need of a separate TV mount. The Family Room setup was another example proving that professionals who have been doing this work for a long time is the way to building out an ideal audiovisual setup. In Summary, I highly recommend Hippo’s to anyone even remotely thinking of a theater/media room or a smart house project. Their prices are fair. Their professionalism is laudable. And they execute to perfection. Finding small businesses like this nowadays is a godsend. Looking forward to working with them in the near future."

"I went in to Hippo’s to discuss an upcoming purchase of fairly high end audio gear including speakers, amps, preamps, TT, cartridges and speaker wire and interconnects. I was very impressed with their interest, knowledge and openness despite the fact I was not at the point of buying equipment. They were patient and informative. 5 stars to them for taking the time with me not knowing where I might make any purchase. I think the local’s in Albany are lucky to have a shop like theirs with salesmen that know their gear."

"We visited the store twice and they patiently answered our questions, went through TV and sound bar options in detail and then set up installation for two days later (thank you , Al). Jason and Matt came to our home, set everything up on our internet, hooked up our streaming services to the roku, helped us connect spotify to the TV sound bar, and then let us run through how to use the 3 remotes until we had everything down. Very polite. Wore good masks, took boots off, had a cloth for the floor, no rush - very pleasant and competent."

"Worse than car salesmen. Possibly the rudest money-hungry staff I have every encountered. Went in the shop to see what products they had as I was looking for some speakers and an amp for under $3,000, which is a decent budget. Before I even got five feet in there an employee bombarded me and asked me my budget before anything. He told me I couldn't build any system at all with that budget and I'd need at least $7,000 before they can work with me, and he basically saw me to the door. This place is a snobby high end audio place that takes more pleasure in the crazy high price tag of custom audio equipment rather than the great sound. This is 2017, everyone knows you can find really nice speakers and an amp for almost any budget, especially under $3,000."