End Of An Ear

Best place for new/​used media in ATX… See for yourself…

Great shop with great finds! Timeless throwback, vinyl & audio equipment. Sansui lives! Found exactly what we where looking for.

5 stars! Hands down! There’s 2 parts to the store, equipment and music. They have a nice selection of refurbished tuners, speakers, record players and a couple drum kits!
The music side, has a variety of books, cds, and vinyl… oh the beautiful, beautiful vinyl!!! Large selection for every genre of new and used. They also have a local section and bring in local bands to play in-​house! Prices are very reasonable. There’s parking so no searching for street parking here. 2 of the most difficult genres for me to find are always metal and punk… that ended at this shop! They have a huge punk and metal (and European metal!) selection! Bands that I can only find online it seems and have the albums shipped to the US (unless I want a remastered copy I can go online for from the US), they have it! I honestly did not have enough time to plow through everything I wanted here BUT they are on Discogs so I can still order from them and have albums shipped to me in FL (just don’t order or buy anything I need for my collection)! They have sale crates under the stands so make sure you dig around there as well! The staff was super approachable, friendly, helpful and knowledgeable about all kinds of music! I was very impressed and when I go back to Austin this will be on the top of my list for places to visit… but I will give myself more time to see what all I can find!

First time shopping here was a pretty good experience. Got hooked up with a awesome record player with all the wiring, receiver equipment, and speakers. Gave me $ 25 off for buying all together so I had some money for a record. Great deal, and you don’t have to deal with possible damaged hardware that usually happens during shipment from ordering online. They also know about the stuff they sell, That earns a star on itself.

This place has a killer VHS selection. If that’s your thing, get here.

This place was a great find, and a welcome change from other shops I had visited in the area.
Highlights:
–Has it’s own parking lot so you don’t have to spend 20 minutes trying to find a spot.
–Has a sizable vintage audio section, including turntables, speakers, and amps.
–Wide variety of genres with a good selection of artists in each one;
–Good balance between amount of new and used records
–Very fair prices in a time where most stores are pricing records like antiques.
–Nice, helpful staff

A record paradise period !!! I love this place and it has great service. I drive In from San Antonio twice a week at least to visit here and shop for vinyl.

Absolute best record store in Austin. The staff is knowledgable, helpful, and will go above and beyond to make your experience great! I always learn something new when I go in and leave with treasures!

Nice little record shop. Cute unique area. Prices are more than fair, but you can tell they lean towards rock the most. Definitely check it out!

Not the greatest, but one of the greatest record stores in the world. Actually I take that back, it’s probably the greatest. They consistently have near mint records, all well priced. Their setup is organized, with a split up new arrivals section for most genres. Large selection of punk, indie, hip hop, classic rock, and experimental LP’s.
If you’re visiting Austin, I definitely recommend EOAE over any other shop, (sorry others still love y’all). I come here regularly, and it’s rare for me to walk out empty handed. Even their free section has sweet stuff!
My only criticism is they need more 1960/70’s picture sleeve 45s. Definitely a great selection of punk and indie, but there’s no reason for me to not get a 3^rd copy of a Barbara Ann 45 ;)

Love this record store! Everyone that works there is super helpful and knowledgeable.

A welcoming and geeky in all the right ways record shop. Love the diverse and perfectly-​organized selection of vinyl. A must for music lovers visiting Austin.

I reached EOAE via email for a pre-​sale limited edition LP. Dan the owner replied super quick letting me know they could take care of me by phone or email because I was out of town. I placed the order, they held my order for weeks after its release and when i made it in the staff was SUPER friendly.
Great space, solid selection, accommodating owner/​staff and very good prices! I’m new to Austin and sure to be a repeat customer after my first experience. Thanks all!

What an AMAZING place. I just relocated to Austin and the movers messed up my speakers for my record player… Blake was an ABSOLUTE GEM assisting me with the selection. He even put the speaker wire in there for me.
After I got set up I went to browse the selection of vinyl and boy it’s pretty good. I must say that I really enjoyed how well it was organized. They were out of two of the vinyls I came for, but hey that’s life. Great selection of Rock vinyl… they also had the Tracy Chapman vinyl I came for which was a nice surprise… and no shock that the had the Rumours album by Fleetwood Mac.
Got the speakers set up and connected — they are booming. Very happy with the purchase.
Overall great experience and about a mile from my place… couldn’t be better.

End of an Ear is an excellent record store on the southern outskirts of Austin. They have an awesome selection of new and used vinyls spanning all types of genres. Price wise, it’s not too expensive and it seemed a little less touristy than the ones downtown. They also have a pretty neat back room with a lot of high end audio equipment for purchase.
Definitely a cool record store.

I really like this store. It brings me back to my days in high school when going to a record store was like going to church. You went there because it brought a sense of belonging.
They have a great selection of cassettes, 7″, vinyl and zines. Everything is easy to find. The store next door that sells old stereo equipment is awesome too.

Consistently getting amazing records at reasonable prices makes End of an Ear the best in Austin and one of the best I’ve ever seen anywhere. Great place to find rock music, but they also get very nice jazz albums through from time to time.
Some recent finds:
1. Sonny Clark’s Cool Struttin’ on Blue Note, 1965 pressing. Not one of the über valuable originals, but still a rare find and a bargain at the price I paid.
2. Lambchop’s Nixon reissue on Merge. Not that this is rare, but it is great to know that these staples of indie rock will always pop up quickly at End of an Ear.
3. Mark Kozelek Sings Christmas Carols, green limited edition vinyl. They special ordered this for me and called me when it came in. I think something like 500 of these were pressed world wide and they were able to get one with no problem.

Pretty sweet little record store. Everything is fairly easy to find as it is catalogued by genre and then the alphabet. Prices are really solid. Significantly less than Waterloo, which I thought was pretty cool. Ridiculous amounts of used vinyl for sale as well a ton of new and modern albums. I listen to and collect a lot of classic rock albums and they have those in spades. Generally in better condition than most places I’ve seen. Don’t expect anyone to go out of their way to help you, but if you ask, I have found that most of the staff is quick to help and are fairly knowledgable. It’s basically one large rummage sale.
They have a decent selection of new and used stereo equipment in the back that is fairly priced. I picked up a turntable here and it has worked out very well for me. It was priced a little higher than I could find it on Amazon for but it was nice to be able to take it home that day and ensure there would be no damage in shipping. Dollars being spent locally was also a nice plus.
Overall, I really like this place a lot more than most of the records stores I’ve been to in the area. I would consider this my home base for vinyl needs. Cool place.

MY FAV RECORD STORE IN AUSTIN.
Big enough to get lost in, but small enough to not spend your entire day trying to find «that one album I know they have.»
The people that work here are super approachable and knowledgable. The sale sections always are worth a look. (They are usually located underneath the racks, so look to the floor bins if you want to save some money).
Bonus love on their «Local Music Section» and some of the best In-​stores I have ever been to. (No seriously, I saw Dr. Dog here in 2008 with about 10 other people… and knew they would be blowing up… cool moment in time).
Check out the music store in the back! Nice gear and not overpriced. COOL!

End of an Ear earns all 5 stars, but it’s only fair to mention this was my first time ever in a record store. I’m no spring chicken but I guess I’m young enough never to have owned a record player, nor had the need to purchase vinyl. I suppose that may be a silly thing to say since records never went away and many kiddos today have a player. Many of the other patrons were younger than my thirty-​cough-​mumble self. A Beyonce record was even on display, wha?
I was actually in here to buy some records on the cheap to decorate with (I mean, have you ever seen the cover of the original Herb Alpert’s Whipped Cream and Other Delights? Awesome.) but they have a whole slew of ones you would actually listen to. The store is laid out by genre and the records are all packed together; it reminds me of the way I used to hunt down CDs: it’s really fun just to flip through one by one; you never know what you might find. (I was THIS close to buying a George Michael album.) Most records appear to run about $ 12.99−29.99 but we found a couple of great albums in the 2.99 bargain bins (on sale for 3 for $ 5!). They also had some high-​end collector items.
The website is kinda terrible looking, but functional. The best part is they offer gift certificates for purchase right on the front page, and one click away is the New Arrivals page which someone painstakingly updates with each record. (Attention webmaster: I know a skilled web designer who would help ya out on trade in a heartbeat ;-)
I recommend getting your caffeine on across the street then spending an hour (or more) here in the zone. They play music while you browse and host in-​store events. Even if you don’t own a record player, it’s worth a trip inside.
EDIT: I actually listened to Herb and his Tijuana Brass Band… and liked it.