Archambault

Go here if your looking for music, manuscripts, a novel, etc. It’s a perfect location right at the berri station and so many people work here to help you find exactly what you want.

Archambault makes my nerd glands salivate. It is a mecca for all the cultural things that aren’t cool anymore:
It is a huge bookstore. I can’t think of another bookstore this big that isn’t going out of business or subsidized by a university. It is also a huge music store. I’ve never seen so many scores outside of a conservatory or competitive sporting event.
They are old school. They still sell CDs. They have an enormous jazz/​oldies/​classical music collection, which they play over the intercom.
They are educational. It’s basically a museum of vintage musical instruments as well. Their listening stations have demos and historical snippets so people can explore music they haven’t previously been exposed to.
Side note: I saw a little girl staring blankly at the screen of one of these stations. Not long after, this avuncular staffer came up to her and walked her through the program the way a docent at a children’s museum would. This was the cutest thing I’ve seen all week. Also, it means that the people who work here are (a) kind, (b) knowledgable, and © actually CARE.
Oh, and did I mention there is free wifi? Free listens and reads of pretty much anything available? And you can do this all this while relaxing on their comfy red couches?!
You must come to here if at all possible. Places likes these were rare to begin with and are now all but extinct. I could almost spend an entire trip to Montréal here. If they only had bathrooms.

This is probably the biggest music store complex in North America. I love this place! It has everything and anything you could possible look for pertaining to audio, video, books, sheet music, guitars, basses, synthesizers, etc… in fact, 3 floors of them! Each different musical instrument has its own room where one could go and play around for hours sampling some pretty cool pieces. My favorite is the guitar and bass room. They let you play pretty much anyone you want and there are these neat little areas to try out multi-​effects boxes and distortion pedals while connected to headphones. Definitely check it out!
The staff here are very knowledgeable and will help you find whatever you are looking for. Prices are pretty competitive, although with the current rate of exchange btw US/​CAN, you would probably get a much better deal on guitars in the US. None the less, if you’re in Montréal and into music of any kind, you gotta go spend some time here. One can easily spend half the day here as I have. Also, if your into electronic or house music, there is a small room downstairs off the main room that it solely for this genre of music, and they have some pretty hard to find titles which you can first listen to in the little kiosk before buying.

So it looks like I am the one writing the first English review of this place; I’m proud of myself :) I came in here tonight because I was in the area buying bus tickets at the terminal and I figured I’d stop in here cause I needed two technical studies books for viola. My instructor told me that this is the only place in town to go to buy sheet music and that they’re actually a bit overpriced. I didn’t think so all that much being American and being used to the price of things here in Canada being higher than in the States plus the high sales tax.
Employees were very helpful although not quite 100 percent knowledgeable of what they had or what something even was. I found most of what I was looking for, but I had a piece of music ordered that I will pick up in about two weeks. It is nice that they were able to do that for me. After I had found what I was looking for, I browsed what else they had. I am impressed. They have more in the way of orchestral and opera scores than most other places I have been. For example, most stores only have on the shelf just one Dover edition of Bizet’s Carmen in full score. Archambault had three on the shelf, so over all, very well stocked. They have many different selections of recordings and some great deals too! I was tempted to pick up some recordings as well, but I told myself not get too carried away and just come back.
Apart from classical stuff, they’ve got lots of other kinds of music, some games/​toys, gizmos, non-​music books, etc. Since I don’t have much of a choice, I will be coming back (I want to anyways).

Il est dangereux pour moi d’entrer chez Archambault, car il est facile de se laisser tenter par les DVDs, les CDs et les livres qui nous attirent. Surtout quand de bons rabais sont offerts.
Cette succursale vend également plusieurs instruments de musique. Les débutants y trouveront leur compte, car ils ont une bonne base dans tout. J’imagine qu’ils peuvent commander également, mais je dis cela sur toute réserve.

Archambault existe depuis 1896 et ce magasin a pignon sur rue au coin des rue Berri et Sainte-​Catherine Est depuis 1930. Aussi, bien que ce magasin soit en quelque sorte une succursale de la chaîné qu’est devenue Archambault, ce magasin, qui est une véritable institution à Montréal, demeure unique à de nombreux égards. D’abord, l’immeuble historique d’Archambault abrite le siège social de la chaîné. Ensuite, si la chaîné Archambault en est une de librairies/​disquaires, ce magasin continue à vendre les produits qui l’ont rendu populaire au début du siècle, soit des partition musicales et rien de moins que des pianos. En fait, les étages supérieures de l’immeuble sont consacrées à la vente d’instruments de musique de toute sorte, et on y fait également de la réparation. Côté livre, je dois admettre que les employés sont le plus souvent mal renseignées sur ce qui se publie et on n’y trouve pas de véritable libraire. Pire encore, je trouve que la séparation en deux étages de la petite section librairie de cet immense magasin est quelque peu arbitraire et encore moins pratique. Du reste, c’est d’abord un magasin consacré à la musique et je suis loin de m’offusquer que les disques et les instruments de musique y tiennent le haut du pavé.