Best store for new CDs

With all the action figures and novelty items lining its walls, your local Newbury Comics looks a lot different than it did 10 years ago, let alone 25. But it's been doing something right. After a quarter of a century, Newbury Comics still offers a great selection of music in all genres, while maintaining the reasonable prices and cool, punk-rock atmosphere that first made you fall in love with it. Like a fine wine (or Clash LP), Newbury Comics only gets better with age.

Given its more than 40,000 square feet of retail space, Virgin Megastore more than lives up to its name. Two floors are devoted to CDs: one for rock, pop, rap, and dance music, the other for jazz, blues, classical, and world music. Step inside and you'll certainly be hard-pressed to leave without a purchase in hand. If you've been burned too many times by purchasing albums unheard, headsets throughout the store allow you to preview everything from the latest Strokes album (buy it) to Supertramp's greatest hits (ehh, borrow it from a friend).

Newbury Comics, various locations; www.newburycomics.com; Virgin Megastore, 360 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 896-0950.