Rene, my poster boy volunteer for what is wrong with audiophiles, thank you for chiming in...
Your niche interest in niche audio is exactly my point. Who's going to make a living selling that stuff?
What the hell are you doing?(based on my opinion) Do you think you can convince me that you have a good sounding system? That when I listen to it it will sound like the artist intended? I think not. I'm sure its magical and musical for you but is it "good sound" or just your sound? Can you be sure i'm going to like it? Am I a heathen neophyte if I don't like it?
Audiophile's lack of focus makes it impossible to design a store around "good sound" because clearly audiophiles don't know or can't agree on what "good sound" is as defined as a stand alone concept. Instead we have , "I know what I like." Let me tell you what a moving target that is.
What do audiophiles mean when they say they know what they like? You shouldn't have a choice, the artist made the CD and that should be that. But it's not is it, have to make that perfectly matched systems that gives us so much pride? Audiophiles are always trying to get their system to do things that will distort one track to flatter another. So what is "good sound" to an audiophile. Can we ever agree so the stores can carry it and the manufacturers make it, or is that the beginning of the end for this industry?
Home Theater buyers get the concept and learn fast, but they never ask for the highs to be more "open". Are the highs supposed to be open on that recording anyway is my question?
To call Home Theater clients uneducated, well is untrue. Fact is most audiophiles like yourself are equally gullible, how hard would it be to mount a $90 Fostex Driver in a box? Well I've already had my runin with the Cain&Cain boys on a DIY forum. People have bought Thiels CS1.6's despite the huge distortion spike in the midrange. What are we doing as a group? Why are we supporting this sort of product? Cause it "sounds good?" Does it really?
----------Rene, so bountiful is your post-------------
" And that although this guy was hanging out at his shop the whole day waiting for customers to come in, with tons of downtime."
Clearly he didn't want to bother to do it for free, can you blame him? Does he owe you something? When's the last time you worked for free Rene? Are you entitled at $3000 for free services, did he have a sign that said so? He made $1200 in profit on your purchase? When you make $1200 a week, do you work for free for your employer...hell no you don't so don't expect anyone else to do it either. Instead you should have bought the $50 in tools necessary to set the system up yourself! And if the system sounded good referred people to him. But instead he didn't do something for free and your willing to overlook that he displayed what you wanted presented it in a way that assured you this was the right move but he's supposed to do that, just like you do the minimum at your job and still get paid retail.
Back to my point......
The diversity presented by audiophiles is killing the hobby, the magazines won't call a spade a spade and people buy on reviews and infact post here as their hard won experience/opinion based on reviews. This forum is all about people getting along while giving "wrong" advice(see any of my HT threads). Fact is we don't hear all that differently from one another (despite the BS perpetuated by those who would perp wrongness), no instead we all have different goals for why we have a system. Until we can focus as a group this will get worse.
I can't note every facet of my argument but think about what I wrote, how permissive are we and PC to have allowed the acceptance of such a diverse sound as good sound? There seems to be no standards When a violin simply sounds like a violin.
