2. misc-audio
  3. 192150-126

Enough is Enough

I've been looking at changing my DAC. I was considering Lampizator, Playback Designs, and Ideon. Recently a dealer basically told me(with the exception of my subwoofer and music server) my system sucks. He went on to say, I should sell my amps, preamp, DAC, speakers, and start all over! I've owned several different speakers, amplifiers, and DACs. I've attended shows and several different dealers show rooms. In fact, I directly compared one of the amplifiers the dealer recommended to a Rowland 625 S2 amplifier and preferred the 625 S2. I didn't build my system in a vacuum. I determined what I wanted to spend, listened and purchase what I preferred. I've been in sales and submit it would have been better to recommend a DAC that would improve my system. So now I say, maybe enough is enough; because no matter what I have some dealer will tell me it's crap and I have to start over. 

ricred1

Showing 2 responses by rbstehno

rbstehno
1,546 posts
 

In many decades, I have been at a couple of dealers that were any good. Most of them will tell you that their stuff is the best, even here on agon. 
I attend shows and when I find something I like, I will bring it home along with others to audition them in my room and in my system. Most manufacturers/online dealers/local dealers will give you up to 30 days return policy. My buddy brought in many dacs a few years ago and for weeks we did many eval sessions. He bought 1 and returned the others.

I will never ask a dealer for their recommendation because I know what they will say. You need to trust your own ears and audition a component in your system in your room

rbstehno
1,546 posts
 

I had 1/2 dozen hi end dealers in around a big city I lived in. A bunch of us were part of an audio club that met 1 or 2 times a month listening to people’s setup as well as finding new artists/groups. On many occasions, at 10pm on my way home, I would stop off a this large record/cd new/used dealer and would buy a handful of discs/albums of new people we just listened to. 1 hi end dealer told 1 of our club members to get out of his shop because the owner said you’re not going to buy anything anyway. We all stopped shopping there. Pretty rude.

The room is the most important piece of the audio puzzle, that includes sizing the room and treating it. When building a couple custom houses, I built a room within a room to get the right golden size which was a big expense. The room will not perform miracles, a Sony/pioneer system will still sound like a Sony/pioneer, but a well thought out room will allow you to get the best sound quality your components will allow, where a bad room, your $100k system might sound like a Sony/pioneer system. 

Then after the room, its system synergy. This can be speaker/amp pairing, preamp/amp pairing, and then cable pairing. For example, when you see B&W speakers at the dealer or at a show, most of the time you will see them teamed up with warmer sounding amps from McIntosh or Classe. Or you wouldn’t buy a 5 watt SET amp with 83 db speakers.

 

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