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Gone are the days of the great audition.

Only a short while back we could go to multiple audio rooms in a town just around the corner and listen to all the styles and brands of speakers you wanted. Now of course, only the bargain speakers are available for audition at that yellow sign store and unless you are very lucky the exact model you are looking for isn't reachable for an hour or two drive, if that. I'm certain from the desperation in some the posts in this very forum, that people have purchased things solely on word of mouth or even just specs and looks. Dark ages of getting what you want and yet so much more available. There is so much reviewing and so little listening going on. I live in the DC metro and wanted to look for some towers in the 2k range. The two places I went only had a couple of towers in that range and I'm just not doing the yellow sign place. What do you do?
jmacinnis

Showing 2 responses by knownothing

knownothing
1,655 posts
 
Seeing an ad in the Seattle Times that Magnolia HiFi is having a "moving" sale at their Roosevelt store, I went to see if they had any good bargains. Turns out they are "moving" to a small space in the big Yellow Sign store a few miles away. While I didn't see any terrific deals I was interested in, I have to say the loss of a stand alone Seattle stereo brick and mortar institution is a disturbing sign of the times. I realize that Magnolia was bought by the Yellow brand a while ago, but the Seatle stand alone in the Roosevelt district was the anchor for three smaller shops on the same block, and was the last tie in Seattle to a local icon. This move was inevitable, and while I still bought gear from the stand alone store as recently as this year, I doubt I will visit the new "location" that much. In addition to the three surviving shops, there are two more boutiques less than ten blocks away in the U District and another downtown, making Seattle relatively flush with HiFi B&M stores. But I have to wonder for how long. kn

PS - Johnnyb53, Tim at Experience Audio sells Dynaudio speakers. Check him out.
knownothing
1,655 posts
 
Hmm, dunno. I should have bought more stuff from Tim! I happened to be in the neighborhood this weekend and saw that his store was still there with gear in the window. Try sending him an email. Yeah, I have gone in the Magnolia stores on Roosevelt since the mid seventies. Bought an AVR and sub there earlier this year. Sorry to see them go, but they had too much space for the nature of the business at this point. Competition with Internet for a small market will continue to put pressure on B&M outlets. Hope others here like Definitive, Hawthorne, etc. can stay around. Hawthorne looks like they are trying to straddle both worlds, their current inventory of used gear is insane.

If the OP hasn't bought new speakers I might suggest Dynaudio Excite or PSB Imagine Towers as good matches for the Primaluna in his price range in addition to Golden Ear.
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