There are few things worse than a well informed Bozo, right Blw? ;-)
Add another positive vote for Bay Area Audio and a negative one for The Audible Difference. BAA was responsible for a fair portion of my early education in audio (Audiogon gets the blame for most of the rest...). The staff at BAA has *always* gone out of its way to be helpful. Even better, they even let customers just wander around and look. Very relaxed, comfortable environment. This is a shop I *want* to buy from.
The Audible Difference is, IMO, the other end of the spectrum. Like Blw, after numerous auditions (there and elsewhere) I had $15K in equipment picked out, but it wasn't worth their time to close the deal. To be fair, the last salesman that waited on me busted his butt waiting on people while his "peers" hid out in the backroom. My hope is he eventually found a position where his work ethic was better appreciated and more profitable, too.
There *are* a number of good shops here, but these two stand out.
Add another positive vote for Bay Area Audio and a negative one for The Audible Difference. BAA was responsible for a fair portion of my early education in audio (Audiogon gets the blame for most of the rest...). The staff at BAA has *always* gone out of its way to be helpful. Even better, they even let customers just wander around and look. Very relaxed, comfortable environment. This is a shop I *want* to buy from.
The Audible Difference is, IMO, the other end of the spectrum. Like Blw, after numerous auditions (there and elsewhere) I had $15K in equipment picked out, but it wasn't worth their time to close the deal. To be fair, the last salesman that waited on me busted his butt waiting on people while his "peers" hid out in the backroom. My hope is he eventually found a position where his work ethic was better appreciated and more profitable, too.
There *are* a number of good shops here, but these two stand out.