Hi-end audio is a big zero

While this is all fun & games hobby for many of us, for a retailer, this is how they MAKE A LIVING. They aren’t trying to make sales just for the sport of it. And every time they open a box, the next customer is going to expect and "open-box" discount of 5-10%. So really, the dealer is potentially losing money on every box he opens to do a demo. Even worse if that unit comes back with fingerprints, or gosh forbid, the tiniest of a scratch! Do you charge for that, or give the next buyer a discount??

My first encounter with a high-end dealer in 1984, I was in college, and they let me home demo an NAD 3020 amp. Well.... we all know what happened next, right? I was properly blown away, and bitten for life by the high-end bug. But their 3020 was already a showroom unit, and had probably been demoed in many homes. I was not asking the guy to loan me a ReVox integrated.

To finish the story.... I returned the 3020, and purchased a 3150, and soon after, a pair of Boston Acoustics A400 speakers. I’d never heard 30Hz until then!

So many great responses. Interesting to read them all. I think more people would be interested in audio and spending the money if they could feel confident about what they are buying. It would be a benefit to the industry if we could figure out how this can be done better.

lalitk Agreed about room treatments. You know something is up when move the stereo to three different rooms and sound is great in one, just bad in another. It is a lot of work moving speakers / acoustic treatments to get things to sound their best.

Good idea. Maybe DIRAC or similar would make it easier? Other options I've considered are 1) omni speakers 2) listen in near-field 3) listen in mono.

classdstreamer Thanks. I was also thinking about hi-end food industry. It is the one that comes to mind where, like audio, it is largely invisible.

gents "What would the OP expect? The dealer recreate his living room? As Sounds a little like making exuses for being a little bit of a tire kicker."

Guilty tire kicker as charged. But no, as stated earlier, I empathize with dealers as they try to balanced excellent customer service with also making a profit. I do not go to dealers often. Unless I do the research first and also serious about what I want to buy.

winnardt"And the first sentence is: "This is no knock on dealers." and then you go on to spend the rest of the post knocking on dealers."

I did not mean to come across as knocking dealers. I am knocking the dynamics of buying a satisfying stereo system.

Years ago, Wyred4sound had a circulating DAC that went around for home audition. Just put your name on the list if you wanted to give it a listen.

Another way is, as people have said before, "That is what Audiogon is for". Buy used and if you don't like it, sell it for about what you paid for it.

Five minutes! It's so frustrating because of the effort to get that 5 minutes! There are always exceptions but five minutes at home is about all I need to get a handle on on a new component dropped into my familiar home set-up. Then there is the long-term which is off and on hours for a few weeks.

The boom-box experiment which got me started on this thread has been very interesting. I still want to try about 5 more. For me, having an overview of what's out there is the best way to feel confident in my decision. I'd estimate to do this with my Stereophile class B / C system would; cost about $40,000. at which point I could buy an "A" system.

My favorite dealer experience was at George Merrills Underground Sound in Memphis Tenn. in the 80’s. Incredible room, incredible customer interaction and incredible hand built Merrill turntables. No dig room correction then, all manual. I hope that room is still there, it was underground btw… in an awesome basement area. 

antialiased's avatar    
antialiased
13 posts
12-02-2022 at 04:26pm 
@orgillian197 They charge a 20% restocking fee. How is that exemplary?

I don't judge a business by its return policy.

I've been buying from them since the mid 80s and they've handled any problems I've had. Good enough for me.

Another +1 @kota1