Seems to me anything that gets a customer into a retail shop should be a good thing. The problem with high end is that if you are an audiophile on a budget, most stores suck. We are just too picky and want to be able to test drive things in our own homes. Are we supposed to go into a store, listen to a product for 15 minutes on unfamiliar equipment and then plop down $4,000 on a whatever just because we didn't want to waste a salespersons time. We all have a certain something we are looking for in sound. At least here on audiogon if you do your shopping right you wont lose more than a few shekels when you buy a product that doesn't quite fit you. I purchase and sell here on audiogon because most of us here are like minded. Most retail stores are not in business to please audiophiles.
is audiogon good for the audio industry or bad?
I am not a dealer so my input is only based on my limited actions...but, since I discovered audiogon and became a member and active user, I have raised thousands of dollars by selling equipment that had been stored in my basement because "trade-in values" are so low that I would have rather stored this equipment just in-case I one day needed it. I then re-invested those dollars, plus other dollars and then sold equipment that I was planning on living with and invested those dollars as well to basically upgrade 1/2 my system which I had no imminent plans to do prior to AG. The result is that I have now spent thousands and thousands on equipment over the last 6-months which I would not have done without AG. Absolute Sound drives me into retailers and listening rooms, helps educate me and helps create my wish list, but, AG helps me make it a reality. The result is that I spend far more $$ on equipment...which by the way, drives me to buy absurd amounts of source material through acousticsounds, etc...