"I wanted to audition a rather expensive pair of speakers that were not available in my area. I contacted the manufacturer (from his own website) to ask where I could go to audition and purchase these--but no response."
Dat1...Moving to a smaller house will necessitate selling my Dunlavy SC-4 speakers and going for something scaled down as well. Just the other day, like you, I e-mailed a very well known manufacturer who makes one of the handful of speakers I'm interested in. I also asked him if he knew of anyone close to my area where I might be able to audition. His reply was, "I can make you a pair for a good price." I wrote back, respectfully indicating I wanted first to hear his speakers and find out if they gave me the kind of sound that satisfied me. I got no other reply from him. I'm certainly not using this single episode as a means of indicting customer service in general. It's just that based on the very positive comments from other Audiogoners about this manufacturer, I expected a more helpful response. My shortlist is now a bit shorter.
Dat1...Moving to a smaller house will necessitate selling my Dunlavy SC-4 speakers and going for something scaled down as well. Just the other day, like you, I e-mailed a very well known manufacturer who makes one of the handful of speakers I'm interested in. I also asked him if he knew of anyone close to my area where I might be able to audition. His reply was, "I can make you a pair for a good price." I wrote back, respectfully indicating I wanted first to hear his speakers and find out if they gave me the kind of sound that satisfied me. I got no other reply from him. I'm certainly not using this single episode as a means of indicting customer service in general. It's just that based on the very positive comments from other Audiogoners about this manufacturer, I expected a more helpful response. My shortlist is now a bit shorter.