Nowhere to hear speakers and amps anymore!

@cundare2 It would appear the entire high end audio industry has a consumer problem; their consumers can rarely touch, feel and hear their products before purchase which wastes untold time, money and, carbon on the part of everyone. The industry is (to my way of thinking) limiting its market to (1) those who don't care how much they spend and buy equipment based on how much it costs and (2) those who buy on the web and are willing to play the return game. Yet the conundrum faced by brick & mortar stores is fully understandable. I get it. But there remains a need to hear the equipment before purchase. A participant in this discussion mentioned a fee a store was charging to come in and listen. While not ideal, I think this is fair. I'd pay $250 for a day of listening if the store had every product I wanted to listen to. And while the problem would remain for those not living in large metropolitan areas, one solution would be for the industry to establish an association that would open listening stores in major consumer hubs. The goal would be to showcase every high end product while simply breaking even on their cost through the imposition of an entrance fee. As mentioned, I'd pay a price to compare all the great equipment and I believe others would also. I'm sure everyone has an opinion on this idea (good, bad or ugly), so let's open the flood gates for discussion...

@soix: Sigh. To be clear, I’m not complaining (at least I wasn't intending to), just summarizing the current situation, which I’m sure I share with many others. If you have a solution, let’s hear it. As for me, I’ve, um, adapted.

I simply research the heck out of any major purchase online & in personal discussions with product designers & company reps. Only after a trusted consensus emerges do I actually pull the trigger. That’s a lot different than the way things worked back in the 70s & 80s, but I’ve always been an under-the-hood kinda guy, so I enjoy the process. And when you’re talking about five-figure purchases it becomes easier to access people who are directly involved with the design & production of candidate products -- and who often have interesting, educated comments on the industry and the tech.

To some extent, the current situation is only quantitatively worse than the way things were when hi-end shops were plentiful. Even hearing components in a showroom didn’t reveal how they would sound in your own system, in your own room. And when it comes to latter-day product classes like power conditioners & cables, that’s now truer than ever. So even if I was surrounded by showrooms, the same problem would still exist, even if in mitigation. And I’d probably wind up choosing to do almost as much research, and flying just as blindly, as I do today.

@rick_n 

@soix 

And then "metropolitanism" reared its ugly head. 😁

@bob70 ”metropolitanism” as you call it is what allows “ruralism” to even exist, because rural areas can’t support themselves, period. The great irony is that the great rural areas that pride themselves on “independence” completely rely on the federal government and the big cities to exist whereas the larger metropolitan areas pay more into the government than they take. Use your stupid little 😁 emoji all you want, but it doesn’t hide nor negate that absolute financial and mathematical fact.

retail stores where I could hear and compare equipment

You can attend audio shows. I've attended RMAF, T.H.E. Show, Pacific Audio Fest, and AXPONA where I auditioned then purchased demoed speakers.