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  3. 1020660993

Voodoo in Ann Arbor

I am spending the weekend at a friend's house. He recently purchased my JMlab Tantal 509's and is in the market for a power amp. Since he lives close to Ann Arbor we decided to go shopping there--supposedly, good high end stores are located near major universities.

Anyway, we called Audio/Video Showcase and it was such a fiasco! What a salesman they had--he was trying to sell us *watts*...he wanted us to buy a Denon power amp (which to my friend and I looked questionable) without auditioning it and at full list price! Although the store claimed to be high end (Conrad Johnson, Bryston, Musical Fidelity, Denon) he was reluctant to have us audition equipment. Finally my friend asked this salesman to rig some JMlab Cobalt (2-way) with a Musical Fidelity dual mono 85WPC integrated and the MF CDP. The salesman used Tara Labas snakes, from power cord to speaker cables. IT SOUNDED HORRIBLE!!!!! It wasn't the JMlabs, as we're familiar with their sound.

Unbelievable! This was an absolutely awful experience. Why did this happen, we ask ourselves. Was it because we're not Anglos? Anyway we would give this store a 3 out a possible 10.
psychicanimal

Showing 1 response by brianmgrarcom

brianmgrarcom
1,317 posts
 
I was at that shop recently Psychicanimal, about a month or so ago.

I went to Ann Arbor as I heard they had good shops as well, what a disappointment! I went to listen to some amps, my short time at that shop was *somewhat* productive, I was able to listen to 3 amps, one after another in just a matter of a few minutes of each other, BUT, none of them sounded good because of their setup! I was able to determine a few things between them, but nothing critical. When the salesman found out I wasn't buying that day, he seemed to lose interest in me fast.

There is one nice shop there though, Paragon. Unfortunately for me, they lost power just prior to me getting there.

One other shop I was at wasn't to bad, but very small! (Far better than the shop you were at though, as far as for an audiophile.)

There is a shop not to far a drive from AA, in West Bloomfield, called Ensemble, it's geared more towards HT, but it's an awesome place to check out IMO.
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