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What's your experience with snooty HiFi salesmen?

I began my Hifi journey in 1976 at a shop in Birmingham MI called Audio Dimensions. He was a Magnapan and ARC dealer who was kind to a 15 year old kid who bought a set of MG 1s with paper route money. The ARC amps he carried were about $4K back then- a LOT of money in 1976. In the beginning I drove my MG 1s with an old Fisher Studio Standard integrated amp. Since those lovely innocent days I have encountered some real buttholes. They act like they are doing me a favor as they quiz me about what gear I have and if I'm listening to "approved" recordings. Needless to say I don't buy from those guys. Several wives and businesses later I'm back into the hobby with a much vengeance as a 61 year old  can muster given only so many free hours in a day and only so much cash to apply due to my other vices: Classic cars and salt water fishing. 

Have you ever encountered a really good or really bad dealer (or employee) that changed your buying actions?

Darko posted a video on this topic which I found really enjoyable. Many of you have already seen it but for those (like me) who discovered it much later here's the link: 

https://darko.audio/2022/09/audiophiles-are-snobs-with-money-to-burn/

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Showing 2 responses by szeidman2002

szeidman2002's avatar
szeidman2002
20 posts
 

@richopp 

I lived in Ft Lauderdale in the 70s. What was your store? I bought my first hifi system in ‘73. Well, it was hifi to me. All I could afford was a Nikko receiver, Smaller Advents, Garrard turntable that I bought from the first Sound Advice store on Federal Highway. My first experience was great and that set the standard. I ended up lurking in all the hifi stores I could find. Unfortunately, SA got too big and lost what made it fun.

I remember Luskins, HiFi Associates and of course Sound Advice. 

szeidman2002's avatar
szeidman2002
20 posts
 

@richopp 

I had read Sound Advice had gone out of business. I left S. Fl in 1980. I appreciate those guys (meaning Sound Advice) might have been arrogant. I rarely went to Boca as I would have loved to have seen your store. I tried to go to and lurk in as many as I could find. I remember Fl fondly because that’s where I first heard what music sounded like on a real stereo system outside of an all in one Soundesign.

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