Here in Asheville NC I'm basically limited to:
-Best Buy, with it's always changing floor personnel. You generally know more than the sales person, so it's 'get in/get out'.
-Guitar Center, good for the odd hardware-ish stuff. If you're not buying an 'axe' or drum kit, you're left alone.
-Moog; the museum is fun, but...*shrug*
ATL is the closest 'serious' venue for Anything.
Just because AG is in Greenville doesn't mean squat. AG itself is an 'on-line entity' without a storefront....
Other than the venues listed above by their supporters, the storefront 'boutique audio shop' is a rare breed. Treat them well, give them your support and business when you can.
I've visited various vendors in the Triangle area, Charlotte, and others in my travels with a 500 mi. radius of 'home'. Most are HT shops; when I walk in I get 'short-shrift', since I'm driving my company Dodge dually (a 'working truck', not a 'Cowboy Cadillac' that will Never see dirt).
Most of what I see within their walls is Familiar...
I haven't seen anything I would call 'exotic' since I lived in the Houston metro area some 15 years ago....
That was the last time I saw some Krell gear.
It's become an 'on-line world'. Resign self to 'shipping costs' to/from your door, or lavish your IRL time to your 'local' shop...
...or they will follow the dodo into extinction.
(Hi dwmaggie...;) ^5's *G*) |
Too old (and married, Damn) to leap into the big Pool...
...but I can still wade....and Watch....;)
(I'm allowed to Look.....as long as I don't drool or get Grabby...) |
Colin, noted...and Thanks....*tip of hat* Any and all input is appreciated. Asking the Google is still shooting dice...;)
Been through Nashville, but stops have been mostly for gas and Starbucks *L* Know that helicopter well...MOMA flies over my shop on it's various missions of mercy, and I can hear their helipad as well.
tomic601 is likely referring to the Tail of the Dragon. Wonderful, a curve every 100 yards on average for 7ish miles. Even in a car, it's 2nd gear and keeps you busy. *S* There's a couple of others in the area; I like the 'hill climb' roads personally; it's easier to control one's momentum going Up, as opposed to downshifts and burning the binders going Down... ;)
(Used to ride 2 wheels, but a tad too 'friable' these days. I bruise if you look at me hard....damn DNA, anyway....*L*)
"Asheville: Cesspool of Sin" thanks to a House Rep's blurt.
I fit in. ;) |
Thanks, Larry. I/we were in Chicago last year on a weekend 'speed tour' escaping our 'work encampment' in Lexington KY.
Went to see the Fields Museum, which overrode 'audio interests' since time was short.
Metro Chicago is 'combat traffic'. like most major metros of late. Met a Ferrari owner in a parking lot, chatted him up....'Love the car...can't drive it here anymore. Want to buy it?"
(Would love to as well...my license would vaporize in short order.
Would also have to find that winning Lotto tix in that parking lot, blowing up against my leg....)
"Thanks, but no....I'd have the same complaint, with some variables.."
Local roads, more suited to 4WD, for one....*L*
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tomic, Oh...That roller coaster....*L* (Didn't know it by the 'D.D.' moniker...I'm so 'unhip'....)..
First driven when new to the area, some 15ish yrs. ago...
"Oh, here's this nice shortcut off the Parkway...(she said)...."
Downhill then, with a Pontiac LeMans GT, one stayed busy....
Uphill since...more my cup of 'tainment'...*G*
Different ride as well...
Chatted up a waitress @ Grandfather Mtn. that lives in AVL 'bout 1.5 yrs ago....said she made the drive 'twixt there back/forth in about .5ish hrs. on the Parkwy. in her sedan...
(Forget the make, but 'twastn't a Beemer or the like....a nice, 'normal' sort of ride...)
Thankfully for the tourista, this is occuring in 'off hours'...Flat F'n Flying, no doubt. Familiarity cedes Restraint....
Apex Everything. *L*
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...but still no audio shops....
(Back to topic.....) |
Spring & Summer, we get the bike & car crowds in town....
As well as 'touring' the local pavements, they visit the Biltmore estate to the tune of 1.2 mil yearly...and rising....
Hotels are popping up nearly as fast as the 'niche breweries' which makes for 'twisted tourista'. Makes for 'interesting street moves' on their part....'cardiac arrest lane changes', mid-road pauses, left turns prohibited but done (badly) anyway...
Better to be in a thriving small city, though...;) |
@devilboy ...and 'personal 'puters started in garages..;)
I remind myself of that....
& biketony, if I'm up that way I'll try to visit. *S* Help keep them in existence in the meanwhile, and thanks... |
Pardon...but I'm 'constructively pissed'.
As noted, 'subject to fits'.....;) |
NOW, This is the sort of info that 'we' as dedicated audiosorts need to know. *S* And I'll thank y'all for it....
(Some may say 'demented', but they haven't drunk the Kool-Aid...so they can wallow in whatever chilly puddle of 'bleah* they 'approve' of..*disturbed obscure laughter*)
'Scuse....I'm subject to odd fits...;)
Look....This is Wonderful Info for All of Us. If anyone within the view of these posts has the inclination and the time to compile all of this data of these 'True Believers', these gentlemen (and ladies; I try hard not to be sexist about this or that) that put their beliefs into brick & mortar...
Please, DO!
Collect these comments. Start a forum. 'Do' a website; or find one that exists already, update/add to it, and spread the link/location of it....
I'd love to do such, but I'm a co-owner with spouse of a business that absorbs the bulk of my time. 'Real life concerns' gobble up the balance; which we're all pretty familiar with that daily trudge....
"Jer, the dog just puked on the bed...I'm doing dinner and listening to The Food Channel's (*X*). Can you deal with it? Oh, and the stove has f'd up again...."
I'm positive that y'all are familiar with The Drill. Or something like it...;)
But...it'd be fantastic if one or some would or could 'do' a compilation of B&M dealers of the equipment that strokes our desires. *S*
Make it simple so anyone could add/update, add a comment, provide an address/website/email/phone/hours/name(s)/in stock/displayed....
If you don't want our 'predilection' to 'dinosaur' into oblivion, if you want our desire to make 'Real Audio Reproduction' to devolve into ear buds 'n cells....
Somebody, Please....Grab this flag, and head uphill.
An 'audio' Iwo Jima Moment.
YOU could be The Guy.
A co-worker of some decades ago was related to one of those brave men. I opined that he must be immensely proud of him.
His comment:
"They just wanted to make a Point of it, and went back to staying alive!"
Another was the son of one who got marched into the site of the first nuke test blast site in the U.S. desert.
He (at the time...Now? Likely dead) was the last remaining survivor of that idiocy. The rest dead, due to radiation exposure...)
(I've been, for rationale unrealized, exposed to these people, and their legacies...but I'll take it as a huge hint of sorts....)
If I can take this comment/exhortation/plea to inspire/infect Anyone to do more that bitch 'n whine....
After all...y'all would cringe if a 'oddball troll' like yours truly ended up doing it for y'all.
You'd squirm anytime you'd access it.
I already have a concept that y'all will Love. Wait for it. *G*
And 'love/hate' is already impressed into the commentary of the equipment and approaches 'discussed' in these 'lectric lanes.
Surprise Us. |
