I live on eastern Long Island. Back in the 70s and 80s there were plenty of places to shop for audio. Today the closest one is 30 miles away, and they are moving. You can buy plenty of Theater equipment, since there's a best buy in every corner. I do business with a family that owns 60 independent appliance stores in the NY metro area. Although the manufacturers they have are limited, they do have Marantz and Yamaha. Through them I have been able to special order some of the higher end equipment these lines offer and at dealer cost. I've spent about 5k on about 10k worth of equipment. I made my choices solely on reviews, as no one carried the models I was interested in. So today I'm happy with how it sounds, yet curious about the vast array of equipment I read about on these posts. I hope to attend a show so I can actually here some of the gear I read about on this forum.
Why are brick and mortar HiFi dealers so bad?
I have rarely found a reasonably decent HiFi dealer and I live in the New York metro area where there are probably more per capita than anywhere else. I've been to a lot of shops and I'm tired of the smug attitudes, the lousy customer service, weird return policies, etc. Friends state that the owners are jaded because people come in and listen to a bunch of gear and then go buy it elsewhere or pre-owned on web sites like Audiogon. If that is the case, figure out a better sales strategy or shutter your store. I've moved onto Music Direct and Audio Advisor and Upscale Audio. Buy it and try it on your own system in your own listening room with a money-back guarantee. If you know a decent HiFi retailer, please pass it along.