I live in a small state with no dealers and as such I have always had to buy my gear outside the state. I have a fairly high end system consisting of Rockport speakers, VTL amps, ARC pre and phono pre amp, VPI/Graham TT. Over the years I have visited high end shops in NYC, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, LA, San Francisco to audition and buy new pieces. Generally I got the snob approach and condescending attitude. However a few years ago I was in Omaha NE and visited The Sound Environment, a really high end shop. At the time they were the dealer for the TechDas $90,000 Air Force 1 turntable. I asked the salesperson, Todd, if I could hear it and also told him I simply could not afford it. He was gracious and gave me a tour of the different rooms and to listen to various systems. Then he took me to their reference system room with the Air Force table. All in the system was over $500,000. He asked me what I wanted to hear and for the next 90 minutes we had a great time listening to music. I even met the owner who is very friendly. He invited me to come back whenever I was back in town. I have steered my few audiophile friends to Sound Environment and would suggest others to visit them in Omaha or Kansas City. Or simply call them. And I have purchased from them
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.