Ever feel like a "low dollar" customer that your dealer doesn't think worth their time?

Kurt put a lot of thought and money into the listening room at the new place and is justifiably proud of it. The downtown location was a little more convenient for me coming from out of town, but I really like what he's done with the new space. 

OK you may think I'm a snob, and that's fine with me. I love music- all kinds just about. But I am a Gear-Head as well. I found the "snob-shop"
in town which carried B&W and WILSON (and even some Goldmund). 
I wanted B&W 801 Matrix speakers ($5,000) so badly, but didn't have the nerve at first to spend that kind of money. But the more I thought about it and their crystal clarity (over what I had) and bass down to 20Hz with the bass-alignment filter, and took the plunge. Then of course (as predicted) nothing that fed them was any good, so piece by piece I started upgrading. The day I came home with a Goldmund DAC (over $3K) sweet music began pouring out of my speakers. But now I needed a good transport, and then instead of a Hafler Amp I bought a used Levinson 23.5. I was spending a whole bunch of money, but I got to audition everything and take my time between purchases. A Rowland
demo preamp, better interconnects, a better turntable and cartridge, etc.
and I was finally getting CD's (the evil culprit to all of the problems with the digital revolution) started to sound more like vinyl all the time.  
Fast forward many years later I was growing unhappy with the 801's when I heard Eggleston Andras that appeared at snob-central. I was blown away and got the floor demo. We're talking $14K for speakers and I matched them up with Levinson 33H mono blocks. But my point here is not to brag, but if "I" can hear a huge difference in what a component is able to do (especially with classical music), I take as much time as I need to get the money and then I just go out and get it. Lately I have not gotten anything new for some time, but I still collect new music just like always. But I am into gear, end of story. Performance counts, and some stores have amazing systems if you're polite and buy an album and talk like you know something about what they sell, it goes a long way. People that come over might ask me how many watts my speakers have, and I tell them that they're designed to let you hear more of what's in the recording. If that's not a sufficient answer, then it's just too bad- I'm a snob and that's all the answer they're going to get. But if they show they understand, then I will spend time to explain further about how my system is configured. I always end with the fact that I love Led Zeppelin, too (I really do!). But these days Vivaldi really brings a smile to my face.

Well, so much for the theory that french_fries is Elizabeth reincarnate. 

When I opened my shop in 1974, I learned two things VERY QUICKLY:

1.  NEVER ask a customer what he or she does for a living.

2.  NEVER judge a customer by his or her appearance.

Made a LOT of money by following these two rules.  In those days in South Florida, cash was flowing by the tens of millions--you can check out the history of the area to learn why--and I had LOTS of it flow through my shop.  Suitcases brought in by young people wearing cut-offs and nothing else were normal.  

(We were the "high-end" shop of the area--Audio Research, Magnepan, Sequerra, Mac, Tandberg, Stellavox, Nakamichi, Linn, B&O, etc.  We made some stands and woofer cabs for the Levinson HQD system but his stuff sounded terrible, so we did not carry it.)  

Quick story--one of my best-ever (wealthiest) customers lived in a double lower penthouse (only gauche people buy the actual penthouse as it has roof issues as well as plenty of social silliness associated with it), and he had WALLS of museum-level art and a wife who was the twin of Mary Tyler Moore.  His business--he made lapel pins and paperweights.  More wealth than many of my big-name Palm Beach and Miami Beach customers.

Most interesting--young man who bought a bunch of stuff lived on Hillsboro Mile--look it up--and his dad sold oil well derricks.  Who goes to school to learn to sell oil well derricks?

Lots of interesting customers back in the day...

Cheers!