What happened to all the highend stereo shops

If you want the honest truth instead of circling around the existence and reason for their downfall, learn to except all customers who walk in their store without prejudice and stereotypes. Now some of you may claim that this doesn’t happen but it does. The sad part is that my daughter witnessed the whole thing in front of her eyes. Here is what happened a few weeks ago at an high end audio store in Las Vegas by the name of AV Luxury Group.  We walked in looked to hear some equipment, potentially wanting to make a purchase for my daughter and getting the young adults into HiFi and the first words that comes out of the salesman’s mouth is, “sorry, we don’t carry anything Best Buy carries.  There’s a Best Buy near by.” I said, “that’s funny because I didn’t know that Best Buy carries Boulder Amplifier.”  Not that it matters that I do own Boulder gear but wow, there’s your reason.  I along with others especially young adults would not support a store like this one.  Now some may want to defend the store and so forth but until you walk in our shoes, you have no leg to stand on and are part of the problem, not the solution hence the reason why Best Buy are putting these small mom and pops stores out of business because the way they treat potential customers walking in their store that doesn’t look like them or the type that can afford what they are selling.

Decathlon 1981many high end audio stores don’t know how to treat costumers.i have been mistreated many times as well in the past ? Here in Chicago Quintessence audio is the best audio store treating their costumers nicely. Mick the owner is very nice.

Hopefully the troubled stores will get a clue and clean up their act before they too become extinct!  I have a few stores I deal with across the country and have remained loyal to them because of their exceptional customer service.  I don’t mind spending or referring future customers to them.  My motto is this, I don’t care how far I have to go and get something.  If the local companies have terrible attitude towards me as a customer, I will go to great lengths to buy from another state and pay the shipping because they treat me well. Audio Element, 3M Audio, Moon Audio and Audio Advise are some examples of a great attitude towards customers. They will continue to receive my money for their products. Also, I can’t forget Cary Audio, Wilson Audio, YG Acoustics, Boulder, JL Audio, and Jeff Rowland for great service and response to issues, big or small.  Thanks for your support!

60 year old audio/music lover here.

issue one is listening style.   Sitting down and listening to music was normal for our generation.  Black and white tv with 7 channels and horribly unreliable tubes, was the only competing media.  Phone calls actually cost money per use.  Our parents had time as there were no play dates, we walked or cycled to little league or music lessons.   My younger colleagues have no time to listen to music other than in the car

issue two. Cd audio introduced before the technology was ready.  Turntables competition from BIC, Dual, Garrard, Sansui, was increasing reliability and speed.  The early cd players all sounded the same, and were uninvolving, making a rack system from circuit city all you needed.

Cost. Very friendly dealer is 25 miles from me in a major market city. Most merchandise is priced to the Uber high end, with speaker cables and power cords priced higher than my speakers.  When I started practicing 30 years ago,  most of my colleagues had high end systems.  I know if only one now, and the dealer said his customers are ceos cto or cio types that listen to the products, put together a great system and pay with an Amex black card without regard to pricing 

Woke up this morning missing my days at The Speaker Shop in NE Ohio. Saturday morning, cup of Irish coffee in hand, listening to great music, setting up whatever combo I wanted, having great and sometimes heated debate with my boss and a couple of chill dudes we just to call Siskel and Egghead.. good times.