Maybe it’s the audio dealer experience? Where else can newbies go to get started in this hobby. Isn't that where most of you got hooked? Let me describe my latest visit to an audio store nearby. I won’t use the store name here, as that’s
not the point. Where I live there is really only one audio store
left. That’s strange because I live in a very wealthy community. The Friday
after Independence day, me and a friend went to this local audio store. First time back there in years. We are both looking
to upgrade. They have 3 audio rooms and two home theater rooms. The hi-end
audio room (the store’s term) was an impressive room with extensive acoustic
treatments. Mostly McIntosh gear. Sitting in the listening chair, you are looking at 600 watt
Mac monoblocks running some nice tower speakers. A massive JL Audio Gotham
subwoofer unit sat front and center facing the only listening chair. The
McIntosh turntable was spun first. Sloooowww. It took my friend less than five
seconds to point out the TT was running slow. The salesman had started to play
Pink Floyd-Wish You Were Here, and it was noticeably slow. So the salesman flipped
the switch to 45 rpm. Yes, that happened. He figured out it was too fast all on
his own. Fiddle and poke at the TT for a bit and then the salesman said- "I’ll let them know it’s broke". Then he
said he would just stream some music from a server. Bass! All you could hear was bass, and NOT good bass. He turned the subs down a
little when asked, but all you could hear was tubby, muddy bass. The big tower speakers were overpowered by the sub. I really wanted to hear what the main speakers alone sounded like, but could not get the salesman to shut off the subs. On
to the mid-fi room (the store’s term). The salesman tried to play us two different turntables. Neither turntable worked. One
would not power up, and one was not hooked up to a system at all. Let me point out we didn’t
care what source they used. I did say we both run analog and digital sources.
Nothing interesting in the mid-fi room the first time through. Next room (no
name) was a wall of bookshelf and small towers run by a wide selection
of integrated amps. Not bad sound from some. Again, we were told this is
“streaming quality audio”. This was the third time he mentioned we were listening to streaming quality audio. I took a guess at what that meant and asked if we
could hear higher quality audio. So he took us back to the mid-fi room. He popped in a
CD.I could not tell what CD equipment
was being used. I think a Rotel integrated was selected. Everything in the cabinet was black faced behind dark glass. Not sure what CD it was either, but since he only had one, I let it
go.
Big change! The Paradigm towers were now making good sounds. A big difference from his
“streaming quality” demo. Next we switched to a pair of GE Triton 1s. I seriously might
get a pair! They make nice sounds. By far the best thing we heard. There was more that happened that contributed to a poor experience, but I will move on.
Here is my point- What would anyone
new to the hobby think of that experience? It took two seasoned audio guys pushing the salesman for over an hour before he played anything worth listening to. Would you buy anything from this place. Would you send a newbie in there? Let me know if I'm off base in thinking these audio stores are killing themselves off by the way they do business. Or is it just my misfortune that I have not been in a good dealer showroom in years?
