Audiophile 'Attitude'


Okay, we love our hobby: we love the music, the equipment, the esoterica, and the deranged quest for perfection the likes of which would make even the greats of classical composition shake their heads. But you've got to admit that there exists a certain 'attitude' among some of our group that can be..... difficult. Often this is sexist, arrogant, elitist, impatience, and so on. I think this would be a fertile ground for interesting stories, some humorous and some just jaw dropping. Would anyone like to share? Remember, there are many stories about those other folks outside the hobby who don't get our brilliance and force us to painfully tolerate their ignorance, I'm talking 'bout the other side: WHEN
AUDIOPHILES GO BAD!

I will gladly start: when my wife and I decided to sell our entire Vandersteen home theater (this is different tale of audiophile arrogance, btw) we started looking for a new brand and a new sound to replace my
formerly beloved Vandys. My first 'target' was Martin Logan. It just so happened that there was a ML dealership less than a mile from where I lived at the time in Champaign, IL. Wonderful I thought! So my wife and I toddled over there.

Now it should be noted that my wife has become quite an audiophile herself. She wasn't this way when we met, but she has become fairly well educated in matters of audiophillia, she has an excellent ear, and she is a brilliant woman (she is a vice president for Bank of America after all). So we choose much of our equipment together.

So we go into this ML dealership with about four CDs In hand to get a brief audition and ask to hear some MLs. Instead of going straightaway to letting us listen the salesman decides he needs to try and 'sell' us on the MLs, the very speakers we'd come to hear in the first damn place! So after tolerating his drivel for a few minutes my wife's asks a question. Instead of answering her, he answers me.... then he turns to my wife and, while pointing to that screen with holes that MLs have on so many of their speakers, he says, "now this isn't here so you can hang clothes to dry."

It honestly took me a second to realize what he had just said and I think my wife wafinally looted. After a couples seconds I said, "well, I guess we won't want these speakers then." And we walked out. We also scratched Martin Logan off of our list. No one treats my wife that way.

Okay, your turn....
aewhistory
That is a funny story. Gotta love it when they assume things about you and your wife. He probably didn't even know what he did wrong. If you really wanted to get him good you should have wasted about 2 hours of his time and then left without buying anything.

I think Best Buy is where ML is being sold these days. In my area Best Buy bought out Magnolia Hifi (which carries ML) and ruined it. They still use the name Magnolia Hifi but its just a shell of it's former self. Martin Logan deserves better representation than this. I guess they are getting more exposure with Best Buy but the quality service is lower.
Buconero, LOL! On 4/1 I put $600 shoes onto my feet, classy designer jeans, Replay couture shirt/jacket and sunning looking fake Rolex(super nice job indeed!), went to Sound By Singer, attracted a few salesman and asked for budget cartridge for my Pioneer DD turntable... Next time I should do that with hidden camera:)
Once upon a time i was browsing at my favorite local high-end emporium, and the sales manager came over and asked that in a few minutes, a gentleman and his attorney from South America had made an appointment to stop by, and they were "temporarily" closing the store so he could do some shopping. and then
the time had arrived, and two well dressed men came in. the store owner was front and center to shake hands and do the introductions, and i nodded and smiled as i went out the door.
it was no big deal, but it was a big store and i would not have been in the
way in any case. but the atmosphere of "there's guy-A with $,$$$ and then there's guy-B with $,$$$$,$$$" gave me a bit of an inferiority complex.
another time a guy drives up in a new Porsche 911, walks in to the store,
"grabs" the latest pair of Transparent speaker cables ($10K at the time) from the waiting salesman, tells him he'll bring them back on Monday, and drives off in an rush to make his next stop.
i didn't think to ask if i could borrow them next...
Was welcomed into my local audio shop to audition a pair of LessLoss Anchorwave speaker cables on a system I hope to own someday. The manager—who had never heard of LessLoss—quickly points out, in comparison to the Siltec 770L which was already hooked up—that I was about to be terribly disappointed. (This is what he says with a grin on his face to his audiophile friend, as we begin hooking them up). I really don't care if he's had 20 or so years experience in the business, that's just pure arrogance. The outcome of this is a different story altogether.
I often wonder while reading threads like this, how many of the examples given of arrogant salesmen are actually thin-skinned audiophiles that can't take a joke.