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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
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
the basic problem with dealers is the inability to assess the viability of listening to a component,as part of stereo system, and then extrapolating the result onto your stereo system.

it would seem that the most successful model is to allow consumers to listen to a component in their stereo system.

perhaps dealers would be viable if they were willing to function like a library. perhaps, charge a small fee for service.

it is unnecessary to set up stereo systems, except for turntable, arm and cartridge.

let them stock an inventory of component types from different manufacturers.
milpai's avatar
milpai
2,499 posts
 
I have had the exact opposite at The Analog Room in SF Bayarea and Xtend Technologies in Cleveland.
Brian at The Analog room not only entertained my request to hear the Avalons, despite knowing my speaker budget was upto $2K, but also suggested "how to audition". He suggested that I listen to the Sonus Faber Stradivari speaker to make sure how my music should actually sound, then go down to the $2K range speakers and compare them to see, which speaker in this range "best approaches" the sound that I heard from the $$$$$ Stradivari. This made sense to me and I ended up with the Quads.
Clint in Xtend Technologies was very accommodating when I wanted to purchase a power amp. He showed me the different systems that were setup and allowed me to get my (then) existing amp with my choice of power cable. He then left me alone (for an extended period) with a system I chose so that I was comfortable doing the comparison. I wanted to hear a Marantz SA11-S2 that I told him, I would not buy, but just wanted to listen to. He demoed it to me in his reference room, with some $20K Ushers and Parasound JC-1 monos.
Of course, this alone made a pleasurable experience of buying from brick-and-mortar shop. I hope I have not jinxed myself for the next audio purchase.
minorl
1,021 posts
 
Most serious dealers have demonstration equipment which is basically brand new equipment set up in their stores for people to listen. I know the market is slow right now for many reasons. price that some people feels is wayy too high is one reason. So, allowing customers that are serious to take a piece home for a week or so to demo in their home is a great idea. Again, this is for serious customers. To prevent looky loos, charge a nominal fee for such service if necessary. For your regular customer that you know are good, serious customers, this isn't an issue. For high priced equipment, even for used equipment, my favorite store allows me and others to take demonstration equipment or used equipment home for in-home audition. this is a direct quote from my salesperson to a friend of mine in the store. "He said that he heard that (my first name) "I'm not spending anymore money" Minorl was in the store over the weekend." this is an inside joke because I tell him every time I visit that I have no intention of spending money and many times I walk away with something. Anyway, without such brick and motar stores to provide this much needed service, people would purchage on-line, have the equipment delivered to only find out that it really doesn't work well in their system, and they made a serious mistake. In the past many "high end" stores carried upper mid fi, lower high end and high end equipment to give people choices. Many times manufactures would insist that if you wanted to carry my stupidly expensive high end stuff, you also had to carry my crap equipment. Now this has changed, where the store can dictate many times what level of a certain manufacturer's equipment they want to carry and they also transistioned over to really popular home theater equipment to cover that market and stay in business. There are many high end stores in the Los Angeles area, however, over the years I have had tried them and found that traveling to San Diego is fun for me and the store I frequent there is much more accomodating and friendly.

enjoy
chayro
3,051 posts
 
08-28-12: Taters
I also had an experience with David Weinhard. This was about 10 years ago when he owned Ambrosia. I was looking for a tube amp and he told me that tubes were garbage and that I should come aboard the 21 century. I recently looked at his website and he is now carrying tube gear. This guys opinion changes with the wind.

I wouldn't exactly call changing one's opinion 10 years later "changes with the wind". I've known other dealers who previously eschewed tube gear change their minds as the newer tube gear is substantially more reliable. Although MAC was pretty reliable in the old days. Plus, with tube gear, a dealer has to deal with warranty issues with guys sticking god-knows-what tube substitutions in the gear and then bringing it back to the dealer when it fails.
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
7,859 posts
 
The stuff costs too much, and for no apparent reason. The MSRPs are just arbitrary. I was reading about an amp today that sells for or sold for 31,000 dollars. The specs were not as good as my 299.00 amp. Now I know what most of you will say about specs, but hell, we are speaking of 3oo dollars verus 31,000 dollars. Really? That is the basic problem with 'high-end' audio. You can't HEAR or SEE anything that justifies the prices being asked. It's a tough sell for the high end dealers and if you delete all the nonsense in this hobby, it's an impossible sell.
Cheers.
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