If you were to carry a tube product line?

Remember, Peter, you'll want something reliable that is backed by its manufacturer as well, or you won't want to be a dealer for it because your customers won't be happy. With that criterion firmly in mind, Twl is right on the mark, in my view.

Having not heard or dealt with Berning, my choice as a "dealer" would probably be Cary. If you are looking for spaciousness & warmth ( why else would you buy tubes ??? ) with reliability and excellent customer service, i don't know if you can do better than Dennis Had and the crew at Cary.

Besides all of that, they also offer their "budget" product line [[url=http://www.superamp.com/]SuperAmps[/url] and kits (Audio Electronic Supply) too. Taking this approach, you've got the DIY'er covered, the person that wants tubes but can't afford "top shelf" stuff ( AES ) and then you've got the Cary stuff to carry the load for those with more cash. One product line that covers every aspect of tube audio with only one reputable manufacturer to deal with. From a business point of view, why would you want to go anywhere else ? After all, "dealers" are "businessmen" ( and women ) too. Sean
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PS... I don't own Cary products but know others that do. Nothing but fabulous things to say about their products and customer support.

Audiogon needs to correct something in their system as i edited the correct website address for "SuperAmps" above and it wouldn't show up as a clickable link. This happens ALL the time, so they've got a glitch in their matrix somewhere. Other than that, here's the correct link in clickable form. SuperAmps Hope this helps... Sean
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PS... Don't forget that as a dealer, you'll need to find a manufacturer that can both supply volume and offer reasonable turn-around times on repairs.

Art Audio

The Berning gear is terrific as the others have stated but David Berning is a one man show with a very limited number of products. Cosmetics may also be a problem (although it shoudn't be).

On the other hand, Art Audio has a reasonably broad product line, including amps, preamps, phono stages and DACs, albeit with an emphasis on low powered designs. The designs are pretty attractive as well.

I have gear from both companies and love them both. Actually, if I were a dealer I would carry them both.

Too bad Sonic Frontiers is gone. Neutral, well built,low output impedances, single ended and balanced, remote and lots of inputs and out puts. Their componenets were compatible with a lot of gear including solid state.