Will Internet Distroy High End ?

The internet has already all but destroyed hi end.The biggest problem any dealer has is having to match a price someone got on the net. When i was still in the business we would loan out equipment for home demos all the time. We never pressured them into thinking if they took it home, they'd have to buy it. One example, we had a customer who wanted to buy a turntable. I spent some seven hours over a two week period explaining the product and convincing him the money spent on a Rega 25 with Grado cartridge was money well spent. He listened at length to the table at the store, never any pressure...that was not our style. He finally decides to take it home for the weekend and calls me on Monday and says he loves it...I'll be in a little later to write it up. He rolls in about an hour before close and asks if I can match a price he got on the net. I'm doing a slow burn and he wants 25% off. I tell him to forget it, and asked him how he looks at himself in the mirror, jerking us around like this. I then told him what he was doing was F***king Bull***t and to hit the road. That was the first time I ever unloaded on a customer....he walked out of the store with his head hanging and feeling real guilty...which was my intent.This, believe it or not, happened all the time. I'd guess for every 50 pieces of gear we sent home for demo....2 would actually buy. Word usually got back to us that they ended up buying it on the net. They come in, pick our brains, we spend hours educating them..and then they buy it on the net from someone who usually has little to no overhead and can still make a profit selling it at 25-30% off. I don't begrudge someone trying to get the best deal...but you can't have it both ways. People like this totally soured me on the business, as it has others. Between these kind of people and home theater (don't get me started) I left the business I loved. Oh how I long for the days up until the mid eighties...when CD came out. Don Mclean had it wrong, the day the music died was when they came out with the CD, which spawned all this other crap.It's now 4:36 AM and longplate is done ranting.

I think the Internet will undoubtedly greatly affect the High-end - whether it destroys it or just changes it is for the high-end to decide. I see manufacturers decrying the influence of the internet and completely rejecting it and I think, "you're probably not long for this world". Same with dealers who have relatively rigid pricing structures and levels of service. Obviously, the dealers who charge high prices and don't offer any real service are going to go away - we've all got better choices if we don't get value-added service from a dealer. But even if we do, there are ways to get that value-add by ourselves and the internet provides easy access to a lot of that. Product research and comparison is easier than ever. The used equipment marketplace is more liquid than ever, which makes it a value-driven marketplace. Technology drives better sound at ever cheaper prices. While many will argue that it's not "good" sound, that's a high-end point of view, and the customers who want better sound but will never be interested in the pricier enhancements for "good" sound will be swayed by it and, thus, potentially never enter the high-end.

At the end of the day, the internet levels the playing field and demands flexibility, regardless of the business almost. The high end is not immune to this need for flexibility and it may or may not adapt. I personally don't think the high-end will ever be destroyed or go away, but it will definitely change over time. -Kirk

It appears there is a consensus that it could hurt High-End "Dealers". But does this hurt Hi-End. Cutting out the dealer and buying direct should make things more affordable and increase the market. I think there will always be a place for dealers especially those that do installations. I do not think Onkyo or Yamaha will send someone from headquarters install your HT system for you.

Retail is tough and high end audio is no exception. Every merchant, and every salesman has been taken advantage of by tire kicking customers that soak up your time but ultimately buy from the cheapest possible source. The internet provides a wider market but it is not responsible for that type of behavior. It can happen just as easily with other dealers in your local market. It is a shame that good conscientious dealers like longplate are driven out of business because I have been taken advantage of more then once by dealers with the same set of values.

The bigest threat to most dealers is not the tire kicking customer but the manufacturer who decides he doesn't need dealers at all and sell direct to the consumer. When and if that happens we will all lose. They will set the prices and we will be forced to pay the toll. Sony is already selling direct and I'm sure others will follow.

For 5yrs now, i have been friendy with the manager of a local hi-end shop that been in business for 20-30?yrs. 3 yrs ago i said to my friend, "the web is going to kill you guys", he replied "no way the shops is always going to cater to the main public". This was a shop where you could always walk in and droll over the expensive exotic gear on display in the back 2 rooms. Couple weeks ago, i stopped in to say hi and see whats being displayed. I asked "hows the retail doing". He responded with "retail is dead, we mostly do custom installs now (HT)". As i walked the rooms i noticed no real hi-end, some Classe pieces, all mid fi HT gear, and some nice big screen front projectors filling the walls, where once was a nice beautiful rack with expensive exotic gear and some huge tube mono's and a pair of Wilsons or Egglestons or like. I don't know, did the internet kill the high-end dealer? or did the internet and HT together kill the high-end dealer. Times, they are a changin!! Have changed!!