Dear Grpblu
Now a lot of things are falling into place.
Your beliefs about honesty and integrity of certain people and stores you mentioned show that you know very little about this industry.
For starters my reputation at both SBS and Innovative in the industry and amoung my customers was stellar. I don't know how I managed to rub you the wrong way but for whatever reason I appologize I however seriously feel sorry for you that you have to hide behind the forums and not even having the courtsey to introduce who you really are.
Not to mention you never had the gumption to tell me how you felt when you were at the store. A man who speaks his mind and tells other people their honest opinions, might actually affect others in a postive light or a least you might actually learn the other person's perspective.
For starters a certain store owner in a famous NY City store has a reputation for being less then caring, especially about the customer.
I will state a golden example, this man's reputation is to pick components based on price and never questioned wheather that product was worth the money, if he sensed you could afford the most expensive item vs one that was less expensive, but was 90% as good, he would never mention the less expensive option.
I found out that a Bel Canto Universal player when used with an HRS base and a Shunyata power cords sounded nearly as good as a $40k DCS stack, the Bel Canto player was $7k and with the base and cable was about $10k. So I told the store owner, what I had discovered, that the Bel Canto when properly setup sounded nearly identical to a $40k DCS stack, not only didn't he want to hear it, he dismissed it out of course.
Over the next year I sold 10 of these combos, when I told people who came in "do you want to hear an affordable combo that sounds 90% as good as a $40k DCS stack." Here is a golden example of how I talk and work, to you this is over the top salesmenship, to me this is discovery.
You will notice never did I say it sounded better nor did I say that the DCS wasn't better, what I said was here was a combo that producded very similar results for a lot less money.
Proof postive on one of their reference systems a system about $60k I did the demo time and time again, and you know what almost everyone who heard the demo thought like I did and I sold alot of these combos.
This is a golden example of me looking out for the clients and not trying to line anyone's pockets.
As I mentioned I was the guy behind the scenes advising both Andy and Elliot on what products to look at and I was the one who usually set up and tested new components in both of these stores.
As per me or Troy posting on non related forums again a forum is about an open exchange of ideas. If product X Y or Z is better or worthy of investigation it should be up to that person to make up his or her mind about the validity of the post wether or not they brought it up that is how we all learn and find out about new products and new brands.
If we go on to a post for example about another brand of eletronics and say check out T+A that person might not have ever known about this brand and that person might actually find the T+A stuff to be better suited to their needs, system, and budget.
As per your comment that I or Troy say that everything we sell is better that is blatently not true and a complete distortion. Every post that we have posted states how our products such as the T+A compare very favorably against much more expensive products such as CH Precision and Solution and D'agastino which have been stated by both the Absolute Sound, Positive Feedback and Audiostream.
In the Persona posts we have both stated that the Persona compete with many more expensive speakers never did we state they are better than X Y or Z we have stated in certain ways they can rival and perhaps outperform those other products in certain areas, that does not mean that that product is better or worse or our set of speakers is better or worse.
We have tested the Personas 9H at $35k vs the Polymer Audio Research MKX-s $68k and the Kef Blades at $32k. We have also had the Scaena line arrays here they were fantastic by the way, and we did have the $120k Kharma as well as a pair for $30k here.
As I mentioned in my other posts, I am a system setup guru and I don't just leave a system as is but rather will test different cables, power conditioners dacs etc till I tune a system to sound the way I want it to.
I have seen pictures of some of the other stores and setups that Cstooner heard the Personas in and quite frankly I would not be surprised that he wouldn't be thrilled about the sound, wrong room, wrong placement, wrong cables, wrong dac, do you think you are going to be knocked out by such a demanding set of speakers when they are not being setup carefully.
What we have said about the Personas is they are very demanding of setup and can appear bright just like a Magico or Focal can be if the setup isn't done carefully
I will stand by my reputation.
Sincerely,
Dave, store owner
Audio Doctor NJ