This is for Georgehifi especially but others can chime in.

In our reference room we have one set of speakers on each wall so we have two active speakers on display,

It does not matter where the unused speakers are in the room, they are affecting the sound! If the speaker connections are shorted, they will have less effect.

Just try it instead of arguing about it.

Just like if I demoed an OTL amp vs another type of amp using decent but not great cables would be demo be all of a sudden not be valid and therefore by a hoax?

[sic] 

Maybe, but this analogy does not hold up. Amps don't absorb energy from each other by being in the room.

Ralph we know about that trick, what you said is that having multiple speakers in the room completely invalidates the results, when they don't.

Wolf sorry but what you feel is unethical is done all the time on these forums and others many others/

If you think that their aren't shills or people who are directly affiliated with dealers or manufacturers who hide behind their screen names and post away, you need to wake up.

As per invalidating anything, when we tell the story of what products we tested brand x against and brand x beat brand y in these ways, many people who read these posts find that not as gospel but as a way of perhaps finding out about a new brand or a new product that they didn't know about or where not considering and find these discussions helpful.

We usually have pictures which back up the products we have been testing at the time, such as the $120k pair of Kharams, we passed on.

When I mentioned  that Musicfx who did not purchase anything from us, found out about the brand we were recomending and sought out a dealer on his coast, he is in CA, and lo and behold found out the product we were recommending beat the Pass and beat the Prima Luna and made his Wilson Sashas sound fantastic, do you think he was happy to be reading our posts? Did we gain anything? The answer is no. 

We have talked with many nice people all over the country and all over the world and most of these people have not purchased anything from us.

If we have it your way many new products would not be tried in peoples systems or even found out about in the first place, as the buyers can't always find a way of demoing a particular brand.

Do you think we know everything, we like you guys read the magazines, scour the forums and if a new product or brand makes sense we bring it in and test it vs our display inventory, when it is better we bring it in and sell off the older inventory.

Wolf what you read about and choose to do business with and make your opinions is up to you, if you read the posts about people who follow us and who have been to our shop, most people are blown away by the sound we can produce and the wide range of products we display.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

@audiotroy I've experienced more than my share of overbearing, overly pushy, opinionated, hard sell hi-fi salespeople in the course of several decades of this hobby--our little world seems to abound in them, and I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to experience any more.  My comment was intended in the same spirit as a few others here, that is, that there are different ways a dealer can post on here, and some will be productive and others counter-productive.  In making decisions as to whom to visit and forming opinions as to what to audition one goes on the basis of available data.  Auditioning new equipment in a dealer showroom (even if it is a private house) is never really what I would call a relaxing experience, and one doesn't need the salesperson tipping the scales further, whether it be just by hovering or something worse.

The **partial** solution is to short out the speaker terminals of the unused speakers, so their drivers can't move. This really helps.

This is correct Ralph, and does work to a degree, and only if the bass unit is not cap coupled. 
But I was waiting for the light to come on from Audiotroy to tell us he does this, which never happened.
So his knowledge of this and having multiple speakers in the room to demo to the detriment of the sound is limited.

Cheers George 

George a demo in a shop is just that, our shop does not use a switch board, all gear is in power conditioners and the rooms sound good and yes we know about the shorting out trick that is very old audio news. We never claim that you are going to get 100% out of a speaker on demo at our shop, we tell our clients that the speakers will sound better in their homes. 

Wolf as per pushy you are totally wrong, we are not pushy on the contrary
look at people who have been to the shop and worked with us.

As per pushy, you may mistake enthusiasim for pushiness, and no sales guy no matter who good they are can make you want to purchase anything, if you came to the shop and we were demoing a particular product and you didn’t like it, after maybe changing cables or other things and we then switched to something else is how we generally work.

A few weeks ago, a forum poster came to our shop and listened to two systems both didn’t sound right and we argeed with them. Didn’t try to ram down our opinion as fact, turned out a number of things led the systems to sound bad from a new digital cable, a new dac, furniture was moved and lastly found out yestereday someone turned on the preamps’s loudness and cranked up the bass, as this particular preamp has a bybass and room correction eq functions. Now that one reference system is starting to make magic again.

We don’t demand that if you don’t like a particular product that you are wrong or don’t know what sounds good. Funny thing, that exact same thing happened to me when I went to a store many years ago CSA audio in Monclair Dale the owner said I was totally wrong, and I didn’t know what sounded good.


Looking at audio equipment can be a painful experience, sort of like looking at new (or used cars) or a trip to the dentist. I spent 4.5 hours at Audio Doctor in New Jersey. It was a great experience. Dave left a meeting early to see me. He knew that I was not looking at his very high end stuff, but he spent the whole day with me. No pressure, changing speakers many times and going back to a couple of them repeatedly. I have it narrowed down to two speakers, Vivid 1.5 or Janszen Valentia with air motion. Leaning toward the Vivids (pending wife approval). The shop is full of lots of incredible audioequipment at all price ranges. Clearly this is a business that is run out of appreciation of sound rather than maximizing profits.I am hesitant to go to small intimate shops like this out of concerns or pressure. This was just the opposite. Highly recommended.crwindy

Last but not least, Dave and his wife prepared a wonderful dinner for me while I was speaker-auditioning- the tastiest Mexican Tacos I have ever had! I spent a total of 4 hours at the store, and Dave even gave me a lift back to the PATH train station (I live in NYC)... so without a doubt, I would rate the customer service at this place as the best I have ever seen in my years of visiting audio stores on both coasts.

So for the NY/NJ area audiophile crowd, Audio Doctor merits an in-person visit and comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!ph2

At this point in my audio journey I was still trying to figure out what sounds were pleasing to me. I was very much in an information gathering mode. Even though my budget was small, at no point did I feel that I was being rushed. Dave listened to what my needs were and made appropriate recommendations and imparted a ton of information to me which was invaluable in my audio search.

He was very hospitable and offered to make me tea a few times. The showroom is very comfortable. And the selection/variety of gear is second to none.

audionoobie

Does’t seem that these guys thought we were pushy, how many stores give you four hour demos?

Wolf you are invited and more then welcome to see if we live up to the hype of not and you can see for yourself if we are pushy in person.

We sell alot of brands that are really excellent that are not seen in many stores,if you had heard some of them you might realize that some of these products may be better than a lot of the well advertised brands that many people on these forums talk about.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ