Road trip to demo $10,000 speakers

Mike, I have to second the above post. At the price we're shopping in even if you had a dealer nearby they're not crazy about shlepping $10k speakers to listeners homes unless they're more than a little confident of a sale. It was the reason I bought the salon2's used, even if I could hear them in a dealers showroom there's still no guarantee they'll sound the same at home. Example; My first 'audiophile' speakers were Kef R 105/3's that sounded like nothing I ever heard before I was shaking with desire and I bought them got them home and they were sibilant and bass shy, I call dealer and say whats up? and they tell me they just need time to break in and they'll sound like the demo's did. Well it took 10 years and thousands of dollars to get them to sound like they did that magical day and I was miserable in between. No shame in buying used then either way sell them after a month if you loved them go ahead and buy the pair new, if not move to the next speaker you enjoyed demoing. 

Twoleftears, thanks for tailoring your recommended audio stores to my location near Roanoke and planned trip north. I couldn't have asked for more. Thank you. I don't think I've come across The JS Audio name before. I'll take a look at their website. I will definitely be visiting the others.

I have utilized both Uptown Audio locations you mentioned both in Roanoke and now  Salem . He re-foamed my DQ-10 woofers and fixed my Phase Linear 4000 preamp another time. Did a good job on both. Do you live nearby?

Godnbob, I'm glad to you've had good luck with your used equipment. I honestly don't want to chance of having to need repairs, even though I would love to have $30,000 speakers for $12,000. I've currently ten older Delta woodworking machines I'm needing to restore, ten acres and a good sized house to maintain, and a shop to build. That's overwhelming enough for one guy. I want stereo equipment I know is new and good to go for the next twenty years or so. 

Jafant9 I will look up Sounsdscape and the Listening Rooms websites and see what they carry. Thanks. 

 

skyscraper,

I know I am repeating myself to the point of obnoxiousness, but...

JS Audio in Bethesda is another of the stores that brought me iPad and asked me what I wanted to hear on Tidal. Young man was very friendly and we had a nice chat. Some time before that, I would say years so it may not matter anymore, the place was kind of snotty. 

Tomic60, I’ll look up HiFiBuys in Atlanta website in Atlanta and see what they have. That’s a drive and a half from here as you know though I did round trip it in one day once.

Steve, I’m curious about what you finally did to get the Kef R’s up to snuff. Did you have to buy all new equipment, cables, and the like? Sorry for your dismal experience.

It sounds like I’m really going to have to stay on top of the demoing process at these stores. By being insistent I might be able to wrangle an in-home demo when I’m ready to buy. I’ll check out the possibilities. One drawback to that is I’m going to be replacing my preamp and amp next. Maybe they’d bring an decent integrated amp with them.

Glupson, I certainly don’t need snotty. If I don’t care for someones attitude. I’ll let them know about it. I’m not really the shy retiring type. I think its probably a good idea to see if they would for a potential $10,000 sale, set up the kind of demo I want with a turntable and not outrageously expensive amps etc. A lot of good suggestions here on how to prep for these demos.

Mike

I was going to let this thread die a natural death but thought of one more question before I travel to audition some speakers next week. I've been sensibly advised that during speaker demos not to let to let  dealers get away with using equipment that is too high end or overly expensive to honestly demo the speakers.  

My question is, what would a reasonable ballpark figure be for a integrated amp or preamp/amp combination an audio dealer should use during a demo of $10,000 speakers. I'm only guessing in the $5000 range, but really don't know. I do know what kind of turntable and CD player I will be using already and can gauge that equipment in a demo accordingly.

Again I'm only looking for a ballpark price range on an amp or amp/preamp. to reasonably match the quality of whatever speaker I'm demoing and end up choosing. Price is a crude measure, but I want to ask them to switch theirs out if it's such a high quality component that I wouldn't get a legitimate demo. Hope I'm making sense here. Thanks for any advice and wish me luck. 

Mike