Vienna Acoustics sounded terrible at Magnolia

The last time I bought speakers on audition was Fisher XP10s in the middle 60s. Several years a friend of mine is DC and I went down to Meyer Emco (sp?) To hear early generation of the B&W 801. I was selling them at the time and had mine set up in a live end dead end room in which they sounded great. They sounded so bad there that we had a laughing fit after we left. The sad thing was that the salesman thought they sounded great. To be honest , no commercial business could set up speakers the way I use to , only one pair in the room at a time etc. A store environment is just about the worst place to hear a speaker, but there is no place else to hear them. That said , some make a real effort and some don't.I went to Atlanta in the early 90s to listen to some Apogee Duetta Signatures. They had an exaggerated treble and no bass and were just plain unlistenable. I bought them anyway on the basis of reviews by Martin Colloms and others and they were the best speakers I have owned. I would have a post asking anyone near you to let you hear theirs at their home. It would be beneficial to everyone if we could get up a list of people willing to audition their systems for others and their locations. I can foresee difficulties with this but I would be willing to take part.

Roc doc,

I heard the Vienna Acoustics recently at RMAF and they sounded great. A couple of weeks later, I went into the Bellevue Magnolia to buy a new TV. Just for fun I had a quick listen to the VA's. It certainly did not sound like the same speaker! In the past, Magnolia has permitted home auditions. It never hurts to ask.

One of the big problems is that Magnolia Audio is now owned by Best Buys. Indeed, where I live at Magnolia Audio is in a back corner of Best Buys. From what I can tell many of sales personnel are not that well trained and generally don't even know their product lines all that well, and certainly set-up of equipment leaves a lot to be desired. At one time, I was interested in hearing a pair of Haydns, but unfortunately the salesman didn't know how to turn off the others speakers that were part of a 5.1 system that the Haydns were a part of. It's sad to see a well-regarded line of speakers put into a "Big Box" enviroment.

Who can tell what loudspeakers sound like unless in your own home and system. Relying on demos to find out sound quality is a waist of time. Only way to tell how kit will perform in your system and in your home is to listen to it in your home and with your system. Many problems with demoing but the 1st one is you are never as relaxed as you are in your home so this will greatly effect your opinion on sound quality. Toss in many loudspeakers in the same space, improper set ups, different room and gear than your using at home. And you can see demos are just about looking if you listen and use these results to purchase your pissin in the wind. Take the kit home to demo or buy used try if it doesn't work resell. Some manufacturers offer in home demos look for them.

I think that some of you are missing out on the actual benefits of BB . You can buy , try and return if you don't like them . How many highend stores will allow you to try something in your system at home , for more than a couple of days , with no financial loss ?

Ya , the setups there are terrible and the CS people are not much better . But I have been in quite a few "highend" stores that have not been any different !

Just my opinion .