Dealers and exaggerated treble

hooking the speakers up out of phase not to mention spewing out
all kinds of BS.

Please explain to me what this is about?

I recently went to an ultra high end store for a demo. It was by apointment so everything had been set up prior to my arrival by the store manager. In other words he must have surely sat down and checked the sound even if briefly. 
When i arrived, i immediately heard and pointed out that the speakers were wired out of phase.
He then corrected the mistake. I was shocked at how this could have happened. 

Either deliberate, or a mistake. Either way its deplorable. 

@kenjit : Your story of the out-of-phase demo reminded me that I once had that experience, too. It's hard to understand, because the system was set up with care and sounded great once we fixed that.

I suppose the explanation is, we're all human. Maybe a phone call came in at the end of the system setup. The dealer had done a lot of work moving heavy stuff to make that demo possible, so I forgave them -- and I've given them some business since.

Can't say I've noticed this, myself.
But then I'm usual active in my speaker auditioning: if not asking for a particular position for the speakers, then ensuring I experiment with my seating position to get the best, smoothest sound I can hear from the set up.

I drove over there(never had, prior) and looked around, finding a graphic EQ, far removed(on another shelf) from the system),

THAT is exactly the sort of BS I'm talking about.

What got me thinking of this is that there's a couple of brands I've heard and hated as ear drills, which others call sublime. Golden Ear, Jim Thiel era Thiels, etc.

I recently had the experience of walking into a Wilson dealer and hearing the speaker cables reversed. When that was fixed, the treble was still nasty hot. Several Wilsons have configurable crossovers which lets you turn the relative level of the tweeters up or down, so this was a case where it would have been impossible to tell if they were altered without tools.


I heard Magico's at another local dealer and I winced at the presence. I literally could not listen to them. 

I'm also thinking about other dealers who would not let me play my own music.


Using digital servers it is super easy to juice music tracks. You equalize them before saving them to your music server, and voila, you magically have detail you've never heard at home before. 

So, overall, I'm wondering:


- how much of my opinion about brands has been shaped by bad dealer setups
- How many consumers of high end gear are easily duped by it.  I mean, if the dealers lost money doing this they would stop, right?

@erik_squires ,

- How many consumers of high end gear are easily duped by it.

I think a large chunk of those with disposable wealth will be victims of dealer deceit, but mostly from their belief that paying more equates with getting the 'best'- All done without listening beforehand.

I pretty much gave up on Dealers after my experiences with them during the 80's. Luckily, I found John Rutan here on Audiogon.
(This isn't supposed to be a plug, but just that I finally found a dealer who not only knows his stuff, but is honest).
Bob