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Kudos to Dave at Audio Doctor!

Hi everyone. I’d like to share my experience with Dave Lalin of The Audio Doctor in Jersey City, NJ.

First, I live in Clearwater, Fla. and I have been on Audigon off and on over 20 yrs. I know those of you that criticize Dave for recommending certain products that he sells. But before any of you criticize him again, consider this.

i met Dave over the phone in November culminating in the purchase of a Innuos Zen MK3 streamer/ripper which I love. After the purchase Dave stayed in touch several times letting me know shipping status, accessory cables I should consider, then followed up again to make sure I was happy with my purchase.
I had earlier explained to Dave my big handicap was my large family room here in Florida used for both music and HT, the room acoustics being a “BIG” problem! I’ve got some pretty nice gear but the room acoustics have limited those abilities for years.

So here is “the rest of the story” as Andy Rooney of 60 Minutes would have said. On Wed. March 4th Dave calls me. He explains he is flying into southeast Florida (Boyton Beach) that weekend for his mom’s 86th birthday and would I be home over the weekend?

On Friday two weeks ago today Dave rented a car and drive 239 miles to my front door, Google Maps drive-time was 3 hours and 52 minutes. He had come to my home to see what I was dealing with, He suggested tweaks that did and “did not” involve his products. He played with my system all of Friday evening and until 2pm on Saturday. He never once discussed charging me anything for his services! Now how many retailers of anything would do this on their own time, on their mother’s birthday weekend, and never hand you a bill?

Concluding, his knowledge and vast years of experience in our hobby/passion are as good as anyone I have ever met. His kindness, sense of humor, wanting to educate, and sincere desire to help a customer in today’s times was refreshing and incredible. An A+ in seldom seen customer service.

Of course I paid for his rental car, bought him dinner, put him up for the night, and will do more business with him. Dave drove 478 miles and spent nearly 8 hours driving back and forth to help me on his mom’s big weekend. I highly encourage members here to consider doing business with Dave. He will always have my business.

Dave “thank you” again from both Eileen and myself.




dave1980
fast
92 posts
 
I’ve had great experiences with Dave also. He visited me in San Francisco for three days, brought all kinds of equipment for me to audition, helped position my speakers and otherwise set up my system.  I paid his air fare, a pretty fair deal from my perspective. He did not try to sell me things I didn’t need and complimented components which I didn’t buy from him.  Since then, he has provided regular advice by phone and email. 
 You can’t fault an audio dealer for wanting to make a living  but I always felt his top priority was to be helpful and constructive, only recommending things that really would make an improvement.  I think his posts on this board are the same.   
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audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,815 posts
 
To both of my clients, Stephen and Dave, thank you both so much for the kind words!

The reason I started writing on these boards was to spread some of the knowledge that comes from doing this as a profession for over 30 years.

The other reason was to counter some of the stupid advice that flows so freely by people who don’t have the wealth of experience that comes from doing this day in and day out, as well as garnered from going to shows and continuing to test new products, not to mention having a store filled with many of the top brands in the industry which becomes our testing lab.

Far too many recommendatins are not based on testing or understanding what the client is trying to accomplish.

For this reason my shop continues to bring in and test new products in order to always find the best sounding products rather than just selling what we have always been selling.

When we tested power conditioners we went through many of the well known brands, we even tested a very popular expensive conditioner that Mike Fremmer was raving about long story short it made the system sound noticably worse than the other line of conditioners we were working with. The point of that example is to show that just because a magazine raves over a product you still need to bring it in to your shop and see for yourself if that is true as well as learning the characteristics of that product.

One of the greatest joys has been meeting and working with people who undestand what my shop and advice is all about, yes it is nice to sell gear and to make new audio aquantances and new friends, but the other satisfaction is seeing a system go from sounding anywhere from aweful or non statisfying to making real music in someone’s home.

Thank you both.

Sincerely,

Dave Lalin, owner, Audio Doctor NJ
tri4time's avatar
tri4time
1 posts
 
I agree with others, it was Paul Harvey who used the phrase "And now you know the rest of the story". Not sure Andy Rooney had a catch phrase. I think he just had catch eyebrows. 
willgolf
937 posts
 
I live in Arizona and have visited Dave in his NJ home.  I have purchased numerous items from Dave.  I have always got a fair deal.  Personally, in this cut throat audio business, I don't know why more retailers don't utilize Audiogon as a selling tool.  It just makes sense.  Dave enlightened me on many products that I should consider.  I am the buyer.  I will buy what I want.  I do a lot of research before buying.  I appreciate Dave's knowledge and input.  It does not mean I am going to buy from Dave.  If you don't like Dave's POV then just ignore it.  Blasting him on this site is short sighted.  
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