When suggesting audio components for friends and relatives...


This is a bit of "thinking out loud". I believe I have been lucky as what I have helped friends and relatives with in buying higher end and even simple components has worked out very well.

With some it was a simple system as in a Nakamichi SoundSpace 5 or the like, and with some it was Magnepans, Martin-Logans, Audio Research...and others.

The question is have you had good success kindly helping others? Have there been any regrets or negative situations? About the only slight downside was after selling a former high end system of mine to my best friend, he died from cancer and his wife replaced some of the items with BestBuy "stuff" and I could never understand as to why.


whatjd
I've had friends and co-workers pay me to do it. A few months ago some doctors were over for a party and a couple of them told me when they are ready they will be giving me a call. So guess you could say pretty successful. 

Which is very pleasing, seeing as every single time I bother to detail my system building approach its roundly criticized. These complete systems by the way were $1200 to $2500 all-in, including my fee. 
whatjd, no fault of yours. No accounting for what women will do. I have two wonderful daughters and a sexy, smart wife. Women do not like loud music and you just can't teach them how to downshift. 
I paid my way through medical school by installing systems in the houses of very wealthy people. Not one of them was an audiophile and convenience was always an issue. Some of them just wanted to impress their friends. All this was before CDs when high end cassette players ruled. I only once installed a manual turntable. The trick is to understand what your client wants and not to give them what you want. None of these people heard my own system. My reputation for extremely neat workmanship in difficult custom situations was what gave me business. I once put a system in an antique armoire worth $25,000 according to the owner. There is so much excellent equipment available today coming up with a great system would be relatively easy. Very few people would be interested in turntables. Most would be streamers all the way and forget about tubes. 99% of the people out there just want to flip a switch and listen to music. They do not want to mess around with anything. That may be the definition of an audiophile right there, a music lover who wants to screw around with his system.
I have put together systems for friends and family. I ask what their budget is and their goals. I will put together the electronics but for the speakers  I usually have  them listen to 3 or 4 speakers that are within their budget that I think are worthwhile.