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Keeping Audiophilia And The Love Of Music Alive & Well!

This is a little something I just posted in Stereophile that I thought I should also post here for what I think are obvious reasons.

How many times have we read or heard how difficult it is for some folks to audition equipment they're interested in because there simply aren't enough or any quality audio shops within a reasonable distance? I would wager we've all noticed a steady decline in the number of audio shops just about everywhere, even in large cities and metropolitan areas.  As a lover of music and audiophile, I think this is kind of sad.  There once were, at least, 2 or 3 shops within a half hour drive from where I presently live.  Now, there are none.  They've all gone out of business.  With the exception of one shop with a reasonably good inventory about 45 minutes away, I have to trek 2 hours or more to shops with a good inventory and selection.  I avoid buying stuff from on-line sellers, as much as possible, to support my local shops, even if it means paying a little more. With this in mind, I offer this for what it's worth.

I know some audio shops occasionally host demonstrations of various products for groups of their patrons and/or interested audiophiles, in general. From the little I've seen & read about these conclaves, it looks like this is mostly done by large or relatively large shops. Obviously, they probably tend to have large enough sound or demonstration rooms to accommodate this sort of thing. I'm further assuming there is probably some sort of advertising involved to promote such events (e.g. mailing lists; newspaper ads; website notices; etc.) and admission, understandably, needs to be limited. What I don't know is if the larger shops who do this sort of thing charge some sort of cover-charge or admission fee or just write it off as a business expense in the hopes of generating increased sales. Free admission to open houses like this sounds like something much more easily accommodated by larger shops, versus smaller operations. Regardless, I wonder if it might not benefit smaller shops to consider doing this sort of thing and actually charging admission because it would, necessarily, involve a smaller crowd of patrons and/or interested audiophiles. For that matter, in order to circumvent the seating capacity issue, maybe an alternative acoustically appropriate venue could be considered?

A fellow audiophile friend and I often wax philosophical about components we wish we could responsibly afford but, unfortunately, will likely always remain in the unobtainium sphere for us unless we win the lottery or walk into an audio shop in an altered state of mind. Really! What audiophiles don't wax philosophical about stuff like this? In fifty years, I've never met one!

In addition to our willingness to pay a reasonable admission fee to hear top shelf gear, we would be even more interested in hearing fair A/B shoot-outs between or amongst, as the case may be, audio toys that captivate our interest.

I'm wondering what you audiophiles out there in the great ether think about this idea.

oldaudiophile
pauly
1,012 posts
 
I fail to see the value in brick-and-mortar audio stores in today's world.  

Auditioning a component is a misnomer. Does anybody really believe they can hear what an amplifier sounds like and filter out the effects of the source, the cables, the speakers, the mains conditioning, the acoustics particular to the room, etc. etc? I have a bridge to sell you if you do.

Online purchasing and shipping have improved dramatically. Online payments are secure. Delivery timelines have improved. Other than seeing the component in the flesh, which admittedly is pretty cool, there is no value in going to physical store. 

Like so many other things, the time of audio brick-and-mortar stores have come and gone. 
oldaudiophile OP
306 posts
 
So, all you folks who believe the time of brick & motor shops have come & gone, please help me understand this.

By way of example, lets say you were in the market for a new pair of speakers and had narrowed your contenders down to... say... 3 or 4 or maybe even more different pairs you thought would sound really great with your system, room acoustics, etc. And lets say each one of those speakers weighed around 100 lbs. or more and each pair had a price tag of around $10,000.00 or so. Are you saying you would systematically buy/order each pair of those speakers from an on-line seller(s), have them delivered to your home, audition them there during the return policy period and send them back until you arrived at your final choice? And, if that final choice happened not to be the last pair you ordered & auditioned at home, would you then re-order the ones you wanted and have those re-shipped back to your home? I suppose, if money isn’t an issue, one could order/purchase everything in one fell swoop, have it all shipped to your home simultaneously, audition everything at the same time and then ship back only the speakers you didn’t want.

Speakers are probably not the best hypothetical example, here, since most of them need a good amount of break-in time to sound their best. Maybe amps, pre-amps, etc. would be a better example but most electronic stuff like that needs some burn-in time, as well. I suppose if one had good relations with on-line sellers that could deliver demo equipment that was already burned-in or broken-in, this could speed up or make the in-home auditioning process easier. Is this what you folks do or do you do some reading & research and order things you’re reasonably assured will work well at home? I can see how this approach might be feasible for things like cables, interconnects, maybe a DAC, etc. But, for major components like speakers, amps, pre-amps? Really?
stuartk
2,745 posts
 
@oldaudiophile:

The more expensive the gear, the less likely I'd be to base a purchase on an in-store demo, with no chance of return.  I would never lay down $2500, let alone $10,000 on any component that I could not first hear in my system, in my room. But that's me-- I'm neither sufficiently wealthy nor sufficiently enamored of risk to embark upon such an "adventure".  

On the other hand, millercarbon appears to have developed strategies that enable him to make repeated successful gear purchases without demos of any kind. Perhaps he'd be willing to share this info with you. 
mitch2
3,961 posts
 
@oldaudiophile  - I have auditioned by way of purchase multiple large amplifiers (like Lamm M1.2 monos and Clayton M300 monos - each about 100 lbs per amp), many preamps, and also digital front end gear.  There is certainly a cost and risk in shipping them but also a savings in purchasing used.  With speakers, I had a better handle on what I wanted so I have not needed to cycle through multiple heavy speakers.  Your other best options are to listen at audio shows or go on the road to various dealers since it would be rare to find a single dealer who represents a large selection of speaker manufacturers.
speakermaster
738 posts
 
It all sounds like a great idea to me but the only problem is all of the unfamiliar rooms, components, speakers, and music involved in such situations. the good thing is that you could compare different components on the same system, but if there is component interaction that is not good you will hear bad sound. A lot of the time a system has to be made to sing and switching out one piece will destroy the magic, it all comes down to assembly and balance to truly achieve a great system, and when you do you will know it.
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