Opinions on Magnepans sales/marketing approach to

Funny! :-)

BTW my initial post/question was about business judgement and current dealer situation not about the character of the folks at Magnepan or dealers. Everyone at Magnepan I have ever talked with have been helpful and wonderful to work with over the last 25+ years I have owned Maggies

Having said that the fact is in the DC/Baltimore area you cannot hear 20.7s a 14k flagship speaker for Magnepan. You can however hear many Wilson, Avalon, Magico, Meridian models costing 2-6 times their price.

I am not really sure what that says but I do find myself asking how many dealers have actually heard the 20.7 and if not how can they recommend them? What is their "value add" if they themselves have not heard them?

Not crying poverty and I have been a Maggie guy forever, but I still cannot see spending 14k on something I have not heard.

Thanks for feedback.

I suggest next vacation plan a trip to Boston, enjoy the sites and listen to the 20.7.

This is probably a naive question, but I'll ask it anyway: Why don't middle-sized manufacturers like Magnepan built 5 or so pairs of "demo-only speakers" that they will ship to potential customers to audition in their home for a fee? Here are some thoughts on how it might work...

--The fee is just enough to allow the manufacturer to break even on the cost of construction/shipping/logistics for the "lending program." They don't make money on the fee, to keep it as low as possible.

--Maybe the customer is allowed to keep the speakers for 1 week, and then the shipping/freight company picks them up from him and ships them to the next potential customer. In other words, the speakers never go back to the manufacturer unless they develop a problem. They simply circulate from potential customer to potential customer.

--After his 1 week in-home demo, if the customer wants to proceed, he then buys a new pair FROM HIS LOCAL DEALER, who provides him with all the subsequent support he needs. That way the dealer doesn't have to stock the speaker and the customer gets to hear it the way he wants, i.e. in his own home with his own equipment. Everybody's happy.

--Maybe the lending program is ONLY FOR SELECT MODELS, so that the local dealer isn't cut out of the picture too much. And maybe the lending program is coordinated through the dealer, so that the dealer can do a certain amount of "filtering" for the manufacturer, to weed out the crazies.

--The cost of the in-home demo may of course get expensive if the speakers are very large/heavy, due to freight costs. But the folks who can afford large/heavy/expensive speakers can probably also afford a more expensive demo, given that they may be about to spend more than $10K, $20K, $30K... And for smaller speakers, amps, preamps, etc., the cost of freight is much less burdensome.

--Since the lending program is through the manufacturer, it costs the local dealer exactly $0. That should diminish the implicit or explicit pressure dealers sometimes apply when they agree to an in-home demo of their store's stock.

I, for one, would be VERY tempted to participate in a lending program like this, and I suspect there are plenty of other audiophiles who would feel the same way.

Bryon

Bryon,

I agree with your idea but the logistics of something that large can scare off the maker. A buyer with that kind of disposable income could manage such an arrangement but for the maker, it is a different story. I'm sure their bean counters looked at it from every angle and decided this is what's best for them.

Over at AC they do it all the time with various makes of equipment. They call it 'tours' and the prospective buyers/listeners simply agree to handle the item with kid gloves and pay shipping to the next person. But I've never heard of something that large making the rounds. The impetus comes from either the maker, who wants to get it around to trained ears with the caveat that they comment/review the item to a group of listeners who petition the maker to let them hear it. Heck, sometimes one just buys it and sends it around to folk he trusts.

Maybe there's a formulae in there that those interested can follow up with. When I bought my Legacy Classics, all those years ago, they had a program that listed some owners who were more than happy to have people come over and have a listen. All of those Legacy models were just too damn big and heavy to lend out.

All the best,
Nonoise

All fair points, Nonoise. Still, a boy can dream. It would be a great enhancement to our hobby, IMO.

A scenario where other owners open their homes to fellow audiophiles is also a nice idea, though that requires a culture of trust, which doesn't exist everywhere. Personally, I'd be happy to let someone audition something at my place. Of course, that sort of makes me the dealer, which I'm not sure every manufacturer would be happy about. ;-)

Bryon