What's your experience with snooty HiFi salesmen?

@oddiofyl  been to all 3 of those myself and agree they have all been very down to Earth and friendly. In fact I just bought my Revel’s at Natural Sound back in October. Even though I could have received an extra 10% going online (and gotten them much quicker) for the package, I still went through Larry at Natural. He took the time to set them up, spent time with my wife and I, and also left us alone and made us feel completely comfortable. I did tell him I could get them sooner and cheaper but that I wouldn’t do that after the great customer service he provided. Then he had his stock guy deliver them to me to save the sales tax as I am in Nashua…

Same same with Fidelis (Marc) and AV Therapy. Good down to Earth people man!

I just bought a cartridge at Natural Sound.   I was surprised at how many they had on hand to choose from

Larry and Mark at Natural Sound are good guys.   I prefer to shop locally when I can and will take the 45 min drive to Nashua often to save tax.    That was good of them to deliver.   Enjoy

When I was a teen in the 70s, my brother took me to Soundex to buy my first stereo with my first income tax refund. The store was small and my brother knew the sales guy from previous purchases. Over time Soundex grew and ended up with a 2 floor 22 room Hifi Heaven with all the latest and greatest. My experience then was that if you were not dressed a certain way, had a certain haircut, or have money hanging out of your pockets, you were pretty much ignored. I used that to my advantage on Saturdays when I would take my own disks and step into Room #1 which actually had whatever the latest top high end gear was that month. I would close the door and play my disks. The sales guys always assumed another was doing a demo for a buyer and rarely bothered me. That was how I got to hear some of the best gear available at the time. 2 times when I was ignored, I watched someone buy a $20K Oracle TT and then the next week trade it in for the $30K model so I had to wait forever to buy a set of  $50 cables . Soundex is long gone but was a premier spot for High End in it's day as long as you looked like you had money.

@ghdprentice I understand the reaction of "moving on" if there is an attitude problem in a store. But given (a) the scarcity of audio stores and (b) the importance of hearing a system in person, many people don’t have the luxury of moving on, right? This does not justify the salesperson being snooty or rude, but they have leverage in the situation.

I live in Denver. I have found the folks here pretty friendly, open. That’s partly a Western state thing; friendly is expected a lot of the time. Still, if they weren’t, and I wanted to hear Devore or Wilson or Dynaudio or Acora or whatever, I would have to try to get a slightly tougher skin. Otherwise, I'd have to travel a long way to hear them. Beyond that, what do I do -- buy these speakers on the internet and pay $$$ for shipping to return them? That's not going to give me a lot of experience before buying. Hence, the leverage.

Soundings in Denver is one of the good ones. No pressure and very knowledgeable. Ask for Jess.