Nowhere to hear speakers and amps anymore!

As an employee of such a store I can tell you that the vast variety of merchandise and easy access to information and opinions about it on the internet, and the ease with which consumers can cross shop, or worse, "showroom*" has made running a B&M store very, very challenging. The gear is costly to maintain for demo, retail square footage is costly, employing motivated knowledgeable people is costly, and everyone thinks they deserve a discount! The growth of direct-to-consumer (cutting out middle man profit) marketing with 14-30 day free home trials and free shipping, etc. has distorted the "value proposition" of traditional retail. No dealer can offer all that without a robust volume of sales and strong margins, and there just isn’t that large a market in any but the biggest cities...or the opposite...where real estate is cheaper, but customer density is low.

*Showroom...the practice of visiting stores to audition merchandise, but following up shopping for the lowest price among outlets not offering showroom facilities.

@grislybutter 

I think there has always been one or another in/near Harvard Sq. The best two suburban ones are still there, going on 50 years. I should have had a bumper-sticker: My car and my money go to Natural Sound.

Yes, buying stuff online and sending it back sucks. On the bright side, I found a cool candy store on the convoluted route to FedEx.

@bob70 

To be fair, I had no knowledge of all of them in the 90s, but I was pretty happy with the store on Boylston. There also used to be Tweeter etc. and I am always amazed how many audio companies started in the Boston area. The acoustic energy is tangible! 

@qwaszxxx - there is that about Audiovision, but the $250 charge will minimize people wanting to waste their time and effort setting things up but who have no intention of buying anything, so I'll cut 'em slack there.

I paid the $250 fee but I knew I was going to buy something, which I did, and the $250 was credited towards that. And the fellow from AudioVision came by with these big heavy speakers when they arrived and set them up for me, so I'm good with them.

It’s a problem. For example, there are no high-end dealers with showrooms in my entire state, except for a sound-reinforcement company that has a small room with a few McIntosh components.  And unfortunately, traveling out of state is not an option.

So I wind up being forced to buy without any chance to audition, using reviews, spec sheets, and online forums as my only guide. For example, I just ordered an $11,000 amp that I won’t hear until it arrives (and breaks in a month later). I’m sure I’m not alone, since a whole heckuva lot of people don’t live in places like SoCal, NYC, or Boston.

Yes, I know that there are a few dealers that let you try before you buy, but I haven’t had great experiences with that. For one thing, shipping out here is incredibly expensive -- paying return shipping on an amp could easily run $300 -- and the one time I did return an item (some four-figure cables), the previously congenial salesman was so prickly about the return that I swore never to buy from that outfit again. I guess it’s different if you live in a place that’s less isolated.