Nowhere to hear speakers and amps anymore!
When I started buying stereo equipment in the 1970’s (yes, I’m old) in Seattle, there were many retail stores where I could hear and compare equipment. I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1982 and found the same number of great stores until 2000 when they started disappearing and now there are none! There are plenty of Home Theater contractors, but I can’t find an audiophile store anywhere short of going to LA or back to Seattle! Is there an “audio desert” in my area? Seems like an opportunity for someone! Am I missing something?
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. |
@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.
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Hey listen, if you live out in the hinterlands or the way outer burbs Goodonya! There are huge benefits to that. But then don’t complain that you have no high-end audio stores. You chose that life/location and as a result you don’t have the best restaurants, audio stores, etc. Deal with it, take the benefits you have, and just stop complaining that the world doesn’t cater to you because you chose to live where you live (and yeah, I realize the OP is in SF but apparently hasn’t done the least bit of research to find audio shops that are in his area — duh). Or go live in a city where they still have some good audio stores and pay the taxes that allow the places in the hinterlands to even exist because they suck much more from the government than what they pay (can u say Wyoming?). Either way, stop complaining. We all know brick n mortar stores are struggling and declining, so just stop stating the painfully obvious. I know, here come the flames, but that’s ok. |
