Would you pay to listen?

Dealers who would encourage limiting their customer base in ANY WAY, either with an elitist attitude or fees, I would consider insane and clearly not interested in staying in business. Having seen a lot of high end audio places die over the last several years (and employing one former owner at my own financial services company) I can suggest to these last few to open the doors wide. The fact that anybody whould feel guilty visiting a retail location when not intent on buying anything in particular should cause the sales people to panic. They should host free concerts and PAY the musicians, free manufacturer seminars, give out free munchies and baloons (well...maybe not baloons), do SOMETHING to lure people in there so they can educate the public about their groovy piles of gear and maybe SELL SOME OF IT. There are plenty of reasons for the lack of interest among most people in high end audio, the most obvious being retailers not seeming to be interested in reaching out beyond their core of "hobbyists", and that is just sad and more than a little stupid.

Agree w Wolf. Never give away free "baloons";~)

I would rather spend $600 and spend 3 days at RMAF - a great "vacation" for audiophiles. The worst sounding system I ever heard, well at least I felt the need to leave the room, was an all Cello multiamp, blah, blah with huge speakers costing several 100Ks and purchased with giddy dot.com $$$ with no prior audio experience. I could not believe how unpleasant it was to listen to, but I did not have the heart to tell the fella.... Really, much more impressed by great 25K systems (not cheap)which can be as good as it gets, and a lot more fune to build than just throwing $$$ in the hopes of a great system.

Balloons. Bad spelling is part of my charm.

Nope...I agree with Tvad