Would you pay to listen?

Mitch4t...Wow...that one just steamed right by ya! Sorry though. I do have trouble with the practice of any form of mirth control. However, I suppose humorous or satirical writing has NO place in an audio forum and from now on I promise to be dreary and technical and keep my satirical rants to myself. Or not. Please let me know when I cross the line...I can also loan you a ladder to help insure that in the future less things go over your head.

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Okay Wolf, you blew that one by me. I thought that you'd flipped out. Thanks for the offer of the ladder, but I suggest you hold onto your day job.....
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i just realized that the question "would you pay to listen" is ambiguous.

it's obvious that if you travel to rmaf or ces there is a travel, room and board cost asoociated with the trip.

i believe the connotation of the question is:

would you pay to listen to a component or stereo system ?

if so, i would not.

while it is less costly to outlay $50.00 than to buy a component , sell it and loss more than $50, out of principle, i refuse to pay to listen to a stereo system, regardless of its alleged reputation of sound quality.

i guess i'll miss the experienece.

i won't pay $50 to borrow a component either.

i'll find a component that i can borrow for an audition, without paying for it.

Mrtennis, thankyou sir for your difference of opinion, this is what makes the threads more interesting to read at times. Sometimes it is hard for me not to want to try other products especially ones that have been ranted over and then have to pay for that privilege on top of it. If the crowd is all moving to the right, I may go in that direction to see what all the fuss is about. Human nature I suppose.

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Mr. Tennis,

I'll be more specific. The place you go to hear the system would not be a dealer, just an establishment that sells listening time, similar to the kind of establishment that sells studio time to musicians. You go into a room with the dimensions of your choosing. Acoustically, the room has been professionally prepped to get optimum results. You pay one dollar per $10k of equipment that you want to listen to. That is, ten bucks if you want to hear $100k worth of gear, twenty bucks if you want to hear $200k worth of gear. You choose the mfg and models of any and all equipment that you want to hear. You are free to mix and match any gear of your choosing. The listening session would be private, or you could have guests if you choose to. Bring your own cd's, LP's, sacd's, open reel tapes or hard drives. Of course, none of the gear would be for sale. If you'd like to buy any of the equipment, you would have to contact the mfg and find a dealer on your own. No salesmen would be on the premises, just the trained tech to assemble the system that you've specified. If you think you are smarter than the tech, you are welcome to make suggestions or set up the system yourself.

The whole idea is to hear equipment that you'd probably never be able to afford to own. If I could afford to buy it, I'd just buy the damn thing. But, the system that I want to hear costs north of $400k. Unless I hit the Mega-Powerball lottery, I'll never be able to afford such a system, but I'd sure pay money to hear it.
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