Would you pay to listen?

The level of insulation from the Real World among the Audiophelia (that sounds like a creepy hearing fetish) always mystifies me...I don't think anybody noticed the point I made that high end retail places are awful at attracting new biz...and it is completely their fault. Could they host a jazz band or a solo guitar player maybe? No. And aren't manufacturers dying to come in and show off their stuff? Maybe not, unless they set up a system in a stark hotel room at a show...pathetic.

it seems silly to pay to listen to stuff--a bunch of inanimate objects.

Mrtennis, some of those inanimate objects you are refering to provide a pleasurable listening experience and that is the objective.

I agree with you wolf garcia, about retailers being more inventive in looking for custom and I think some are. I went to a small 4 room show run by a local retailer recently and it was great. Frequent cycling of kit and music meant I spent 5 hours there happily. There was also a local vinyl shop there with lots of used vinyl.

I think some retailers are trying but they are caught between a rock and the proverbial. High margins mean few sales which means higher margins and fewer sales. I would love to know how many sales of kit, not accessories, your average retailer in a moderate sized city makes. I suspect it is very few and they have fixed costs, rent, salaries, utilities to cover. If any would be retailer produced an honest business plan about starting a HiFi shop, he would be laughed out of the door by his banker.

The internet, sites like Audiogon and the shrinking interest on 2 channel high end music reproduction, means that the retail industry is sadly, dying on it's feet. It is sad for all of us, even if we do'nt tend to use them. Fewer stores mean fewer new entrants to our interest/obsession. I suspect most of us started out with an interest in music and wandering into a helpful hiFi store, on an impulse. Then we followed a similar path of obsession, guilt, ruinous expense, relationship breakdown, drugs and penury.

hi phd:

you are accurate in your asssessment.

however i would not pay to hear inanimate objects rather ai would pay to hear humans use them to create sound.

th human factor is lost when listening to a stereo system.

the only human involved is the listener.

i think it's a value judgment that determines where one wants to spend one's money.