Problems with Ayre's Company???

Mimberman,

Thank you for your input. I do not want to get into too many of the specifics of the "unimaginable reasons". The local dealer I speak of would never say anything bad about the quality of Ayre products. He truly has a passion for his work and takes great pride in product selection. He has a long history selling Ayre products and runs a very honest business. Also I don't think that "underhanded" is the right description. We are not talking about anything illegal. It was more like a slap in the face to a reputable dealer. Like you said, forcing them to sell certain things in certain ways.

Zieman,

Interesting point. It is true that many of us buy used Ayre products and this can be seen as a lack of support to the local dealer. The flip side is that many of us also learn a great deal about high end equipment from local dealers which greatly influences our decisions. In addition, many times buying a piece of equipment used serves as a gateway to future new purchases once you discover how great a product line is. Regardless, it is obvious that if you only buy used products and never purchase anything from your local dealers then you would have little concern with this matter anyway.

I've dealt with Ayre for several yrs as a consumer & have had three of their products. Their factory support is some of the best in the industry & I see no signs of that changing, especially since I just visited while picking up my amp after having the e upgrade & some cosmetic fixes. I believe if a company were having problems, they would manifest themselves in other areas of the company

Each dealer and manufacturer operates differently & I wouldn't read anything into a dealer dropping a line or a manufacturer dropping a dealer. That's not to say there aren't extenuating circumstances but unless you know all of the details, it's just speculation.

I would caution against suggesting there is a problem with Ayre or any other company that you are concerned about as a consumer unless you know every single detail about the business practices between said participants.

Note-I am not a representative of Ayre or any company representing Ayre products.

I don't believe that Ayre has done anything wrong here from the information provided. Ayre is in the audio business. That means that Ayre has engineered a line of products that meets the designers interpretation of the best audio reproduction that they can acheive in a given market. The motive for any company is to produce these products and sell them at a profit, while maintaining the quality and service standards set by that company.
The dealer that was quote "basically forced" to drop the line could have been guilty of any number of infractions. 1)he may have been discounting on the internet into another dealers market area. In that case Ayre is displaying a strong support of it's dealers. 2)the dealer may have not sold much or ordered much Ayre product in the past year or so. This would drive Ayre to the conclusion that this dealer either a) doesn't want to sell the product or b) the dealer doesn't have the client base that supports the product. In the case of the latter, they did the dealer a favor. It seems that as long as I have been involved with this, hobby/passion call it what you will, I have seen product franchises shift from dealer to dealer in the same market area. The reasons are never clear, because I only get the losing dealer's and new dealer's side of the story.
And I believe there are 3 sides to every story, yours-mine and the truth. Regardless of the reasons it has never been indicative of a problem with a manufacturer. I have a local Ayre dealer and he has nothing but good to say about Ayre. I personnaly am considering the new universal player and will base my decision on the sound quality, build quality and quality of service I have witnessed from Ayre.
The fact that they want to sell as much product as they can only raises my confidence in the company as long as quality doesn't diminish with quantity. All of course just my opinion.