life without audio dealers

I think that many knowledgable audiophiles could do without dealers, especially with resources like Audiogon available. But I also think that there are many "discriminating non-enthuisiasts", i.e. people who like good quality musical reproduction but don't want the bother of the techie side of the hobby. For them, a good dealer is a valuable source of information, advice and demonstrable products, as well as someone who can help with the design and installation of a system, particularly home theatres which might involve some home renovations. Besides, if you bypass the local dealer and deal directly with the distributor/manufacturer, would the latter not, in effect, become a retailer to you? In the end, you just replace one retailer with another, and it would be one that is physically farther removed and perhaps less responsive to your needs because of that distance.

I am in the same camp as Mrtennis and Jmcgrogan2. I live in a somewhat isolated area where I must drive at a minimum 300 miles to audition a piece of equipment. My experience with dealers has been nothing short of trying to protect myself from a hurricane by seeking shelter in a thatch hut. I quit walking into the eye of that storm! I will research the gear find it on this site buy, demo, and if I like it then keep it. If not, try to turn it over. On the other hand, I would think the margins would be more attractive by omitting the middle man.

when you compare speakers at an audio dealer, will that comparison hold up in one's own stereo system ? maybe.

it is possible that while you might prefer speaker a over speaker b during a dealer demo, you might prefer speaker b over speaker a with your own components.

Let's get practical for a moment. I took a quick look over at AudioAsylum. There were roughly 1,200 models of speakers by around 300 different manufacturers. Using your logic, I would have to drag each of them home (or at least those in my price range) before I could reliably dismiss them from consideration.

Lets say you're looking for a pair of speakers in the $3000 range. There's a ton of 'em.

By your way of thinking, I will have done myself a great disservice unless I bring each and every candidate into my own listening room and give it a trial of weeks or more.

That, my friend, is impossible. I dare say that precious few full time audio reviewers have heard more than a fraction of the available speakers on the market in their own listening room.

As a practical matter, we all have to make judgment calls regarding which of the many available speakers will make the cut for our final selection process. At best, if a person gets two or three speakers into his home for an evaluation, he's done pretty good.

To think that I'm going to bring home 100 different pairs of $3,000 speakers for audition isn't going to happen. And I'm not going to look down my nose at anyone who winnows down the field with judgment calls at a dealer's showroom. I also certainly don't blame any dealer who restricts home trials to serious candidates.

It would be interesting to see how your selection process works. How do you eliminate the non-serious contenders? I find a dealer showroom demo gives me more useful information than advertising copy or a flowery review, whether professionally done or from an online contributor.

I don't buy that you're bringing "every" possible candidate, so you're eliminating them somehow. If you haven't heard them yourself, that leaves appearance, published specs, reviews, reputation and not a whole lot more.

Just to be ornery with Mrtennis ;o) I'll suggest from my experience that you _can_ "extrapolate" a dealer's demo to your own system successfully. It worked for me when I chose the monitors for my bedroom system, using none of the same upstream components. A comparison with other speakers of similar size helped, but the choice was ultimately very easy.

That's not to say that the decision can't possibly be difficult and ultimately require a home demo, but gee whiz, it worked for me that time. So perhaps it depends on what system characteristics you're trying to reinforce, or quell.

Just joking about being ornery, Mrtennis, and Happy New Year!

There are no audio dealers in my world at this time so it isn't hard to imagine. If there were though it wouldn't make much difference. Auditioning the few lines they carry probably wouldn't lead to a great discovery but if it did I wouldn't be able to afford retail. Then I would have to compromise my integrity by buying online. I've visited a few in the last five years but it wasn't particularly enjoyable. Seems they are doing me a favor to simply acknowledge my presence, who needs that.

I did buy my speakers from a dealer. I already knew what I wanted so they were just an order taker kinda like a waitress (I respect waitresses though). After the sale they referred my questions to Albert.