life without audio dealers

What would it be like without B&M dealers?
My last purchase from a B&M store was a positive experience. The owner (who had never seen me before) allowed me a two week loan on a set of speakers, spent ~ 2-3 hrs with me and gave me a great price on some used stuff I wanted to unload. He was rewarded with a sale. I will certainly return to that store when its time to upgrade. What is interesting is that this was 9 years ago. He is still in business and appears to be doing quite well selling equipment that is well beyond my budget in a medium sized Midwestern city. My guess is that he will still be their 20 years from now, because he has made himself a unique asset that can't be replaced. If he doesn't survive, something valuable will have been lost. I'd be in the store more frequently, but I just can't do $10K for a new amp. He respected me, so I respect him and won't abuse in store time or home loaners.

During the same period of time another half dozen B&M stores have come and gone. My experience with those stores was a waste of time. See the post of Stubby above. Nothing of value was lost at their closing.

Look, this is an expensive hobby that is fueled by discretionary spending. Most of us have limited time, and little patience with arrogant salespeople who don't respect our time and money. I'll pay within my budget for service, but I can get insults and irritations for free at work and at home. It's really pretty simple.

The high-end audio dealers I know all have money. They didn't make their fortune selling audio equipment. These guys have boats, homes, exotic cars, etc, etc. They sell audio equipment as more like a hobby than a business. They carry the products they like. They are not going to go out of their way for you.
Some of the dealers will lend out gear and some will not. One dealer I know owns the building where his store is at. He told me he doesn't care if people buy from him or not. He never will sell less than retail and he will get insulted if you ask. Another dealer works from his home and will let you audition gear overnight. He carries very esoteric gear that costs more than most people make in a year. He is very opinionated and will tell you to you're face that your gear is crap.

The 3rd dealer I know has carried the same gear for 20 years. He doesn't follow the trends and sticks to the tried and true. He's still in business but I really don't know if he makes any money. He enjoys what he does and is not concerned about sites like audiogon or audio asylum. I have a feeling he will be doing this until he gets ready to leave this earth.

Many of us feel that we have passed the point of needing dealer assistance. Many dealers just behave like toll booths, believing that you have to pay them to gain access. Many manufacturers support this notion with exclusive sales territories. Everybody's crazy.
The number of real B&M dealers has shrunk to only those who say "my way or the hiway". The number of manufacturers seems to be growing exponentially, and the number of new audiophile purchases seems to be static at best.
Something's gotta give -- especially since those few of us who remain obsessive enough to keep spilling significant sums into this mercantile abyss, has to start diminishing dramatically as the grim reaper collects his toll.
The stores are merely the first part of this ship to meet the iceberg.

As someone who has taken on the role of distributor for a high-end audio company, this argument is of particular interest to me...

I have the complete freedom to steer the brand here as I see fit, which translates to being able embrace either a direct sales or traditional brick and mortar business model. I found there are arguments for and against each one.

If I sold direct, I could offer a 35% - 50% reduction in pricing, as well as having my hands on each and every sale directly. The latter yielding the type of relationship I would hope the customer would find value in. If I went down that road, to take the place of the audition at the dealer or his recommendation, I would also offer a trial period in the range of something like 60 - 90 days, as I agree with the sentiment that only via having a component in one's own system can the best decision for the individual be made. I want to be clear in my desire to provide the ability to audition a component either way - through direct sales or a dealer network.

However, I have seen very few companies become sucessful along the lines of direct sales, among them are Prima Luna and Zu. I have also watched as companies like Coincident, Jadis, and Von Schweikert more or less come apart at the seams when they have (willingly or unwillingly) gone down the direct sales road.

I have the utmost confidence in the sonics, build quality, and value for money the product line I represent possesses, and feel that allowing people to able to see, hear, and touch it will result in brand acceptance and sales. But, in my opinion, I feel building the dealer network is the best way to accomplish that. While that opinion certainly diverges from the majority opinion in this thread, after thinking it over long and hard, I made the decision, rightly or wrongly, that it is the more prudent one.

Apart from all of this, I work a high level full-time job in an extremely stable company, and am hesitant to walk away from the money and benefits it allows my family to enjoy. OK that may sound like a cowardly reason, but I have to be honest. On the other hand, I feel it has yielded the unforeseen benefit of being able to take the long view of things, and act along those lines to build the brand up the way I feel is the best and most ethical manner, as opposed to most in this industry who have to unceasingly generate sales at whatever expense in order to put bread on the table.

In the end, my sincere desire is to provide the best possible service to people interested in our product, and I am really open to embracing whatever the best vehicle to provide that is. Right or wrong, I have chosen the brick and mortar avenue, but am always here to listen as to why folks believe I made the wrong decision.

The journey of the audiophile is, to a certain extent, a journey of self-discovery. If we all knew what we like, what we don't like, and what we can put up with if necessary - then we could reliably make all our purchases on-line or factory-direct.

Presumably mrtennis has reached the stage where he can reliably predict which equipment will and will not do what he wants. But he has enormous experience from attending audio trade shows and reviewing. I doubt that he is taken by surprise very often when auditioning speakers, for instance. That's not the case for most of us, though - I still hear surprises at just about every audio show I attend.

So one of the roles I see dealers playing is assisting the audiophile in that journey of self-discovery. Unfortunately for the dealers, as hard-core audiophiles become more experienced they need dealer auditions less and less, so they are more likely to buy direct. At the same time, the shrinking market means that not enough new audiophiles are coming into the dealership to make its two-channel operations self-sustaining.

In a world with no dealers, I see audio shows possibly filling that role for those audiophiles in a position to attend such shows; but for those unable to attend, the journey of self-discovery will be longer than ever. Many will never make it because they will never hear anything better than a Circuit City or Best Buy system.

I think in a world without dealers, high end audio will shrink even faster than it's shrinking now.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer