Has the internet been good for audio?

i prefer direct contact with designers over opinions and perceptions of listeners. i learn more from talking to manufacturers and designers than i do from the often conflicting statements of hobbyists.

the one benefit of the internet is finding phone numbers of small companies with products of interest who don't advertise in stereophile. i rarely buy used gear so used audio marketplaces are only occasionally of interest when i sell, which is not that frequent. audiomart was a frequent source of selling and occasionally buying.

In Central Ohio there are just a handful of shops to hear high end gear. The variety is decent but limited. The internet allows for websites of dealers out of state, and the creation of Audiogon, as well as plenty of high end information. Audio in general, in my opinion has benefited because we all can link up in a way like never before. (Manufacturers, Dealers, high end consumers) The odd man out is the local dealer. They suffer because of the proliferation of used gear that was never available before. But the downside for me is that without the internet I never would have spent 5 figures on gear.

of course yes, BUT- once upon a time there were mid-fi stores all over my city; some would sell components at huge discounts. my 1st thorens tc-160 cost $185 at such a store (new). i had to buy and mount my own cartridge, but (so what?). then there was a unique store that had hafler and some better-sounding brands, including some tube equipment. plus they REPAIRED just about anything you could bring in to them.
there was a few different radio-shack-like stores too, with new and used (traded) components. and of course the high-end stores as well. i frequented them all, saved alot, and learned a lot. even the department stores had a huge variety of sound equipment. one store sold pianos and had a special room set aside for console stereos by fisher and scott.
for about $2000, at the time alot of $$, you could buy a gorgeous piece of furniture with a dual turntable (double-suspended), a sony tape deck, and an am/fm 120w/ch receiver with humongous 12in.4way speakers on the end panels. even my parents took a long look, before buying a stereo compact for $350. oh well...

I just enjoy logging on, even at 2:00 AM and chatting. I'm not sure if the internet has helped to grow hi-end audio but it levels the playing field for small companies to put out a great product at low cost without all the marketing and dealer expenses. I don't recall the home auditions like we have now.
When I get it worked out, my stereo will be much better than what I could buy at any dealer but it has been more work because of all the choices to sort through.
The one oddball thing is I can buy a 4gB flash drive at Walmart.com for $29 and it would be delivered to my local Walmart for free. But it was $48 for the exact same thing in the store and they don't match internet pricing.

That's probably why Walmart diversified a few years back and expanded into the grocery business. Once they got into the grocery end of it, half the grocery stores in our town either closed-down or down-sized dramatically. It's tough for a small, home-owned store to compete with the buying power of someone like Walmart. Which reminds me of a time not so long ago, when Home Depot and later Lowe's moved into town, putting out of business most of the mom-and-pop hardware stores, some of which had been passed onto the grandchildren. The times they are a-changing...