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Last time listen before buy

DD. I have bought the occasional cable, cartridge or whatever in a high st store (without a dem), but I’ve been so immersed in the classic audio market over the last couple of decades they just aren’t relevant to me anymore. I think this has always been the case really; I bought my first system (Lenco, Quad, 149s) second hand as a teenager, the only time I really bought new at all was in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but then not exclusively by any stretch as I far preferred the ‘chrome bumper’ Linn/Naim era to the then current ‘olive’ stuff, so I tended to live more in the second hand market. The more technically able I’ve become over time the more this is the case as I now very much enjoy restoring vintage kit as well as listening to it. I’ve moved away from the ‘opening new boxes’ thing entirely, not that I was ever there really. There is a ‘green’ aspect too - I like the fact I can turn old things around and give them decades more life rather than simply consuming. My problem is I hold onto too much!
 
C & E

Haven't been in a store for a demo since 2006 when I bought some Proac D15s there. Only been in two stores since, once to get LP12 serviced and more recently popped into a new dealer that's opened in Shrewsbury, just out of curiosity, not for a demo.
 
C & D

I returned to the hifi fold in the 00s and was dismayed to find that of the five dealerships I visited to try to listen to some equipment and form a wish-list, the only one I didn't get the 'Not The Nine O'Clock News' hifi shop sketch treatment - or the Cold-Shoulder of Sublime Indifference - was Richer Sounds. The 'real' hifi shops could not give so much as a picofuck. I had a modest £2K budget, but such chickenfeed was clearly far beneath their consideration unless, perhaps, it was a pair of interconnects under consideration... Subsequently I bought kit used and unheard and made some horrible mistakes and great discoveries in equal measure.

A decade-and-a-half later the tables were - briefly and VERY unsuccessfully - turned, and I discovered why poor attitudes prevailed. It was frustrating, because I disliked selling blind since it often meant a poor choice was made and an unhappy customer resulted. So I tried to encourage demos - but the overwhelming majority of people who actually showed-up were the nice-day-out-and-free-coffee brigade, usually dreadful, halitotic bores who were desperate to trap a captive audience...

If I buy from dealers now, it's mainly used kit, and I buy carefully at prices that leave me with a fighting chance of recovering the majority of the cost so that I can move the item on rather than using the dealer like a hifi lending-library: it's not worth their time, and I didn't like it when people did it to me, so a matter of principle really.
 
E, C

Would love to buy from a shop but my budget puts me more towards used gear for the bang-for-buck in ratio. If I went to a shop to listen, I would feel obligated to buy something so as not to waste anyone's time.

The thing is, I would really love to go and listen to a lot of different setups, because by starting off buying used and unheard, I really have literally no idea how gear can sound different.
 
B and D

My serious hifi kit has almost all been bought second hand, so I have only ever listened to the gear in someone's house. In my main system, I listened to the SME 20/2, in comparison to my then Gyro, and a few of the carts I have too. Other than that I bought my amps and speakers from doing lots of research, asking opinions of people who know more than me, like on here, and crossing my fingers. My second system, Naim focused, again I bought all components without hearing. Rarely did I buy something and hated it. I have upgraded here and there over the years of course....
 


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