Tune Dem Experiences
- Thread starter S-Man
- Start date
Paul Hindle
Do you mock me?
I thought tunedem was when you listened to a system whlist standing outside the door of the room? Does that mean when you listen at home you need to do the same thing? Seems a bit weird to me. I like to sit in front of the speakers to listen to music. 
YNWOAN
100% Analogue
Many years ago I actually managed a Linn/Naim dealership. In those days, in the small dealership I ran anyway, the tune dem was intended as a sales aid but the final intent was to try to ensure the customer left with equipment they could genuinely enjoy listening to music on and would hopefully become a return customer and recommend their experience to others - not some sort of junta type strong arm tactic. These days the tune dem seems to have been twisted from placing emphasis on the musical gestalt to just being a way of randomly criticising anything not made by Linn. In addition, some of the music I enjoy does not work in a tune dem because it is not strongly rhythmic or bass led. Personally, when assessing equipment, I still use the tune dem but I also listen for other criteria considered more round earth in principle (fine detail, reproduction of acoustic space, soundstage etc). I believe the tune dem should be considered as a useful tool and not a blunt weapon used to beat customers into submission! As you will appreciate, over the years I have attended many demonstrations of audio equipment and have seen some extraordinary strong arm sales tactics. Ironically, many of these ‘our way or the highway’ style dealers are no longer Linn dealers and now sell the very equipment they would have decried as being ‘tuneless’ twenty plus years ago - only their sales approach remains the same!
MVV
pfm Member
I've never understood the term and I've bought a lot of Linn/ Naim stuff in their dealers in the past. I've never been subjected to someone tapping their feet or jigging about, it would be very disturbing thinking back to the people concerned. One dealer had a kind of gimp in the back who did mysterious things with grommets and him cavorting about is quite an unsettling image.
He did once intimate that he put pillows in his Isobarik stands and that was quite enough.
He did once intimate that he put pillows in his Isobarik stands and that was quite enough.
I'm sure this is true but Linn genuinely believe that means a Linn system. My experience was that you were played the Linn option first and only if that wasn't satisfactory were you offered an alternative.
YNWOAN
100% Analogue
I haven’t been involved in retail for nearly thirty years now so couldn’t comment on more recent sales tactics. However, Linn always leant toward a fundamentalist approach. The reality is that the ’house sound’ of Linn equipment, and the people who have created it, has changed dramatically in the years since the introduction of the tune dem. So much so that most of their current products would fail the tune dem of the 1980s.
John
Rack’em Up!
That’s not how it was done in our shop who strictly did tune dems. The purpose of doing tune dems was to demonstrate why we selected the gear that was sold in our store. The first product a customer listened to was a Dual 505 vs a Rega 2.
But Linn didn't make a turntable at that price point did they? ;0)
John
Rack’em Up!
We sold a limited amount of gear where we could put together systems at various price points. Dual, Rotel, Creek, Rega, Wharfedale, Royd, Linn, Naim and Sound Organisation.
I'm just winding you up.
Although Linn did get progressively worse as the years went by. They imposed quotas on their dealers which essentially forced them into pushing Linn kit and they wanted to control what other brands dealers stocked. Whatever they were in the early days, I don't like Linn now.
a.palfreyman
pfm Member
Nic Robinson
Moderator
I find the tune method less helpful than the rhythm method. And we all know how useful that is.
John
Rack’em Up!
I left the fold when LP12/Valhalla/Ittok/Troika was the king.
Craig B
Re:trophile
Mixing the two across the front seats of my first car didn't work out too well for me. I clearly recall Donald Fagen suggesting to Ricki that he not lose that number, though. Oh no, that's coitus interruptus, isn't it. May as well have been something from The Roadrunner Show, AFAIK back then.
Chefren
pfm Member
Just insist on listening to plainchant and the toe tapping will stop
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
I, too, often tap my feet when listening to music. Am I a bad person?
david ellwood
Kirabosi Kognoscente
The idea that all Linn dealers exhibit the same behaviour and tactics in selling is either nieve or deliberately serving an agenda.
Ive known and worked with a few and the most successful dont prescribe opinions and are perceptive enough to understand that trying to dictate to a customer is unlikely to result in a successful outcome.
Ive known and worked with a few and the most successful dont prescribe opinions and are perceptive enough to understand that trying to dictate to a customer is unlikely to result in a successful outcome.
TheDecameron
Unicorns fart glitter.
If you tap your foot to Mahler, you’re not bad, you’re mad.
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
I went mad years ago, trying to tap my feet to Steve Reich