When did you last visit a HiFi Shop for a Demonstration?
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Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
Are you sure it was a parka? I suspect it might have been a mackintosh.
jackbarron
Chelsea, London
Exactly that, I have suggested from time to time my kids smash their choice of music through my system, they can Spotify whatever they want, they have a few CDs even, mostly given as presents, I have a few records of stuff I know they like, they could not care less. They just don't get it. They are quite happy with their phones and some £20 headphones ... sigh, think I'll give it all to the cats home ...
seethroughyou
pfm Member
That’s their job and to look after them and guide them as customers. It’s the high prevalence of dealer nutters that is the deeply disturbing bit and driving nails in the coffin of hifi faster than the retail price expanding faster than the event horizon of the universe. Welcome to the Fawlty Towers of Hifi Dealers.
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It is something of a death spiral
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
Which came first, the nutter punters, or the nutty dealers? Cause and effect?
That's true, and that's why I'm building the JLH69 that I brought to the bakeoff for people to see. However I regard it almost as a separate activity, as you suggest the pleasure is in making something and working out how it works. It's like rebuilding a vintage motorbike, it's the exercise itself. If all you want is to ride one, buy a Honda.
However unlike repairing motor vehicles designing and building electronics is bloody hard, and for that reason it will always be a fringe activity.
Nutter dealers. Definitely. That's why Not The 9... did a spoof on them. That was back in the days when everyone wanted "a hifi" and normal, non geeky consumers bought Pioneer or Dual and aspired to saving up for a Thorens or maybe (one day) a Linn.
manicatel
pfm Member
Seems like it’s a bit of a boast or a badge of honour to say “ pah, I never go to dealers, I only ever buy 2nd hand” etc.
As far as the state of the market is concerned, I would guess, & it is no more than my guess that
Richer sounds, target/ typical audience 25-35yr olds,
Sevenoaks target audience 35-50 yr olds
Independent specialists, high end gear & DIY enthusiasts over 50 yr olds.
HiFi shows.....from the ones I’ve attended, average age of attendance maybe 45-50 & over.
Yes, it’s a broad generalisation, but wouldn’t mind betting it’s not too far out.
As far as the state of the market is concerned, I would guess, & it is no more than my guess that
Richer sounds, target/ typical audience 25-35yr olds,
Sevenoaks target audience 35-50 yr olds
Independent specialists, high end gear & DIY enthusiasts over 50 yr olds.
HiFi shows.....from the ones I’ve attended, average age of attendance maybe 45-50 & over.
Yes, it’s a broad generalisation, but wouldn’t mind betting it’s not too far out.
I've mentioned it a few times before, but there is an inordinate amount of nutters involved with the design/build/sale of Hi-Fi kit and I'm not sure why.
You even get nutter fanbois that covertly go around other forums bad mouthing/spying/spreading muck about other makes or dealers that aren't to their liking. Utter Bat Sh*ttery of the highest order, Fawlty Towers doesn't even come close to describing some of these lunatics.
You even get nutter fanbois that covertly go around other forums bad mouthing/spying/spreading muck about other makes or dealers that aren't to their liking. Utter Bat Sh*ttery of the highest order, Fawlty Towers doesn't even come close to describing some of these lunatics.
wylton
Naim and Mana member
Yes indeed! I recognise a lot of that.
I was scratching my head trying to think when I last had a dealer demo, and it must have been 5 years ago at least. I took a chance on the Auralic Aries Mini, which was the last new item I bought; I bought it on spec, after a discussion with the dealer here on pfm. I used to enjoy demos in Studio 99 back in the day, because they had such a nice demonstration room. You have to remember, that hi-fi dealers are basically shopkeepers, not musicians or engineers.
Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
George J
Herefordshire member
The last demo I did at a dealer was in 1999, though as I got on well with them, I had future dems on the basis of borrowing the demo unit and trying it at home. The last things I did this with was Naim's DAC V1 and NAP 100 pairing, which I bought. Almost all ex-dem of course ... That or second hand.
The last new item I bought was the an Audiolab MDAC, and I was confident to buy without a formal demo.
The last thing I bought was the Troughline [variant one made in 1957], which feeds a Quad II forty [bought second hand], and a 1957 made ESL.
I seem to have reached a completely satisfying radio set, and the digital side is much less exalted. Just the [wired] analogue out of a Mac mini to a Sandstorm active speaker [primarily a Bluetooth speaker] which I bought from Curry. To be fair this is good enough for me on recordings. Live broadcasting is more important for me than replaying recordings, as most recordings themselves actually do not bear too much scrutiny from the technical standpoint. The speaker makes good clean sound that keeps musical balances lucid. I ask for no more on recordings.
Strangely the old Troughline really does show the problems with modern popular music recordings [as played on the radio], but fortunately I have no interest in pop records as such.
Over the years I came to the conclusion that almost all the "hifi" shops I knew had a strange breed for sales people. Most really wanted to play their own music, which was useless for me. The only shop I knew that let me play what I wanted was the now defunct Audio Excellence in Worcester.
The now defunct English Audio in Hereford certainly lost a sale when they told me that Artur Schnabel's [1932] EMI recording of Beethoven's First Piano Concerto was not good enough to show off the Castle Severns that I wanted to try out! I commented that it was important that the speakers could still do well on what is not a poor recording for its time [in a wonderful Abbey Road transfer to CD], and one of the great recorded performances of the music yet released. Naturally that was the end of the demo, as I pointed out that none of my selected recordings were from the top draw technically. Not good enough for the Castle Severns ...
Anyway, I never really got into hifi at the top level, and have given up the search for anything better than I have. But the demise of many "hifi" retailers is at least in part due to the strangeness of the a fair proportion of the sales staff in all likelihood in my view.
Best wishes from George
The last new item I bought was the an Audiolab MDAC, and I was confident to buy without a formal demo.
The last thing I bought was the Troughline [variant one made in 1957], which feeds a Quad II forty [bought second hand], and a 1957 made ESL.
I seem to have reached a completely satisfying radio set, and the digital side is much less exalted. Just the [wired] analogue out of a Mac mini to a Sandstorm active speaker [primarily a Bluetooth speaker] which I bought from Curry. To be fair this is good enough for me on recordings. Live broadcasting is more important for me than replaying recordings, as most recordings themselves actually do not bear too much scrutiny from the technical standpoint. The speaker makes good clean sound that keeps musical balances lucid. I ask for no more on recordings.
Strangely the old Troughline really does show the problems with modern popular music recordings [as played on the radio], but fortunately I have no interest in pop records as such.
Over the years I came to the conclusion that almost all the "hifi" shops I knew had a strange breed for sales people. Most really wanted to play their own music, which was useless for me. The only shop I knew that let me play what I wanted was the now defunct Audio Excellence in Worcester.
The now defunct English Audio in Hereford certainly lost a sale when they told me that Artur Schnabel's [1932] EMI recording of Beethoven's First Piano Concerto was not good enough to show off the Castle Severns that I wanted to try out! I commented that it was important that the speakers could still do well on what is not a poor recording for its time [in a wonderful Abbey Road transfer to CD], and one of the great recorded performances of the music yet released. Naturally that was the end of the demo, as I pointed out that none of my selected recordings were from the top draw technically. Not good enough for the Castle Severns ...
Anyway, I never really got into hifi at the top level, and have given up the search for anything better than I have. But the demise of many "hifi" retailers is at least in part due to the strangeness of the a fair proportion of the sales staff in all likelihood in my view.
Best wishes from George
Tarzan
pfm Member
Once went to pick up a T/T that had a new cartridge fitted at a time agreed by both parties.... got to the dealers ( which was an hours drive away) to find they had not attached said cartridge to my T/T , " because it was not in stock"
…. however another thing that made me very angry indeed was the person who was serving me was as drunk as a Lord.... so l refused to leave the shop until they fulfilled my order.... so they sent a cab to the nearest hifi shop and luckily enough they had the cartridge and was fitted in the original shop...the 'loaded' chap did not fit it!That was in the late 80's was steaming at the time, however with the passing of time laugh about it now.
TheDecameron
Unicorns fart glitter.
There’s a wide range of shall we say ‘customer handling’ abilities among dealers. Most of them get it right- seek to understand their customer then aim to please them, put credit card through machine and look forward to long relationship. The poor ones are in the minority but they do stick in your mind and for years!
I went into a hi end ( interesting brands, very high prices) one recently and came out the door speculating that I’d been dealing with the son of the owner, I went home Googled and turned out my surmise was correct. He started off ok asking me about what stuff I owned so I gave him a sample of some of the stuff I currently listen to and why I bought it. This is where things went off road quite quickly. “ Oh that! We had it for a while but it wasn’t very good, it’s really a lifestyle product, not proper hifi. See this over here? It proper hifi, even the type of metal is chosen for its sound property etc etc etc”. I just nodded appreciatively and made my exit once he’d paused for breath.
There was another guy who used to do this 20 odd years ago but he’s gone from that particular business. It actually became quite funny as in - how long will he take to ask what you had then trash it in front of you. It’s as though they’d both been on a selling course and completely misunderstood the section on “find out what car your customer drives then ask him what he likes about it and how he would improve on it”. They both had it as “find out what car your customer drives then show him you think he’s an ignoramus for making such an error of judgement”.
But. Most are good, some are great.
pjdowns
Living the Hifi dream
Personally, I hate dealer bias.
I went to one establishment, who name will remain nameless that brought out 4 different boxes from the same brand, one after the other and when I said that I was not a fan of the sound, they said something along the lines of I clearly didn't understand what I was hearing. Suffice to say I didn't buy anything from them!
I also dislike manufactures and dealers who call potential customer idiots, it might be true but you never should speak to a potential customer like that. Makes no sense whatsoever.
I went to one establishment, who name will remain nameless that brought out 4 different boxes from the same brand, one after the other and when I said that I was not a fan of the sound, they said something along the lines of I clearly didn't understand what I was hearing. Suffice to say I didn't buy anything from them!
I also dislike manufactures and dealers who call potential customer idiots, it might be true but you never should speak to a potential customer like that. Makes no sense whatsoever.