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Audiophile 'Attitude'

Okay, we love our hobby: we love the music, the equipment, the esoterica, and the deranged quest for perfection the likes of which would make even the greats of classical composition shake their heads. But you've got to admit that there exists a certain 'attitude' among some of our group that can be..... difficult. Often this is sexist, arrogant, elitist, impatience, and so on. I think this would be a fertile ground for interesting stories, some humorous and some just jaw dropping. Would anyone like to share? Remember, there are many stories about those other folks outside the hobby who don't get our brilliance and force us to painfully tolerate their ignorance, I'm talking 'bout the other side: WHEN
AUDIOPHILES GO BAD!

I will gladly start: when my wife and I decided to sell our entire Vandersteen home theater (this is different tale of audiophile arrogance, btw) we started looking for a new brand and a new sound to replace my
formerly beloved Vandys. My first 'target' was Martin Logan. It just so happened that there was a ML dealership less than a mile from where I lived at the time in Champaign, IL. Wonderful I thought! So my wife and I toddled over there.

Now it should be noted that my wife has become quite an audiophile herself. She wasn't this way when we met, but she has become fairly well educated in matters of audiophillia, she has an excellent ear, and she is a brilliant woman (she is a vice president for Bank of America after all). So we choose much of our equipment together.

So we go into this ML dealership with about four CDs In hand to get a brief audition and ask to hear some MLs. Instead of going straightaway to letting us listen the salesman decides he needs to try and 'sell' us on the MLs, the very speakers we'd come to hear in the first damn place! So after tolerating his drivel for a few minutes my wife's asks a question. Instead of answering her, he answers me.... then he turns to my wife and, while pointing to that screen with holes that MLs have on so many of their speakers, he says, "now this isn't here so you can hang clothes to dry."

It honestly took me a second to realize what he had just said and I think my wife wafinally looted. After a couples seconds I said, "well, I guess we won't want these speakers then." And we walked out. We also scratched Martin Logan off of our list. No one treats my wife that way.

Okay, your turn....
aewhistory
minorl
740 posts
 
Most serious dealers have demonstration equipment which is basically brand new equipment set up in their stores for people to listen. I know the market is slow right now for many reasons. price that some people feels is wayy too high is one reason. So, allowing customers that are serious to take a piece home for a week or so to demo in their home is a great idea. Again, this is for serious customers. To prevent looky loos, charge a nominal fee for such service if necessary. For your regular customer that you know are good, serious customers, this isn't an issue. For high priced equipment, even for used equipment, my favorite store allows me and others to take demonstration equipment or used equipment home for in-home audition. this is a direct quote from my salesperson to a friend of mine in the store. "He said that he heard that (my first name) "I'm not spending anymore money" Minorl was in the store over the weekend." this is an inside joke because I tell him every time I visit that I have no intention of spending money and many times I walk away with something. Anyway, without such brick and motar stores to provide this much needed service, people would purchage on-line, have the equipment delivered to only find out that it really doesn't work well in their system, and they made a serious mistake. In the past many "high end" stores carried upper mid fi, lower high end and high end equipment to give people choices. Many times manufactures would insist that if you wanted to carry my stupidly expensive high end stuff, you also had to carry my crap equipment. Now this has changed, where the store can dictate many times what level of a certain manufacturer's equipment they want to carry and they also transistioned over to really popular home theater equipment to cover that market and stay in business. There are many high end stores in the Los Angeles area, however, over the years I have had tried them and found that traveling to San Diego is fun for me and the store I frequent there is much more accomodating and friendly.

enjoy
chayro
1,801 posts
 
08-28-12: Taters
I also had an experience with David Weinhard. This was about 10 years ago when he owned Ambrosia. I was looking for a tube amp and he told me that tubes were garbage and that I should come aboard the 21 century. I recently looked at his website and he is now carrying tube gear. This guys opinion changes with the wind.

I wouldn't exactly call changing one's opinion 10 years later "changes with the wind". I've known other dealers who previously eschewed tube gear change their minds as the newer tube gear is substantially more reliable. Although MAC was pretty reliable in the old days. Plus, with tube gear, a dealer has to deal with warranty issues with guys sticking god-knows-what tube substitutions in the gear and then bringing it back to the dealer when it fails.
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
4,494 posts
 
The stuff costs too much, and for no apparent reason. The MSRPs are just arbitrary. I was reading about an amp today that sells for or sold for 31,000 dollars. The specs were not as good as my 299.00 amp. Now I know what most of you will say about specs, but hell, we are speaking of 3oo dollars verus 31,000 dollars. Really? That is the basic problem with 'high-end' audio. You can't HEAR or SEE anything that justifies the prices being asked. It's a tough sell for the high end dealers and if you delete all the nonsense in this hobby, it's an impossible sell.
Cheers.
minorl
740 posts
 
It's not the specs that matter as you are relating them. It is the R&D work, parts, construction, overhead, amount of units you expect to sell, market, etc. that establish the price. Specially made parts that costs way more than off the shelf parts. these all contribute to the price. I was told recently that Boulder markets their equipment, not really for the American consumer, but for overseas consumers that want huge, monsterously large American equipment. Therefore, they are constructed and sold that way for the overseas market. At least that is what I was told. Now, I do like Boulder equipment, but, yes, in my opinion, they are seriously overpriced. However, I can tell you that I can see and hear audible differences between low end and high end equipment. I'm not justifying the prices, but Take Boulder's $40,000 amp vs a $299 Yamaha low fi amp in a revealing system and there will be a jaw dropping difference in sound. The real question is what level of sound reproduction do you want? What makes a person want to get up from the listening chair and leave the room? Listener's fatigue? What causes it? On a good recording can you close your eyes and tell where the artists are on the stage? how large the stage is? dimensionality? space, depth? Or can you tell you are listening to speakers? is something or somethings missing? This to me is the difference between background music and actually listening to music. I enjoy music and music reproduction enough that I want a system that is as realistic as I can get.(that I can afford). this is why many of us upgrade a piece at a time until we are "there".

enjoy
dayglow
708 posts
 
I think it was 90' or 91' when I went to hear the Mirage M1. I made it clear to the salesman that the M1 was not in my budget but want to upgrade my Sony cdp. The M1 room had Mark Levinson and Proceed gear. He told me not to touch the Proceed cdp that it's a $3k player, I replied that I was considering a Meridian. He mumbled "sure you are" so I knew this guy was an a**h***! He then said he had to make a phone call(lol). After 3 or 4 tracks played I was left waiting for at least 10 minutes. I decided to take matters in my own hands! I put on Abraxas raised the volume and couldn't believe the 3D/holographic sound the M1 created. By the time Black Magic Woman was playing 5 or 6 people were in the M1 demo room. He abruply stormed in the room and shut everything down and said "I have customers to take care of". The funny thing was everyone was in the M1 room, try selling those godawful $1000 speakers after they heard the M1's!!!
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