Best Manufacturer's Website Features

Im always disappointed if a site does not clearly list features such as preamp out on int.amps or how many inputs/outputs on preamps. Also, quality pictures are a must. A tiny sidebar pic of a speaker doesnt encourage me to show it to my wife! Some speakers have a gorgeous wood finish but you would never know from their website. Reminds me of when a car mag has a scoop on some new car and all you get are fish-eye lens views that leave you wondering what the hell it looks like (and what were they are thinking?).

I'd put pdfs of manuals as an essential. I've also really appreciated that some mfrs have put downloadable Pronto ccfs for their gear. Related links--user forums/lists would also be a plus...

Accuphase lists all of their vintage products and their years of production allowing me to research such items as their T101 tuner. This is a great feature because quality manufacturers which have been around 20+ years still have many products in use.

I agree PDF manuals (service manuals would be nice too), and Good images are key. Martin Logan does a good job with this. CJ has a nice section on vintage products - also a good thing.

For a few reasons, most sites will not have the following:

* Suggested retail prices for ALL products

- prices change, thus chances are a possibility of the site getting out of sync with prices, exists. Also, given currency fluctuation, would encourage grey market shopping from countries where the prices may not always be in line 100% with each other.

* An accurate list of dealers and what part of the line each one carries

- Not likely. Too easy to simply spam them all with some bottom-feeder email like "what's your best price, will you sell for $X? "... manufacturers and dealers don't want that. also encourages selling out of territory, a big no-no with manufacturers.

* Links to the dealer's website if they have one

- helpful, but see above.

I like one where you can have a zip-code lookup of your nearest dealer, it gets the info to the buyer without listing all the dealers in a big list.

Other nice things:

-many images, esp. of factory/production.
-updated news page with real news about what is going on there, developments, etc.
-interviews, links/copies of reviews, etc.

-Ed

I appreciate an up to date website with all the new products listed and their features. In the past since I am a Mac man, they have been horrible at doing this. It's almost like they do not want to sell their products. Always more engineering instead of sales related.