Essay bashing Primedia, Stereophile - and Audiogon

Two years ago,when I knew ZERO about audio,I constructed my first system from pieces touted by Chip Stern in Stereophile.Yesterday I sold the (cue the reverent music) .hghly touted English cd player he is still pimping for--you know the brand ,they're in every issue, for less than half what I paid for it new,retail. Why? Because the Cary 308 kicked it's butt across the parking lot. When it comes to Whoredom,Chip Stern needs to look in the mirror...and DON"T get me started on Sam Tellig.

That Chip Stern felt the need to launch such an attack in the first place is the greatest endorsement for the validity and importance of Audiogon and its "circle" - as Rh said above, we're making an impact, as you can infer from Chip's neurotic tirade. Nrchy - loved your post.

Onhwy61's comments are correct but there is more to the whole picture. There is a simple fact in business that markets do saturate. Audiogon has created an efficient way to sell used equipment. The dying out of new equipment sales, which is the forte of brick and mortar, is much more related to the lack of interest in, and enthusiasm for, high end audio among younger generations. That there are so many available pieces of used equipment still in good functional shape just reflects the health of the industry in the past ten years. It also shows an overproduction of goods then relative to users now. Brick and mortar is simply the first place that the die back in audio shows up. Audiogon is not the cause.

I remember when Stereophile used to have about 8 pages of used gear ads at the back of the magazine. How is that different from used gear on the `gon? But as far as dealers go, there aren`t very many getting rich. They still have to make a profit so that they can stay open and eat. my 2 cents

Most brick&mortar stores don't have a clue about customer service anymore. They either want the quick sale, at full retail, or they want to do custom install work. The four high-end stores that i frequent all agree that retail is dead and that the money is in custom install. You would be suprised at what some of these guys get to pull audio cables through walls (mostly new construction). Most people today don't want to see the equipment, they just want to hear it and be simple to operate. I've gone into multi-million dollar homes where hundreds of thousands (over a million in one home) have been spent on whole-house audio/video and for the most part. the equipment comes from manufacturers such as Denon, Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, etc. Of course, the have a crestron or some kind of "smart remote" in every room. The sound is mid-fi at best, but they love it.

And as far as young people are concerned, MP3 is where it's at.

I'm rambling now.....

Enjoy the music,