Would you pay to listen?


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Just curious, would you pay to listen to a
$100k system? Say a one hour session for twenty bucks?

Assuming the room is great and you have vinyl and cd and your choice of solid state or tubes. Also assuming you'd have the best matched system that $100k could buy.

How much would you pay to hear a $200k system? No pressure or expectation to buy anything, just plunk down your twenty and enjoy the music. BYO drinks of course.

I'm sure I'd pay if there were such a place.
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mitch4t
hi mitch 4t:

in principle, based upon your paradigm of the context of the listening environment you propose, i would not pay to listen. there is no justification in my mind to pay for listening to a pre-owned stereo system , regardless of its alleged quality.
The so-called high-end dealers should perform a credit check first, before honoring such requests. Audi dealers do that in a very subtle way. You sure don't want an used car buyer to test drive an brand new Audi for the hack of it.

;-)
Mr tennis would you pay to be able to compare what your system can do vs a 100k system can do?
I would think most of the audiophiles have that question in the back of their mind;it is something I do think about but in reality will probally never be answered.
If an audio dealer wanted to check my credit before letting me listen to THINGS THEY WERE TRYING TO GET ME TO BUY, they would never again see me or my hard earned money. Is there some weird cult of salespeople worship going on here? At a fave museum of mine you can stand right in front of a Van Gogh with a swiss army knife in your pocket, and that sucker is worth more than any hifi gear (the painting, not my little knife). I don't think any damage can be done to audio gear by listening to it. Test driving a car has obvious risks. I played a friend's $200,000 guitar once (59 Les Paul Standard)...I could have dropped it I suppose, but hey, life is risks! Also, when I listen to some amazing music on my system late at night I think, "man...this sounds like a million bucks".