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Could an "evidence based" HiFi retailer ever be commercially viable?

raistlin65

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Meaning....?

I only assume Audio Advisor is just a list of things that can be bought.

Did you think there was some implication that the items were curated?

I never thought that.

Same for Crutchfield, Amazon, etc.

I live in Grand Rapids. So one time I ordered speakers for pick up from Audio Advisor. I fully expected them to have some kind of showroom. They are just a warehouse order place. No showroom at all.
 

MakeMineVinyl

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Uh, yeah :facepalm:
 

cistercian

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They are an online retailer heavily invested in selling cables.
I am using amazon basic XLR cables between my DAC and amp. About 8 dollars each or 16 bucks a pair for 6 foot cables.
On the site you listed a pair of XLR cables the same length was 149.95. Yikes!
 

CDMC

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MakeMineVinyl

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You guys are weird.

If I want to look at porn, I just look at real porn, not audio catalog models.
That's kind of the point. Until recently shall we say non-scientific messaging was used to sell audio gear.
 

Sal1950

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I live in Grand Rapids. So one time I ordered speakers for pick up from Audio Advisor. I fully expected them to have some kind of showroom. They are just a warehouse order place. No showroom at all.
That is a surprise, I also just assumed they had a showroom up there. When I was still living in Chicago I always had this idea in the back of my mind that I was going to take a ride by and check out the place, good thing I never bothered.
I've been doing business with them for 30+ years and I will say this about AA, every time I reached out by phone they offered the most polite and enjoyable customer service I ever experienced. I was buying new VTL power amps from them at a time that when I called, Wayne Schuurman would many times answer the phone personally. They always bent over backwards to make sure I was completely happy including shipping one VTL stereo amp, taking it back and shipping out a pair of monoblocks in exchange, and again taking that pair back in exchange for a second pair due to a problem with the first pair and all the shipping was on their dime. All this was done without so much as a minor whine. I've bought a schettload of gear from them and will always give them first shot at a sale if they have what I'm interested in, loyalty works both ways.
I've had similar experience with Crutchfield, truely outstanding customer service.
I do miss the days of brick and mortar stores and being able to go out and tire kick on a weekend or day off. But also remember the looks, being ignored, and getting the "what are you doing in here Mr Dirty Biker?" interactions that sometime came with it. :mad:
 

watchnerd

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But also remember the looks, being ignored, and getting the "what are you doing in here Mr Dirty Biker?" interactions that sometime came with it. :mad:

When I was in my late 20s / early 30s, I remember having to dress up to go to the high end audio store.
 

MakeMineVinyl

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And it was a strange fetish pre-Internet, too.

It's not like Hustler, Penthouse, etc, didn't exist in the 1980s as an alternative.

1980s-Yamaha-stereo.jpg
But Hustler and Playboy didn't have test reports!
 

Sal1950

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When I was in my late 20s / early 30s, I remember having to dress up to go to the high end audio store.
Well if you wanted to play into that game, that would be the way to do it.
I'd just pull up on my HD chopper with straight pipes, rap the throttle and then walk in. LOL
 

MakeMineVinyl

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raistlin65

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Well, duh.

They're an online retailer.

This was like 10 years ago when many online ordering places were emerging from actual physical stores.

B&H Photo, Adorama, and Sweetwater have a store. Vanns, which used to be a very good place to buy speakers online, had a store. I'm guessing you never heard of Saturday Audio Store out of Chicago which used to be a great place to order open box and used speakers.

And I think Parts Express has one, too, if you live in Ohio. I hear they have a big clearance sale once a year.
 

Inner Space

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But also remember the looks, being ignored, and getting the "what are you doing in here Mr Dirty Biker?" interactions that sometime came with it. :mad:

I remember that too. One time, at the height of the boutique-store boom, I went in with a friend, an old black guy in a cheap suit, looking like the super from a low-rent building. I probably looked like I had just gotten out of jail. The store was empty, but the owner ignored us completely while he fiddled with a huge system playing a just-out recording of a jazz trio. We coughed and shuffled and eventually left. What the owner didn't know was that the old guy was the piano player on the record, and I was the mastering engineer.
 

cistercian

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I remember that too. One time, at the height of the boutique-store boom, I went in with a friend, an old black guy in a cheap suit, looking like the super from a low-rent building. I probably looked like I had just gotten out of jail. The store was empty, but the owner ignored us completely while he fiddled with a huge system playing a just-out recording of a jazz trio. We coughed and shuffled and eventually left. What the owner didn't know was that the old guy was the piano player on the record, and I was the mastering engineer.
Classic. I have seen the same stuff play out many times. The scruffy rich man who was ignored and bought a huge purchase somewhere else.
Judging a book by it's cover is stupid...and sometimes costly.
 

Doodski

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I remember that too. One time, at the height of the boutique-store boom, I went in with a friend, an old black guy in a cheap suit, looking like the super from a low-rent building. I probably looked like I had just gotten out of jail. The store was empty, but the owner ignored us completely while he fiddled with a huge system playing a just-out recording of a jazz trio. We coughed and shuffled and eventually left. What the owner didn't know was that the old guy was the piano player on the record, and I was the mastering engineer.
In the 9 years with 5 years of that being on straight commission when I was a salesperson retailing home audio I never assumed customers where poor and not buyers and that paid off greatly for me. I developed a following of loyal customers that brought referrals (sometimes a little weird, demanding or grinders) and I broke the all time record for average profit margin with my methodology. One never knows who he/she is talking to and all the customers should be taken care of properly. :D
 
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