Admittedly, a logical alternative for only ~1/3 of the pop. But I’m sure there are other “oasis dealers” in other major metro areas that could serve the rest.
To me, anyway, the trip would be worth it if I was able to compare several speakers of interest under the same conditions. Audiophiles travel to attend the various shows, after all.
And, yeah, I would totally travel to Italy for bespoke seats for my Ferrari. It would be on a private jet, too, if I could afford one of those.
I agree; such a trip could well be worth it if one could directly compare several pairs of speakers in contention for purchase. Years ago audiophiles could readily do this. Sadly, no more.
Suncoast Audio in Sarasota is getting to the level of Overture. They currently carry and stock Avant Garde, B&W, Magico, Harbeth, Steinheim, Gryphon, Fyne, MBL and Vivid and multiple models of each.
What I’ll say is before I purchased my speakers, Spendor D7, I gave serious in-store demos (meaning at least 30 minutes of listening) to at least two dozen speakers across 4 different dealers, over a four month period. With the D7 I probably listened across three amps, at least four demos, probably 3 hours total. I am confident that I got the best speakers for me under $10k.
I live in a metro area about the size of Denver.
This narrative that there is nowhere to listen to speakers is hogwash, but it takes legwork. One may have to travel a bit. But aren’t the speakers under discussion here about $20k?
I’m glad some of you guys are near oasis. I’m in Atlanta and the options are going the way of the dodo. Years ago we had a bunch of dealers - hell, I used to work at one. Now, the few that are left don’t stock anything. You walk in and the expected hi-fi experience has been reduced to looking at Crestron hardware and projectors.
And no, I’m not traveling 500 miles (or whatever). I’ll get them in my house and listen in my room, with my equipment, on my chair. With my drink. If I like what I’m hearing I’ll keep them. If not, send them back and order something different.
I thought Alan at HiFi Buys stocked a pretty good selection especially at that new store he built a couple of years ago. Also I’m almost six hours away from Mike at Suncoast I just know what he has in the store from the talk on his forum, AudioShark, and all the members in his area that are in there on a regular basis. He has even sold several of the MBL Extreme systems this year.
Holy crap you may be right (just checked their site). Years ago I worked at a Hifi Buys and there wasn’t anything particularly interesting. I’ve never even bothered looking there. Curiously, they apparently carry Magnepan but earlier this year when I was shopping Maggies they didn’t come up as a dealer.
Did you work at the old original HiFi Buys back when Walter was part owner? I think Alan built this new store up in the high income area North of Atlanta by the new stadiums. I bought a pair of Vandersteen Treo CT’s from him in 2014 before he moved and changed the name. At that point he was the only Vandersteen dealer in the Southeast and may be again after Mike at Suncoast dropped them.
Are dealers more common and have a more vibrant business in some countries?
I don’t need to argue about it because I’ve done it. And now others it seems are pointIng you towards where to look in your own city.
But as I said previously, if you prefer the direct model and buying on faith, that is great. I won’t try to change your mind. Have at it.
Just don’t tell me it is impossible to demo speakers, because it is not impossible. It requires legwork, yes, and perhaps travel.
It was a ton of effort to do all of those demos, but now I feel I have a great understanding of what is out there for speakers from $4k-$10k. I had never heard of Spendor when I started, and if I’d have just bought on faith I’d have another pair of B&W like last time but which in my hierarchy when all was said and done weren’t even in my top 7
So it was worth the effort for me. YMMV
For a very large percentage of buyers travel of multiple hours is going to be a prerequisite as the higher end stocking stores have only survived in areas with large concentrations of population and more importantly disposable income. The second factor is what has driven the rapid growth of Suncoast Audio. A large concentration of high income retirees has been more important than the shear population numbers which have to come from the Tampa Bay area.
Honestly I have no memory of who owned it. It was a looong time ago.
If it was the one with multiple stores that sold out to Tweeters then Walter from Underwood HiFi was one of the owners. He and his partner released the name to Alan about five years ago for his new store.
So I did something similar. I have paragon sight and sound 2 miles from me. They carry all the really expensive stuff. I listened to everything from 200 k Wilson’s to Mac line arrays /Sonus Fabre Strats/ and b&w 802d3. I drove 5 hours to Evanston and heard the Maggie 20.7 which is what I bought. There are two other dealers fairly close to me as well - one had the Maggie 3.7.
Every time I go listen to something I am looking for a sonic signature. I know things are different at home - but ‘ no duh’. Anything that has impressed me in a dealer has impressed me at home. And if it didn’t sound as good - I knew there were things I could do to get it there.
CM Audio a store in Mönchengladbach Germany, approx 100 km from where I live, ship speaker sets for home listening. You can visit their store or on line shop, to narrow your selection down, and select a couple of pairs you like to listen to in your home environment (with your own system) for the final choice.
They sell trough entire Germany and get best mouth to mouth advertisement in the scene.
One does not need to be without the other.
Buchardt Audio charges EUR 25 for returning the speakers if you don’t like them and Abacus and Quadral charge a couple of hundred Euro for trying their large speakers at home. And if you buy them you return the test package without any charge and get a brand new set delivered.
Your home and own system is arguably the best place to decide if you really want to drop your life times savings on that pair of speakers.
Both, dealers and manufacturers need to be more inventive.
Personally I like the Buchardt and Abacus direct sales structure knowing my money goes into better features and quality rather than a once in a life time service from a dealer. On the other hand if a dealer like CM Audio is inventive and dares to send me a couple of speaker pairs home to support my decision process I would be happy to buy there too.
I once took the effort to take half a day out of our vacation time to try and convince my wife to buy a Thorens turntable and show it to her. The dealer, a different one than CM Audio, advertised to be Thorens, Transrotor and Clearaudio dealer. The further above described scenario happened.
The dealer had no Thorens on stock and in his eager to try and sell us something he burned the Thorens idea down badly and tried to sell my wife the Transrotor off shore drilling rig for which we needed to buy new shelves due to the weight. When we asked the dealer to allow us to listen he said that it was not currently connected. On the way back my wive asked me never to take her on such useless exercise again.
So why bother going there and my wife just saw her case confirmed not to waste money buying expensive Stereo gear.
When I demo’d the S400’s Mad’s paid for the shipping back and even offered to let me keep them for longer than the 30 days but they just didn’t work out for the situation I was going to use them for so back they went.
I guess it was Walter (it was a looong time ago). I had planned to visit the (apparently new) new store in Buckhead earlier this year but then covid hit and everything went to hell.
Now Burchardt started to charge EUR 25 to avoid abuse of that system. The EUR 25 are peanuts compared to European gasoline and parking costs that you need to spend to visit the dealer.
Mads is a really nice guy and his engineer friend that came over from Dynaudio is a real find. The 400 just didn’t work for me as it needs to be played loud to sound right which is the same conclusion Srajen came to after I sent mine back. Wouldn’t hesitate to try another of his products if the need came up.
