Yes, sir see above.
Welcome to Europe. Citizen‘s pay more than 20% sales tax and multi nationals are located in Amsterdam as mailbox offices which entitles them to escape any tax on dividends that applies in other countries where citizens pay around 10% tax.
2 Likes
That is a pissah my friend.
Well, I’m not complaining lol.
I just don’t understand why internationals are complaining about the “mail order” only option when they have a dealer option at home.
There is one dealer in Norway, and the country is 2500km long. But they are great and ship for home trial just like PS Audio do in US.
3 Likes
There are relatively few dealers in the UK, most seem to carry limited product range and I’ve never been to a PS Audio dealer demo. I have bought three PS Audio products, one on recommendation, one on a home trial and one on a whim. It will be interesting to see which dealers stock these speakers.
I see there is a new dealership in Scotland called HiFI Gallery. Started in business a year ago. So who said dealers are a dead business model?
In the UK there is no trade-in an very difficult to sell used items.
3 Likes
I love to hear about new dealers!!
1 Like
Yes, Outside the United States all sales are handled through our distributors who then engage with dealers.
3 Likes
So this international talk had me thinking. Canada is close to me. London Ontario is about 3 hours or so away - a ps audio dealer. Hmmm.
Parts Connexion in the GTA is a dealer.
I found another new PS Audio dealer, another business that only started 12 months ago. It’s called Ultimate Stream Ltd and seems to sell only streaming related products. So besides Amphion, the only speakers it sells are active streamers - Grimm, Kii, D&D, KEF LS50. Seems a very sensible business model, somewhere you can actually go and compare streamers.
So I suspect it will sell the Octave streamer, but not the FR30 speakers.
https://ultimate-stream.co.uk/
1 Like
More real world evidence that brick and mortar audio dealers are thriving and expanding, not contracting and dying. Agree with timm above LOVE to hear about new dealers because it’ll attract more new people to audio and give the rest the of us more chance to get our hands on gear and compare things head to head.
The shops I’ve visited this month have never had more hi-end gear on display on the floor than they do now. It is noticeable. One place had two Marantz PM-10 amps, which I think go for $10k, in same room, one in each color! I did a double-take and asked why two of such an expensive piece? They said people just like to see the color choices in person and it leads to sales. Dang. Three years ago they probably had 3-4 turntables on display. Last night when I picked up the GAIA footers they had ordered for me I counted 12 turntables and a display rack of collector vinyl.
Walk in and take a listen, folks, and see for yourself.
What I’ve also noticed is they are taking in a lot more gear on trade (a result of thriving sales), and then displaying that gear (as a used piece for sale) in some cases on the floor. Why is that cool? Because you can sometimes be surprised by an opportunity to audition a brand you didn’t expect to be able to because the store doesn’t normally carry. Got a chance to hear some ProAC speakers for first time recently in passing. Very cool. Good time to be an audio enthusiast, that is for sure
My dealer has just taken on MBL Radialstrahler speakers (around $100k), Engstrom amplifiers, the whole Zanden range with mono blocks at around $100k and two phono amps at around $35k and $70k. They have also taken on the range of Rose streamers, which have proven an instant hit.
My experience is that dealers have to be selective to avoid becoming a box warehouse, in which case they might as well be online only. They stock stuff that sells, or they think can sell, and if it doesn’t they drop it. You end up with quite a few dealers selling fairly similar stock. Some manufacturers will allow two dealers next to each other to stock their kit (like Naim), others ensure there is a good distance between dealers (like Harbeth). PS Audio will have to compete for floor space just like everyone else.
2 Likes
That’s a good point. To keep it fresh, dealers are constantly evaluating new brands to possibly carry, especially in times like these. If you are on good terms with the salesperson you can really get some good intel on gear that they aren’t yet invested in based on these auditions, and sometimes they’ll invite you to listen and offer your opinion head to head against stuff they carry. That is really fricken cool
You’re blessed in London. There are whole (industry) countries where you don’t find such dealers anymore.
2 Likes
I was meant to be going to an Engstrom/MBL demo last weekend, was otherwise engaged. It would have been interesting.
1 Like
We only have a very few good audio dealers in Central London, most are out of town (but well within reach) because there is more and cheaper space. The new one in Scotland is on a farm, halfway between Edinburgh and Perth.
I think Edinburgh is better served, it has one massive place called HifI Corner that must be one of the best stocked hifi dealers anywhere.
I think people hark back to the “good old days” thinking there were loads of audio stores. My recollection is that they sold audio, TV and radio. Specialist AV is a growing industry. TV’s are mostly sold online on very thin profit margins. I got mine, the latest models, from CostCo who discount everything. I just got an email from CostCo, they are selling new MacBooks announced this week cheaper than Apple direct. So you get audio left on its own, so you really don’t need that many stores. In the last 10 years here in the UK I don’t recall any closing and there have been quite a lot of new ones. An audio store specialising in streaming would have been almost impossible 10 years ago.
This is very different from my experience in the States. We previously had many dedicated boutique stores which sold only audio. These continue to disappear, a long term trend.
5 Likes
Here in Atl area, in the early 2000s there were 5 stores that I frequented and 2 or 3 other ones. Now there is Hi-Fi Buys, and one other one that I’m aware of. There are a plethora of home A/V places but they’re mainly just storefronts and barely stock any gear (if at all).
2 Likes