Adventures in Table Shopping


At nearby Goodwin's High End recently I was turntable shopping (My Linn Basik/Akito is getting a little old but still works great) and the "Turntable Expert" there (older, distinguished looking dude) who was assisting me first utterly ignored my query about a Pro-Ject "The Classic" table I was thinking about (really…like I was speaking Mandarin), and was only interested in pushing a Rega P3 with a Funk Firm arm and a Hana cart. Sends the unused Rega arms to Sota he said. Fine. He gets a Funk arm for me to look at and doesn't notice it's just a Rega and not the Funk arm and fumbles it back into the box, noting he doesn't have the Funk arm. Oh well…he lopes  off to help somebody with a speaker (no biggie)…at some point notes that he is a huge Linn user, has 3 modded and "special" ones, loves MC cartridges, and says you shouldn't use them with metal platters (Linn freak…aluminum isn't magnetic…weird again). He's busy to some degree (and there's literally 3 customers there) and I ask him to write down the model of the Funk Firm arm and I'll look it up later…he writes it on his card and off I go (although I had wandered around the store for a while to look at the exotica…sweet…). I get home and when I try to find the arm, the model number for the arm doesn't exist anywhere including the Funk Firm site, and realized this person is the poster boy for what's wrong with high end audio. I now doubt that Goodwin's will ever see any of my cash, and, hopefully I'll never see that dude again. Lame, but not totally unexpected. I had a better experience there a couple of years ago, but they didn't have a Linn belt to sell me and weren't very interested in getting me one, so, again, meh...
wolf_garcia

Showing 4 responses by wolf_garcia

Yeah…they're more or less nice as advertised ("no pressure"), but I would like a little more professionalism from supposed professionals…when I'm hired to run the sound for a serious show I don't think…meh…I'll just do an "ok" job. 
I’ve been to Goodwin’s before and it was OK except for the lack of belts for my Linn…this time it was simply too weird to not mention. I realize I can get a new table online with zero hastle, and am attracted to the Pro-Ject because it seems inexpensive for what it is…good reviews also. Note the dude at Goodwin’s wasn’t exactly "pressuring" me, I simply feel that sales people need to have listening skills as well as product understanding. He scoffed at my simple Sumiko Pearl cart which I completely get…it’s very cheap…but it sounds amazing and I seriously doubt this guy knew that, but it’s FINE. I’ll go to Goodwin’s again someday maybe, but since I rarely need anything they sell it’s no big deal. I know a guy who works at Natural Sound so I never have issues there really…and they said they’re getting a "Classic" table in soon that I can at least check out. Note there's no section in audio asylum called "playback" that is obvious, so that's that.
Raymonda…got the link…thanks. Regarding the Sumiko Pearl, I bought a highly regarded AT440MLA  and it sounded screechy with too much treble, or at least unlistenable so off it went…the Pearl was recommended by the Natural Sound dude and he was absolutely correct about the sound…so good I re-tipped it a few months ago.
My Pearl wasn't so much a re-tip as a replacement stylus for 45 bucks from the Needle Doctor.