Auditioning gear for purchase.. not in town


Greetings,
Especially after hanging out in these forums, one develops some nice "short lists" of good stuff when choosing equipment. Here is my question....

Many of the companies/items that are well regarding/reviewed are not available for audition in my city. My local dealer always lets me take pieces home to demo, but what to do when the piece is not in town? What do you folks do?
Ag insider logo xs@2xheadshrinker2

Showing 1 response by jeffb28451

JMc has my philosophy. I refuse to victimize dealers when I intend to buy from A'gon and I'm at a point where I just can't afford most of the stuff that I want at new prices.

Also, Audiogon is the only place where I can check out synergies: unfortunately, it's a "buy it and try it" method. Buy in right, A-B it and keep the one that works. I'm willing to lose $100-200 for that privilege, as I've found some really good stuff that I've heard at shows and in other systems just plain didn't work in my "system".

My so-called system used to be a cludge of nice, expensive parts, limited by what my local three state shopping area had to provide and dependent on my retailers own appropriate motives for price points and margins. Now, with some exposure to poorly or even unmarketed, but excellent, products and tweaking them with what I already have that I intend to keep, I have a "system", where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Sort of like my parents: when they had twins, they couldn't afford to keep both me and my brother. They decided to drown the ugly one. That's how I learned to swim.

I call it Audio Darwinism :). Aren't most Agoners like that?