teo_audio, where do you get the notion that the dealer makes more profit than the manufacturer??? I used to be a dealer for Wisdom, Talon, Electrocompaniet, Spendor, Sim Audio, Sim2Seleco, TacT, Myryad and a number of other manufacturers. What do you think my margins were before rent, medicare, FICA, insurance, CC fees, utilities, forget paying anyone for any labor? What percentage do you think would make a break-even? Do you know how manufacturers price their products? Especially the more high-end, extremely limited edition ones? I didn't mention cabling and other accessories which are all over the map from mass produced to handmade with exotic materials and expensive equipment required to produce them within a specific range of tolerances.
Have you ever wondered why speaker manufactures do not consign speakers to dealers?
How many of you have wanted to hear a pair of speakers and the dealer only has a pair of their low end speakers to listen to? I would say in most cases, dealers in Colorado have limited availability of speakers to listen to on their floor. How then is it possible to purchase a speaker without listening to it first? You would think speaker manufactures would want to sell their higher end speakers and consign at least three speaker models to dealers so they could have them available for their customers to listen to.