Best way to buy speaker cables is to stroll into the audio "salon" with a 10 foot pair of large gauge radio shack speaker wires rolled up in your hand. Tell him you are looking for something that sounds better, but costs less. This will get his attention...and let him know right up front that YOU know what you are doing...and that YOU are not a person to be lied to. Seriously...all salesmen are trained to explain the features/benefits of the products they sell and explain why they are superior to the competition. This gets harder to do when their product is not obviously better...or is in fact obviously worse than the competition. Even harder still when the differences (as is the case with audio cables) are highly subjective when used with so many different componets. At this point, the salesmen with less skill and /or product knowledge will then tend to "dis" the competition. I personally would not buy from a salesman that does this...but being a salesman myself and knowing the hobby pretty well, will usually end up speaking with the manager or owner. When buying IC or speaker cable I always ask to take demo pair home to try in my system at home. If I decide this is what I want, I go back to the store, without the demos, and offer him 70% of retail for the demos or offer to bring the demos back tomorrow. NO ONE has ever asked me to bring the demo back. At the very least, this will establish a relationship with the manager/owner of the store and remember...he is a salesman too. The best way to keep from being lied to is to do your homework and be a knowledgeable buyer. Over time, when you walk into the business...the less-than-knowledgeable sales folks will head to the back of the store. If they don't, I ask them to replace the "big buck" speaker cables in their most expensive "reference" system on display with my radio shack wires and ...
Is my Salesman telling the Truth?
I stopped by my local hifi salon yesterday and my sales guy was blabbing how much cardas sucks and taralabs are so much better. Since the topic of cable preference is a very personal/subjective issue, I decided not to touch it with a 3 meter pole. He then goes on to say that network cables such as Transparent and MIT doesn't do a thing for single wire post speakers (non-biwire). I understand that most sales guys are knowledgeable and would never lie to make a sale (yeah right), but can some one comfirm or explain why this is? Thanks in advance.