I won't mention the retailers or the salespeople but two in particular influenced me by the awful experiences I had. These stories made me despise audio retailers and ultimately start my own speaker company.
The first guy reminded me of comic-book guy from the Simpsons both in aesthetics and his mannerisms. He mocked me for not knowing as much about DACs as he did. I foolishly asked about the relevance of Burr Brown vs. ESS chips. He then tried to sell me a $4000 integrated amp for a $500 pair of speakers and mocked me when I didn't want to spend that much. That store and that salesperson embodied most of what is wrong with this hobby.
Second one offers the other side of what is wrong IMO. I was auditioning a popular pair of very expensive >$5K stand mounted speakers. They sounded bad with all the music I was picking but great with the very esoteric tracks the sales rep was suggesting. When I asked him why that was the case, his comment was "because the music you listen too sucks."
I found the first people to be exclusionary to a point where if you don't study and know as much as they do, you must bow down and accept the wisdom of the all knowing audiophile. Who wants to be part of that hobby? Second, I have to change what music I listen too to have an extraordinary listening experience. That is also not a hobby i want to be part of.
These two reps and others like them made me want question whether I even wanted to bother with equipment anymore. Sales people are there to help consumers pick out products that solve the problems they have. Not mock them. And you should be able to listen to your music on your system and have an extraordinary listening experience. If not, why are we doing this?
The first guy reminded me of comic-book guy from the Simpsons both in aesthetics and his mannerisms. He mocked me for not knowing as much about DACs as he did. I foolishly asked about the relevance of Burr Brown vs. ESS chips. He then tried to sell me a $4000 integrated amp for a $500 pair of speakers and mocked me when I didn't want to spend that much. That store and that salesperson embodied most of what is wrong with this hobby.
Second one offers the other side of what is wrong IMO. I was auditioning a popular pair of very expensive >$5K stand mounted speakers. They sounded bad with all the music I was picking but great with the very esoteric tracks the sales rep was suggesting. When I asked him why that was the case, his comment was "because the music you listen too sucks."
I found the first people to be exclusionary to a point where if you don't study and know as much as they do, you must bow down and accept the wisdom of the all knowing audiophile. Who wants to be part of that hobby? Second, I have to change what music I listen too to have an extraordinary listening experience. That is also not a hobby i want to be part of.
These two reps and others like them made me want question whether I even wanted to bother with equipment anymore. Sales people are there to help consumers pick out products that solve the problems they have. Not mock them. And you should be able to listen to your music on your system and have an extraordinary listening experience. If not, why are we doing this?