Dealers and exaggerated treble

I live in Tucson. Only "dealer" is Best Buy. Found the opposite. They were demoing some equipment and the bass was too loud, slow and muddy. SMH and left. We had some really good dealers BITD. Don't know where to go now.

I was at a dealer in Chicago before Christmas last year. They had speakers that are said to be very good placed with the drivers about 2 ft. from the front wall. I listened to a few cuts with the salesman in the room. The soundstage was not there and the bass boomed noticeably. There was also a hole in the middle of the sound as the speakers were aiming straight ahead. I was there as a potential buyer of these speakers. I asked the dude if I could move them out as far as the cables would let me. Then I fine tuned them to angle more towards my shoulders. The speaker drivers were now about 5 ft. into a fairly large room. Now the stage was quite present in both directions, the bass was powerful and clean, but still organic sounding. The mids were fantastic in every way--the strength of this speaker. Another salesman heard our demo and came in to listen. The original salesman went out and came back with a third salesman. We all sat there for many more tunes and enjoyed ourselves completely. All 3 couldn’t believe how good those speakers could sound. This place has many listening rooms and is a very large building. The guys don’t take much time getting to know the other guys and gals working there much it seemed.

Could these guys not hear the needlessly poor sound before? I guess you don’t know what you don’t know. All these guys were pretty young, as in under 30. I’m 66, with most likely less fine hearing than I once had--but still pretty good. These speakers were ATC SCM40 speakers. I’d read much about them, but never heard them in person. Personally, I believe most millennials just don’t get into the sound much and have to be to doing at least one other thing with the music as a backdrop, but louder than a typical doctor’s office--they were reading or playing video games when we first started.

I’ve been to a dealer that had all the speakers bunched up on the same wall and around the room while demonstrating Magnepan 3.5’s. The sound was not good in any manner. I really don’t think I’ve heard a properly set up pair yet, except for the Magneplanar Tympani IV’s with Audio Research stuff back in the late 60’s. They WERE awesome then and probably still would be very nice with current stuff. Back then, the dealers really knew there stuff and the lines they carried. They knew how to get the best out of their speakers!

So yes, I’ve heard poor sound from most likely very good speakers at a dealers. The Golden Ear Ones were right next to the side wall and about 2 ft. out from the front wall. I asked the dealer if I could move them after a few tunes and he said indignantly that they sounder their best this way. In spite of their location, they still sounded pretty good at the time. If I were a betting man, I’d bet they could have sounded better out further, toed in some instead of straight ahead and much further from the front wall. It was a long and fairly skinny room--maybe 25 ft. x 12 ft

Bob

I’ve been to dealer showrooms where the room itself is a terrible place to listen. One I recently visited had a dozen systems placed around the main listening room. It was also littered with other equipment in racks and on shelves with accessories and junk piled everywhere. Nothing sounded good. I don’t think the staff there knows much about audio or how to set up a system. But there is no competition anywhere near them and that’s why they do well. The good news is anything you buy there has to sound better when you get it home. 

Yes, I've definitely experienced the "salespeople have no idea what they are doing" syndrome as well.


At least it is benign of intention.

Best,
E

Unfortunately,  if you don't know much or are just getting into the hobby this can happen.  Otherwise, there's no excuse for a bad demo - it's on you for not asserting yourself.  It doesn't matter what the dealer thinks sounds good - do your homework and come prepared.  I once hauled PCs on a 10 hour flight to make sure the demo was as useful as possible.  If the dealer is too lazy to listen to your requests find another one.