What's The Furthest/Longest You Have/Will Travel To Audition?

When I lived in L.A., I went to practically every high end store from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border. Yes, it's possible my memory is embellishing things here, but I'm pretty sure I went to a NAMM show in Las Vegas, thanks to my friendship with Todd Garfinkle of M.A. Recordings.

Three years ago, I rode my motorcycle about 600 miles (one way) from Detroit to Vestal, NY to audition some speakers at Audio Classics. I also took a tour of the nearby McIntosh Labs factory with one of the salespeople.

The trip was absolutely worth the effort, as they had a pair of used Magnepan .7 speakers that really sounded better than anything else I had heard for the money. Magnepan was totally off my radar until that trip.

I ended up buying a pair of Magnepan 1.7i new from a local dealer. I felt bad that I didn’t buy anything from Audio Classics on that trip, but after a year and a half I called them up and purchased a NOS McIntosh C47.

In today’s/current environment I only venture out for basic needs (food/medicine/DR’s appointments and most recently an auto repair) and I wear documented/certified KN95 masks when doing so.

I would not "fly" on a MILLION DOLLAR bet these days and as far as auditioning audio gear goes...

DeKay

From SE Michigan to Columbus Ohio(2001) to hear Spectral Audio gear. The Compact DMA-100s amp has to be one of the best sounding Spectral amps made. IMO it out classed the 360 mono amps, I had the funds and green light from my wife but the matching preamp was another 4-5k? which I would have to put on hold, so I decided to pass on purchasing that great amp. Notice you never see any on the used market..