Contact For Price

Most high end audio companies carefully select their vendors. They do not allow them to discount the price, or within a very small amount or they will stop selling to them. 

This is not rigged to rip of the customer, this is rigged for survival. High end audio is not a lucrative business and cut throat competition will put them all out of business. So over the last decades they have learned to manage their sales end to preserve enough profit to survive. This means that if retailers are caught discounting they will loose ability to buy. I believe contracts are involved and the manufacturers manage sales territories so there are not too many covering the same area.

Everyone who thinks there is something underhanded about this is missing the mark, I think. The main reason is already listed - having pricing flexibility when wanting to go lower than the manufacturer’s MAP pricing requirements. 
 

I have also found that another retailer strategy is to list an item as used (and e.g., as a 9 out of 10) to be able to sell it for lower than MAP/MSRP, but when you receive the item you realize it’s a brand new unit. 

You’re thinking about it too much. Usually it’s a shop or salesman. It’s dumb for them not to do it as any made money is better than money you didn’t make.  There are always discounts. Distributors and manufacturers tell shops there’s a no discount policy simply because for the sake of one shop potentially being mad another is selling cheaper and they’re potentially losing sale. But the thing is, the manufacturer and distributors don’t actually care about the shops as much as they claim to. They’re just catering to them and they get money from them right off the get go.  There are PLENTY of people online that carry same lines and sell them as “used” or “new models coming in” but they’re not.  Distributors tell shops they don’t like this but the fact of the matter is there are way more sales on used equipment and discounted online sales than there are in shops. If someone’s bringing in the money, let them do it

I don’t have a problem with this. When I’m actually in the market to BUY, I’ll contact the seller. When I’m just perusing for entertainment I’ll move on. About 6 months ago I had a thread asking advice regarding speaker/ component isolation. The rep for one of the products being discussed actually contacted me via PM based on what I posted. He asked me to “ make an offer “ which I did that was below list. It was accepted and I made a purchase. Since it involved 2 pieces , one for each speaker it shipped in 2 boxes each valued under the tariff threshold. He provided  follow up and installation support. I even received a phone call to specifically answer some of my questions. Overall an excellent purchase experience. Regards , Mike B. 

Second thought , as we’re all old 😆, do you remember “ This is a FAIR TRADE ITEM “ ? The dealer was extensively restricted to NEVER sell below list price. I remember when Loomis fishing rods were like this. The shop absolutely refused to discount the item. But if you bought say a reel and rod together they’d heavily discount the reel. About 10 years ago Gary Loomis sold the company to Shimano and all that stopped.