2. amps-preamps
  3. 1154037172

Can I expect to pay full retail for a new system?

In six months I plan to make some major purchases of new equipment that are each in the $10k range or above. Do dealers discount this kind of stuff? I want to do my homework before I venture into a store.

Krell, Audio Research, Magepan ect., When these mfgs show a retail price of say, $10k, is that what the dealer will stick to? On a $10k listed product, is there an unwritten window of say, $1k that the dealer will reduce his price to? Do dealers generally lower their prices for a sale?

I purchased an Audio Research PH5 a year ago at full price, and at the time, it never occurred to me attempt to negotiate a lower price.

Does audio etiquette allow for initiating a discussion of a lower price with the dealer....or is this uncool.

Your comments will be appreciated...thanks.......mitch
128x128mitch4t
steveaudio
331 posts
 
Honest1, I agree, Paul is a good salesman at the snooty Audio dealer in Waltham. The other one you mentioned, once ragged on my than-current gear (loudly) in the lobby of the store, & in full hearing of other customers & employees. And some of it I had bought from those guys at their previous store !

BTW, I just bought a 3 m.o. pair of speakers & stands (that they sell) for $3350 w/shipping on audiogon. List price (that they always insisted on with me) is around $5775. Plus sales tax. And the audiogon seller has been way easier to deal with......
jea48
4,268 posts
 
Why on earth would anybody want to deal with a snooty audio dealer and pay him money for being an ahole. Occasianally I have to deal with rude customers, damn if I will spend my money dealing with a snooty prick. Just my 2 cents....
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superhonestben
194 posts
 
On the subject of discounting and retail stores telling customers that the manufacturer won let them discount...is 100 percent illegal....and furthermore no manufacturer can terrminate a dealer for discounting.
steveaudio
331 posts
 
I don't know why some of these stores don't have "Snooty Audio" as the name of their store. Or, "Snotty Pretentious Audio" maybe. They should do a sketch on SNL, with a pompous salesperson (played by Will Ferrell perhaps) insulting all the customers & sneering at their current gear......

It reminds me of the time an audio store in So. NH tried very, very hard to sell me a set of $10,000 speaker cables.......for speakers I had paid $2500 for, & an amp I'd paid $1000 for. Apparently, every cable they had for less than $10,000 just wasn't quite good enough.....
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
"It reminds me of the time an audio store in So. NH tried very, very hard to sell me a set of $10,000 speaker cables.......for speakers I had paid $2500 for, & an amp I'd paid $1000 for. Apparently, every cable they had for less than $10,000 just wasn't quite good enough...."
Nah, just not quite expensive enough (AKA high-commission enough), same as your amp and speakers. The lousy salesman typically prefers 0% of an impossible dream to 10% of reality...
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