Starting a high-end audio shop... Am I crazy?

gdoodle, i wish you the best in your noble endeavor to strive for such a cool objective>>>>>but>>>>> if you have to ask? good-luck (:>)

A very good freind of mine in that is a dealer always says. "the way to make a million dollars in the audio business is to start out with 2 million". But he is still in it and doing well. One thing he recentley did is buy a new house and is running the business out of his home. It seems to work out great. When it is slow he is at home and can do yard work, house work, etc. Also the lower overhead and he never forgets to bring an item to work with him.
Let us know how you do. Good Luck!

curious...where are you located?

and even if you ARE crazy...you shouldn't let that stop you. Neither should you let sanity stop you from reaching for your dreams.

My best advice is to keep your day job, at least at first. As a life long music lover I became a partner in an independent record store. Started out with three stores and ended up with barely one. Learned a lot, met a lot of great people, collected a lot of vinyl and cds and loss over 90% of my investment not counting no income from the store for years. Sometimes it's not a good idea to mix your hobby(passion) with your livelihood.

I am actually thinking of giving up a $120,000 yr job and starting a high-end audio retail biz - both online and hopefully later on a brick & mortar store

From a business point of view, and assuming you don;t have a revolutionary business-model in mind, I would definitely join Rec's suggestion to keep yr present job (at least for now).
Highly fragmented market;
Higher margin products are very slow-moving;
The hi-end target clientele is small -- as opposed to consumer electronics. Worse, the advertising support is minimal -- as is the corporate equity manufacturers have compared to, say, Sony.
It's difficult to create and retain a loyal client-base;
Hi-end audio's value proposition is weak (the excitement of "good sound").
Do you have a value proposition (that hi-end clients will buy into)?

With your sales & marketing background, I am sure you've studied the issue extensively. However, I believe that trying this out as a "paying hobby" before you give up everything else would be more opportune!

As always, there's also lots of merit in pursuing a dream! Cheers