Taking the audio/video tour once again but this time was very different.

[mantis]

Whats up everyone,
Today Dave Sheppard and myself did the audio/video tour together around the Phila PA area but it wasn't the sae as it was a few years ago. I'll explain.

Dave wanted to check out some stuff that he can't hear out where he lives and get a feel for whats going on nowadays. We took the trip down to Overture in DE which is about 45 minute or so trip from my house(which is where we started all this). The goal was to listen to both 2 channel and theater with a certain type of system. Dave is considering a considerable upgrade on his system and they had most of the parts he is looking at. Well the salesman was great. He was very knowledgable and went the extra mile with whatever we requested. He even showed us stuff that we where not intrested(bank account manily) in. We also got a cool Demo in a Acoustic Inavations spec'd theater room running Mac and Triad.

This took alot more time then we expected but the experience alone was worth the extra time spend. Not to mention the traffic was on the heavy side both coming and going.

We then went to World Wide Stereo and Video over in Pa and this is a place that carries Dynaudio along with B&W and any others that are well worth listening 2. Well the first Dyn system we listened to (focus 220 theater sytem) went into a Circuit City type switcher. This I noticed was a problem before the system was turned on. The system cost was well over 12k and to put a switcher in line was insane. This yielded a poor demo of the gear connected to it and actually lower end gear sounded better in this room. Sucked but it was what it was.
They also had a high end Theater room in spec but this system was not even working correctly. The salesman tried hard to get it up and running but had no ablilty to make it work. At one point I was going to offer to troubleshot it for him and fix it which I didn't due to respect for him. I didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable. But I should have as the system was what Dave really wanted to hear and I should have stepped up and helped the salesman fix the room. Shame on me.

The last thing we did was a 2 channel demo with Dyn's, B&W and Mac gear. It was pretty nice but the set up was piss poor. there where speakers behind and on the side of the room and the seating was poor for the overall experience. After all this madness that went on, I was not happy and wanted to leave. I felt so bad for Dave as he really wanted to experience Dynaudio and compare them to B&W to see and hear the difference both companies have to offer.

Well time slipped us by as I had 2 to 3 more stops we could have gone 2. Saturday is just a ****ty day to go and try to demo. The stores where busy and really didn't give us the personal attention we both needed on this trip.

One thing for me was cool was getting back out there and seeing whats going on. I feel that the quality of stores even carring very high end audio are not what they used to be. I also felt the demo's where not on par with what I'm used to getting. When I worked at Soundex we had 22 deadicated listening room which all of them could give you a very good to top notch demo. I worked on alot of those rooms to perfect the demo for our customers. I always felt a good way to experience gear and getting experience under your belt was visiting all the hi fi stores and learning everything you can before you buy anything.

Meeting Dave was very cool as he is a very nice guy and loves audio and video as much as I do. He is willing to drive all over the place to get where he wants to be. Even with all that I didn't care for it still turned out to be a cool day.

Dan

[Early B.]

I go to audio stores once or twice a year just so I can gain a greater appreciation for the value of Internet shopping.

[mantis]

I go to audio stores once or twice a year just so I can gain a greater appreciation for the value of Internet shopping.

I can understand the motovation on this. The "demo" is becoming harder and harder to find". I'm truely sorry for this.

Dan

[sucks2beme]

The audio showroom is in decline.
HT has almost wiped it out. We are left with
a couple of half-assed "demo rooms" tossed
together without any thought. I traval around
the country, and have been able to see a couple of
the last "real" demo rooms. Tweaked by someone who knows
and cares. I have heard the Dyn's on a good tube rig, and
it's a real treat. Even better is that rare location brimming
with good cd's and vinyl. No internet crap there, walk in
and spend some time. Not cheap, nor should it be.
What I really like are the guys that will carry in speakers to the
system, instead of that switch crap. That's really rare.
It will all be gone soon, like the full service gas station.
I remember trying to listen to a pair of Martin Logan Mosaics
at a Tweeter. The amp they were using couldn't even get
up to my listening level, and I don't play it loud.
I guess we'll be left just reading audioreview.com
for speakers, hoping they sound as good as they look.

[BaggedLancer]

sucks2beme, man....you gotta stop typing like that....seriously haha, i feel like a computer generated that response

[sucks2beme]

It wasn't me. I think my new audio server has a mind of it's own!
I was up all night working at a customer site. My brain is pretty
much shot at this point.
I'm hoping to get a listen on in upstate New York next week.
I need to do a little research first. I also need to save my head
engineer from making a big Bose mistake.

[cfrizz]

If you are ever in Boston/MA try to check out Goodwin's High End Audio in Waltham.

www.goodwinshighend.com