audiophile stereo dealers: worst taste in music???

Glad I am not alone!!

 

I remember in the late 70s, my father and I went to the local hi-end hifi dealer and the assistant flipped on Close Encounters of The Third Kind: Disco.

 

I used to demo high-end audio with "Biker Like An Icon". The salesmen were amazed at the dynamics and digital warmth.

 

Exactly. I don't think the choice of music is necessarily a reflection of dealers' tastes. There are other considerations at work.

 

When I booked a demo room in 1997 when I bought my amp and speakers, I took around ten of my own discs; even after I got them out, the young 'un who was my 'guide' went to take a couple of 'demo discs' off the shelf before I said ''we won't be needing those, I've brought mine''
Young 'un : ''But these sound really good''
Me : ''I'm glad to hear it, but I won't be listening to those at home, seeing as I don't like them''.

I do like to get my own way when I'm going to be putting just over £1,000 into their till. They seriously couldn't believe their eyes when I actually took CASH out of my wallet.

 

Why would someone who's trying to sell expensive equipment to you make a comment like that?

 

I can understand a comment like that. It's a competitive market. I would want to at least demonstrate the upper limits of any component if I am trying to make a sale by a least offering one stellar example. The thing is if he doesn't try and the next dealer does try, who wins? I'm thinkin the next dealer wins.

 

I can understand wanting to play a stellar example. I can't understand stating that classic rock isn't going to sound good, if my prospective customer has already expressed an interest in listening to it.

 

I suppose I can understand it since I have dealt with it before. In my experience when this happened it was really just an honest opinion being expressed. this was back in the days when audiophilia was largely dominated by classical music. I think those of us who love classic rock have a different perspective on the relative merits of the sound quality of it than those who are exclusively into classical and/or jazz.

 

You may be right.

 

Nothing beats that creamy tubey goodness.

 

Lets see, most abused demo songs in my life were:

"Back in the High Life" Stevie Winwood.
"Hotel California" from the Eagles "Hell Freezes Over" live album

Good songs and good recordings, but did I get tired of them.

 

This only applies to a few dealers I've met - from Singer Sound and Accent On Music among others. It isn't their taste that's disappointing. It's their incredibly limited knowledge of music. Unless you're counting duller examples of Blues, Folk, Country, Jazz and a little Classic Rock. Anything else and they're clueless.

 

Bring your own recordings to demo gear. Solves that issue. Diana Krall isn't a bad choice though. You know it's a good recording, you can assume the mics used were of very good quality and the engineers knew what they were doing. It's mostly acoustic music with minimal mics. Female voice usually falls in the range of at least one crossover, if your evaluating speakers. I can think of a lot worse demo music to use than Krall. But bring your own music.

 

Maybe its time to move to LA!

 

That's too bad, because the Mobile Fidelity CD has an audiophile sound quality. But, if you don't like Boz Scaggs...

The smart thing to do is to always bring music YOU like to listen to to get an idea of if YOU will like the gear.

 

I sold medium high end gear for about fifteen years and I can say that in that time frame I think I had 1 maybe 2 people bring their own music in to listen to. Both times the recordings were awful and wouldn't make any good system sound good, as a matter of fact it would almost make them sound worse because they really showed off how bad the recordings were. I always made it a point to try to have at least one example of every popular genre to play keeping it heavy on the rock side of things since that is what most of my clients wanted to hear. The problem is like other people have mentioned that it is very, very hard to find well known, well liked music that actually took full advantage of good systems capabilities.
Sometimes what I did was play something that I know they liked and then played them something I know would really show of the system. I tried to keep it to exciting music as much as I could. Things like Tchaikosvsky's Marche Salve or the 1812 or yes even Diana Krall. When I played something from her I tried to keep it upbeat though, something like Temptation from The Girl In The Other Room. I have to say though Beastie Boys Intergalactic sold me a few pairs of speakers as well as Jellyfish Spilt Milk.

 

Have any of you who sold equipment had people bring in Gordon Lightfoot to demonstrate systems? These are excellent sounding recordings . The Amy Grant recordings I'd bring to audition equipment would include Age To Age, Straight Ahead, Lead Me On, Heart In Motion, and Unguarded. I'd also want to bring in some Pete Seeger, Burl Ives, Les Paul and Mary Ford, Chet Atkins, Belafonte, vintage Mormon Tabernacle Choir recordings, Edwin Hawkins Singers' O Happy Day album (one of the best recordings of a mass choir ever), Mary MacGregor's Torn Between Two Lovers (this is a demonstration quality recording and in fact, it was the original demo recording of the song as well), etc.

 

I'd even bring Mason Williams in to test equipment as well and use Classical Gas.

 

To me the best stuff to bring for an audition is stuff you've listened to over and over and really know it. See if the same music through a different piece of equipment or system still evokes the emotion you're used to feeling and is the sound more or less pleasing overall. And yeah a lot of stuff the high end stores want you to hear is so stereotypical. Not bad stuff but how many times do I have to see Brubeck "Time Out" in the rotation?

 

A lot of audiophiles have terrible tastes in music, but a lot of non-audiophiles have terrible tastes in music too. Billy Joel and Steely Dan are popular with both.

 

Agreed, but shouldn't they play something high end, but very recognizable so the customer says, "wow, I've never heard it sound like this!"

 

It's another interesting point. A good dealer should help you build a system that matches your musical preferences. My setup, which was assisted by some great guys at Audio Connection, is more or less entry level audiophile, but can play all my lps well. On the other hand, I've heard a ridiculously $$$ system that was great for classical (that listeners primary taste) but made a fine Steely Dan record sound horrible.