Could an Audiophile equipment Lease/rent dealership work?

People lease cars (depreciate quite a bit), furniture, art, cell phones, computers, Camera lenses, you name it. Could the business model work for audiophile dealers? Just like any other business, the owner would be responsible for damage or "out of the ordinary wear". So one could lease those expensive Mcintosh monoblocks, Wilson speakers, Esoteric transports, cables or whatever. It would be expensive to consumer...shipping, etc...however, broken down into monthly payments...much more affordable. A dealer could offer all price levels of equipment.

Would this be something you would ever consider if made available?

 

it's called a credit card

 

I can pay full rental of the original RRP on a used item three rentals down the line? No thanks...just IMO!

 

How many hundreds of thousands of dollars in initial inventory investment do you have available? How quickly to you antipathetic your ROI on that initial investment?

 

Give it a try and report back to us.

 

Im not going to open one.

 

That was pretty funny, though.

 

Sorry, anticipate ROI

 

I am paraphrasing this but: How do you end up with one million dollars in the audio business? Start with two million.

 

I wouldn't want a long-term lease or a rent-to-own thing. I'd rather have something more short-term and high-impact if it were feasible. For instance, I'd like to rent, for just one week, a custom-assembled sound system worth ~$100,000 (amp/TT/phono preamp/speakers/CD/whatever else) for ~$2,000. To me, it would be well worth my money to find out how a combination of some of the world's very best audio components could sound in my own listening room.

 

Nah man, then your just going to WANT that.

 

Jim --- Let's see, carry 3 empty wooden Wilson Audio crates from the attic, down 2 flights of stairs; & into the living room; disconnect the speakers, protect 'em and roll 'em back into the crates/seal w/screws & move from their position in that room, down the hallway, out the front door, down 3 steps, onto the walkway & to the driveway -- piece of cake. Oh, did I mention each speaker module in it's crate weights 290 pounds (each), the upper 2 arrays in one crate weight another 190 pounds but thankfully are in a single crate. Whew...got them standing tall in the driveway. Okay, back inside.....but it's lunch time. De-cable & dismantle the 4 stack dCS, box 'em up & haul them out to the driveway. Same with preamp, mono amps, and take extreme care in doing the same with the SME TT & V Arm & oh, my gosh, the cartridge & dustcover. Remove the power bar & all cabling from it. Secure all cables in their original boxes & combine in a couple larger boxes. Dismantle the racks -- oh, what a relief; break time for dinner. Move everything boxed up out to the driveway. Rent a U-Haul and load it all inside via the lift gate. Drive across town (if so lucky) to your house. Reverse all procedures above & set everything up.

Don't forget, this boxing/unboxing/loading/unloading process will repeat 2 more times.

So, $2K is your offer -- with all due respect, I wouldn't even consider moving my heaviest items -- the speakers for $2K. Therefore, I'll Counter offer for $15K and that's a maybe -- show me the money -- all Franklins please (my counterfeit Bill Detector Pen will be at the ready).

As an alternative -- you can bring your furniture over my house for $2K or just come over with your audio material for FREE & just imagine it's your room.

Best Sir,

Bob

 

Wow, Bob, that's quite a system you've got! I actually hadn't thought about renting equipment that's already set up in someone else's home. Nor would I want to put anyone through that trouble. Also, even if this were serious, your price would be a bit too high, I'm afraid

The OP had suggested the idea of an audiophile dealer leasing the equipment, which I'd assume would already be boxed up and ready for transport. I imagined a situation (an impossible fantasy, more like) where I'd walk into a local dealership, arrange to lease the equipment, give them the $$$, then take it home and set it up myself. I had imagined the whole scenario to be impossible from a workable business model anyway, but your reply reminded me of something I hadn't given a lot of thought to: such pricey audio equipment requires more care to transport, set-up and disassemble than I'm accustomed to. And then there's the $$$ involved, at that point I may just as well buy a nice piece of equipment to upgrade my current system. So it shall remain a fantasy

 

Buy used, listen for a few months and then sell.

It takes some effort, investment and risk but you can have nearly anything you want for far less than any lease that would keep a company open.