Listened to vantages/ krell 400xi today

[discocarp]

Spent some time this afternoon in my wife's store listening. The setup was a pair of vantages, no sub, krell 400xi and a cambridge cd player (forgot to look at the model). Sounded great. Just great. I want my yamaha out of my house now.

Listened to a strange mix:

Skinny Puppy/ Amnesia
Ministry/ So What
Miles Davis/ Mademoiselle Mabry
Ornette Coleman/ Law Years

 

[eknuds01]

that's the same combo I listened to a few weeks back:

Vantages
Krell 400xi
Cambridge CD player

Did you go to Tweeter?

 

[jtwrace]

Spent some time this afternoon in my wife's store listening. The setup was a pair of vantages, no sub, krell 400xi and a cambridge cd player (forgot to look at the model). Sounded great. Just great. I want my yamaha out of my house now.

Listened to a strange mix:

Skinny Puppy/ Amnesia
Ministry/ So What
Miles Davis/ Mademoiselle Mabry
Ornette Coleman/ Law Years

wifes store??? please do explain!

 

[discocarp]

Its Sound Advice (which is tweeter), where my wife works.

 

[jtwrace]

Its Sound Advice (which is tweeter), where my wife works.

WOW! I would be in biiiiiiig trouble. That's cool.

 

[discocarp]

Ya.. well... That's why we've been talking (a LOT) about buying the summits and krells.

 

[jtwrace]

Ya.. well... That's why we've been talking (a LOT) about buying the summits and krells.

Hmm. I thought you owned them....longer spikes. Good planning on your part. Hey, you can still bring them to the store and listen.

 

[discocarp]

Hehe, nope. I've got clarities and a dynamo with a yamaha 1600. I picked them up because I know we're getting the summits soon (maybe ordering this week) and it seemed like an opportunity that wouldn't come up again.

 

[jtwrace]

Hehe, nope. I've got clarities and a dynamo with a yamaha 1600. I picked them up because I know we're getting the summits soon (maybe ordering this week) and it seemed like an opportunity that wouldn't come up again.

OK. You'll have the spikes before the Summits so you can take them to the store and see what you & the Mrs. thinks. Right?

 

[eknuds01]

Where in FL?

I used to go to the Saound Advice in Naples all the time. I also attended UF for grad school and I've been to the Sound Advice in Orlando, too.

Erik

 

[discocarp]

Orlando. The one in altamonte.

 

[discocarp]

OK. You'll have the spikes before the Summits so you can take them to the store and see what you & the Mrs. thinks. Right?

Except they only have the vantages on demo here!

 

[eknuds01]

Except they only have the vantages on demo here!

OK. I've been to that store before. It's pretty nice.

The vantages are very, very nice. Make sure you listen to lots of different CDs and SACD on them! You won't be disappointed.

Erik

 

[sleepysurf]

I was just in Orlando this weekend, and stopped by the Sound Advice on Colonial. Very disappointing... no Summits, nor Vantages, and the sales guy didn't know sh*t. I was (seriously) looking at credenza cabinets, and he didn't know what brands they carry, nor what they could special order... offered me their catalog to look at. Not impressed. Maybe the Altamonte store is better.

 

[jtwrace]

Except they only have the vantages on demo here!

Okay. You can use them on your Summits IF you buy them.

 

[Pcar928fan]

Its Sound Advice (which is tweeter), where my wife works.

That is where my first set of ML's came from. Ascent back in '01 or '02 maybe and they had a special on them buy one get the second for 1/2 price. I think that made the pair $3600 or something like that... Now look at my stuff! Scary thought!

 

[sleepysurf]

Sound Advice is also where my audiophile life began... bought my Apogee Stages (~1989) there, and a Yamaha receiver, later Adcom separates and a few other things, and eventually ML Aerius i's (after I reticently sold the Stages). Unfortunately, they couldn't offer me much of a deal on the Summits, hence I went the "pre-owned" route (lucky for me). I know there's a LOT more A/V equipment these days that sales folk have to learn about, and sales quotas to meet. But, heck, if *I* was a salesperson there, I would be studying EVERY detail of the product line; jumping at the chance to demo the stuff, and talk shop with customers. Things ain't what they used to be.

 

[eknuds01]

Sound Advice is also where my audiophile life began... bought my Apogee Stages (~1989) there, and a Yamaha receiver, later Adcom separates and a few other things, and eventually ML Aerius i's (after I reticently sold the Stages). Unfortunately, they couldn't offer me much of a deal on the Summits, hence I went the "pre-owned" route (lucky for me). I know there's a LOT more A/V equipment these days that sales folk have to learn about, and sales quotas to meet. But, heck, if *I* was a salesperson there, I would be studying EVERY detail of the product line; jumping at the chance to demo the stuff, and talk shop with customers. Things ain't what they used to be.

That's a great observation. Part of the blame is the infusion of the flat panel TVs. The Sound Advice in Naples used to be the THE place to go to audition a bunch of great high end gear in south Florida. At one point they had B&W and a line of Logans in there together. They may have been a little short on the amplifier end of things, but they did have B&K and Krell at least.

But whenever the flat screen TVs came down in price, the big stores have to make room in the back to move that stuff. A sales rep I know in Naples is a guy that's very 'old school.' I believe his prefence is high end 2 channel audio and he admitted that the popularity of the flat screen TVs has forced significant changes in the way the store does business. I am willing to bet that close to 60-70% of the store's business involves flat screen TVs, TV installation (wiring, boosters for the signals, etc) and maybe furniture and mounting hardware for the TVs. As such, the education and committment to understanding the latest in high end audio seems misplaced.

Just my 0.02

Erik

 

[Rich]

Erik & Sleepy,

You guys have hit on a topic that I believe is part of the reason for the slow demise of the high-end audio store as we know it. When high-end home theater and home video became a mass-market commodity, stores started carrying those products in order to make a buck. Pretty soon, you can't make a buck as an audio-only store -- you must carry audio and video and do complete installation as well in order to compete.

As you mentioned, video equipment takes a lot of showroom space, a lot of stock room space, a lot of sales and marketing time and resources, and most importantly, a lot of money invested in inventory. If a dealer carries multiple brands, they often have a commitment with each manufacturer to keep a certain dollar amount in inventory to keep the brand. With video equipment taking up a lot of those dollars, there are just less to invest in audio equipment. And lets face it, most of the people that are putting in home theater equipment are putting in less-than-stellar audio equipment to go in their theater. Usually its a mass-market integrated receiver with some basic in wall speakers and a cheap sub.

Seven years ago I think there were at least three high-end audio stores in my town. Now there is only one, and they really keep minimal inventory levels of audio gear, focusing instead on home theater and whole-house automation installation. Meanwhile, Tweeter, Best Buy and Circuit City are thriving.

 

[aerius007]

Its Sound Advice (which is tweeter), where my wife works.

If she sells enough (thats if she is in sales) she can get a pair free, if not the employee discount is still pretty good.