With all the high street closures I have been wondering what the future holds for the traditional HiFi dealer. My distant memory is that the old way of buying HiFi was to find a dealer who would let you try at home, with a fall back of listening in their demo room. Personally the first way never worked for me, I guess I was never spending enough; the second, yes tried it several times but I never found things sounded the same when I got back home.

The last piece I bought from a traditional dealer was an Mdac when they first came out so that must have been a good 5 years ago.

It was soon sold one, which makes me think that my approach of using the second hand market to buy try and sell on gives far more opportunity, with far less depreciation, than buying new. I appreciate that its difficult to get the latest gear this way but emperors new clothes and all that, maybe its better to wait a while.

But longer term if nothng new is bought will the second hand market dry up and where does this leave the traditional HiFi dealer

when did you last buy some new gear from a traditional dealer