Quote Originally Posted by YNWaN View Post
Not £4500? How did you arrive at that figure?
I tend to buy as I find. I wasn't particularly looking for my naim amp but was in a new dealer, I liked the amp well enough but bought probably more because I liked the dealer. But let us also be clear we are all focused on sound (art of sound like) and important home demos are for the majority of us, probably harder to arrange than buying online and testing at home.

On the other hand I was in a well reviewed specialist dealer this week and wanted to look at top end headphones. The assistant didn't think They had the model I wanted in the cabinet that was beyond my sight and made no effort to tempt me with something else....the owner of the store witnessed this but just carried on his conversation with his mate about pink flloyd. Maybe it's because I am on crutches people make assumptions about how much disposal income I have (happened before went to a dealer for a pre-booked test drive and was greeted with motability is on Wednesdays sir - walked across the road and bought a car) or maybe the headphone guy was hungover but they lost a sale and a future customer ..I have noidea but overall I am increasingly happy researching online and then buying online....I usually like my choices and it can be done by comparing prices....furthermore i find you can sense good dealers by their websites and reviews then call and go visit and buy if they sound good. That's my two penneth and it's just market forces.

Are we being ripped off as a whole? I don't know there have been many reports on this and seems you need to look at how whole tax structures and competition in each market works it's not that simple.