Quote Originally Posted by pure sound View Post
Suppose an individual wants to buy a new turntable. Supopose this person isn't confident enough to fit an arm or cartridge to it. But they want something good to make the most of an existing record collection. Are you suggesting they buy such a thing over the internet? A dealer can help them choose an appropriate arm and cartridge and set it up/install it for them. Suppose they want to buy some large speakers to go with it. We all know that Tannoys sound different to Pro-acs or ATCs, Spendors, ARTS whatever. Are you suggesting that people just choose based on a picture they see on a website? Maybe you are. Personally, I think it'd be a very poor way to choose a system but each to their own. While there are still dealers with the facility to play these options to people then they should be used. I wouldn't expect any such dealer to hold these items as demonstration stock and pay for the building in which they are kept out of the kindness of their hearts. I wouldn't expect them to give their time for nothing either.

Of course you are entitled to your opinion about this but I don't think speakers (in particular) are something that should be chosen from a picture. What's your alternative? Is it better to have to arrange to borrow 2 or 3 large sets of speakers to try at home (incurring all the risks of shipping via couriers) or to be able to go somewhere, hear them and perhaps borrow the preferred pair for a home trial. I know which method I (and most people) would still choose. However, it would seem that in your 'brave new world' such a facility will no longer exist. I suppose the person should just slap some drivers into a box until they find a combination that sounds nice. (I seem to recall that you suggested this as an approach to speaker design elsewhere on this forum!) Sadly, in the real world, most people have no inclination to DIY their hifi, just as most people have no inclination to DIY their cars, cookers or washing machines. There is a place for dealers. They can offer a useful service. I'd agree that many don't but there are some that still do.
You are supplying an enthusiast market, not a mainstream market, are you telling me that the members here are incapable of making choices and decisions without a retailer telling them what to buy. That is what it boils down to - a retailer can set up a dem to sell what he wants.

You obviously haven't followed the points of my argument over many many posts. This is an enthusiasts market, we now have community that wasn't there in the past so they are now not isolated and just potential victims of the ego and greed that retailers are famous for, and the bullshite of the magazines and reviewers. You lived through the latter period I am talking about and I *know* that you know what I am talking about even though it doesn't suit you to admit it here.

Community can provide all the supposed benefits you put on retailers, which are only in theory and in reality are largely sadly missing. These are the changes I am espousing and have been for a long time and are here in the archive for all to read. Base line we either wake up as manufacturers or on cost tweekers and smell the coffee or we go the way of the dinosaur / retailers.

I see your method as a sub strata in the process that only applies to the conditions and posibilities available now. The Chinese love people like you, they will just copy and undercut you until they kill you. So you have to be ahead of the game to survive. Rely on others for your kippers and they will dry up the supply of your herrings