HI FI careers

[kininigin]

Sorry to butt in, bit how's the Shure cartridge doing now, Darren?

Marco.

it's going well marco i've been very impressed with it so far,i will give my opinion of it on my thread in a couple of days,i have some vinyl comming and want too see how it copes with it.

I thought i would be finished with upgrading but after hearing this cart and what my phono stage is capable of and knowing there's more to come from the technics i can see a couple more upgrades appearing

[DSJR]

Shame! From a punters perspective , i like the idea you can go to a retailers home and try out their hand picked favourite gear. I have thought about going up to AVI to hear the neutron sub but worried in case i dont like it and Ashley buries me in his garden.
Richer sounds interesting but ive got no passion for AV. I bet they are busier than me though

To be fair, I reckon that if you take the trouble to visit AVI, then you must be reasonably serious about the Neutron sub, which has three amps built in etc... Ash isn't too frightening in the flesh although he's a fast talker and the info floods out (faster than he can type ) so he makes more sense face-to-face. I'd add that Martin Grindrod is an absolute gentle-man who, IMO, really DOES know what he's doing and why Just bear in mind that the market they are catering for doesn't want stacks of odd shaped boxes, some with glowing valves with lethal voltages just a bad touch away. This market doesn't even want stacks of "matched" boxes from the likes of Linn and Naim, just a CD or computer style source and everything else hidden away.

Some of the chains discussed above are genuinely decent people and try as hard as possible to help and serve you, as the old arrogance which I (hopefully only) occasionally suffered from would have cost these people their jobs I reckon.

I hope this helps a bit. I wish I was still in the industry (a wonderful comfort blanket it was for me), but the AV bug hit around 2000-2001 and few shops have recovered from it I think. I mentioned before that I went for an interview a few years ago at one of the branches of a founding Linn/Naim/Rega company and felt like a dinosaur, as I had been earning 30% more than their senior sales guys (and that was at the fag end of my career), they did custom install above "two channel" and were chasing the £30K custom sale, rather than the impoverished £2K pain-in-the-bum "stereo" sale...

[colinB]

I still remember in High School , all the kids big brothers starting uni and blowing their student grant on Hi Fi, the cool gadget back in the 70s. I had a little Dansette but i was aware of names like Technics , Mission and Wharfedale.
Its probably those grants that made Julian Richer rich!

On the subject of Richer sounds, what irony that their widely regarded Cambridge 840 amp gathers dust while they try and sell you a telly.

[DSJR]

On the subject of Richer sounds, what irony that their widely regarded Cambridge 840 amp gathers dust while they try and sell you a telly.

Not in every branch, surely???? the Cambridge stuff would be significantly more profitable for them than an equivalent TV, where you're *very* lucky to make over 20%.. The Cambridge stuff can't be the cheapest to make, but having production in the far east saves an absolute fortune still I think.

[colinB]

I have a feeling that sub would be cherry on top for my system, and i may well own one one day.
Im not buying an Apple Mac though!

[colinB]

Not in every branch, surely???? the Cambridge stuff would be significantly more profitable for them than an equivalent TV, where you're *very* lucky to make over 20%.. The Cambridge stuff can't be the cheapest to make, but having production in the far east saves an absolute fortune still I think.

Im sure you are right Dave its just that when i asked about it last year they didnt seem to know much about it. Fair enough , the young staff are more into their gaming and movies, i might be as well if i was their age.

I must say though, few years ago i went to a show and the Cambridge crew were there and very nice people. They were all ex staff from the shop floor and their knowledge put me to shame.

[magiccarpetride]

I hesitated using the title of the thread in case i became responsible for killing a AOS member after they laugh so hard they have a heart attack. If the title doesnt induce cardiac infraction maybe the content will, but here goes.

I work as a retail manager for a London store and things are bad at the moment.
The store has only been open 9 months but i think i need a back up plan and im wondering if there is any such thing as Hi Fi retail left in the country.
My own observations are as follows.
Sevenoaks hi fi . These poor guys dont look very happy and the fact the Croyden branch, which i used many times, is now a Tesco express may have something to do with it.
Richer sounds. Ok, not much Hi Fi but these guys seem to never leave and always look very chipper.
Local independents. Do you have experience in the trade sir? Erm no.
Any insights into the trade from those members in the know would be very welcome and if i have inadvertently offended anyone i humbly ask them for forgiveness.

I think the problem with the hi fi market boils down to insincere sales people. My hunch is that they're always pushing products on you that bring them the highest commission. Some of them are prepared to lie through their teeth just so they would convince you to go with that product over there instead of with the other product you fancy, simply because the product they're peddling pays bigger commission upon closing the sale.

That type of dishonesty is ruining the trade. People are not that dumb, and they eventually catch on and see through that kind of a charade.

Here in Vancouver I see quite a lot of young people who are passionate about high quality sound. But they have no place to go to in order to do a bit of comparison shopping/education. I remember walking into the local high end hi fi store a couple of years ago to enquire about the Oppo DVD player. After enduring the blank stares, I pulled out the printout that I was carrying with me (the printout was from the Oppo's web site). Upon reading the specs (and seeing the $199.99 price tag), the sales people literally laughed me out of the store! I considered myself lucky at that point for not being tarred and feathered and carried out of town.

It is that kind of snobbish attitude ("just the power chord alone on one of our regular players costs more than this shitty Oppo player!" was their snide remark) that is driving potential customers away from those stores. No wonder they're dying out -- however, the final joke is on them.

[DSJR]

Ashley James has been banging on about this for ages, the average commission based sales guy much prefering to flog the more expensive product. Thank heck my salary was never based that way (apart from an evenly distributed approx 20% bonus top-up every month in my early years).

[hifi_dave]

Bonuses are only paid by the chains. Your average specialist dealer can't afford such luxuries and it's not the way to sell quality Hi-Fi anyway.

[colinB]

When i was on my sub obsession last month i booked a demo at s......ks hi fi to hear a B&W
I then saw a AVI ad9 subwoofer for sale second hand. I spoke to the seller being honest about my situation and he told me he used to be a manager of said store and told me they would try and sell me a Monitor audio because the margin was much larger.
I didnt go for the AVI, to big, but when i went for audition they said to me " its a bit more expensive but we have a Monitor audio at a managers special at the moment.
I almost jumped through the window to escape