Sign of the times: local High-End audio dealer is out of business

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by TommyTunes, May 20, 2009.

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  1. motorcitydave

    motorcitydave Enlightened Rogue In Memoriam

    Location:
    Las Vegas, NV, USA
    Yep.
     
  2. FranklinLG

    FranklinLG Forum Resident

    Location:
    Miami, FL
    Wow - sad stuff. While I love the internet, it's guys and gals out there that love this and have their shops that really make a difference and help. Sadly, the only real option sometimes is coming here - no offense, Steve. Just wish we had a better selection of good record stores and real brick and mortar shops to go in and try things out.
     
  3. mwheelerk

    mwheelerk Sorry, I can't talk now, I'm listening to music...

    Location:
    Gilbert Arizona
    How I remember Classic Stereo. I went to school with Mike the original owner and was a friend of Ray one of the original managers. I even worked there part time a couple of years during the holidays. There was another shop further west on 28th Street (but I forget the name) and further back still was Stecketee's Audio with the original store on Fulton downtown and another at Kalamazoo and 44th St. For a place the size of GR there was some pretty good options there at one time. I visited Classic the last time a couple of years ago.

    It isn't too much better here in Phoenix. Hi Fi Buys gone. Buzz Jensens's gone. Sounds Like Music gone. Showcase Entertainment (started and owned by Mike from Classic in GR) first bought by Tweeter's and now gone. The Audio Nut gone.
     
  4. Deuce66

    Deuce66 Senior Member

    Location:
    Canada
    try a cubicle instead :D then you'll really get "it"
     
  5. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan

    Location:
    Atlanta
    :confused:

    You don't know what you are talking about. Ed had the best selection of high end brands for years in Atlanta. I followed his store from Tucker to Dunwoody to Alpharetta. Ed and Alan are both friends but you don't know the history here. Ed had great brands in the 90s when Alan was selling mostly used gear and midfi brands. Ed had Audio Research, Theta, Audible Illusions, Runco, Pioneer Elite, Revel and many other A+ brands...certainly not midfi brands. Alan picked up Audio Research and Magnepan only after Ed announced he was closing the store. Alan got McIntosh early on as his flagship brand but Vandersteen, Thiel, Ayre, and Rega are fairly recent.

    Ed focused on both home theater and high end audio but his much longer history was as the best store for high end audio. He got a little caught up in the home theater craze in Alpharetta which may have hurt his business but he always had top notch high end gear. My favorite room had ARC gear with dcs CD player feeding into Maggie 20.1s on one end and on the other he 3.6s, ARC gear, a variety of CD sources over the years and a Marantz turntable.

    Ed was a huge part of high end audio in Atlanta and a great guy to boot. Your characterizations do a disservice to his work.
     
  6. Barnabas Collins

    Barnabas Collins Senior Member

    Location:
    NH
    I would think so. Sure, those people who can afford to think nothing of dropping thousands of dollars on equipment will always be able to patronize those dealers. And maybe there are more wealthy people able and willing to spend on luxury equipment than I realize. But what about people like me who have to set aside some savings in order to do so? I plan on upgrading my entire setup in increments over the next five years, but if things take a turn for the worst and I have to choose between hifi equipment and paying the bills, I'm paying the bills. Surely, there are other potential customers like me in a similar boat. :confused:
     
  7. daglesj

    daglesj Forum Resident

    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    Well after living here for 15 years I just found out that I have this place just 150 yds up the street from where I live!

    http://www.audioworkshopnorwich.co.uk/index.html

    Just has a little brass plaque outside. I thought it was a community thing for the hard of hearing.

    Walked past it thousands of times.
     
  8. MacGyver

    MacGyver Forum Resident

    Location:
    IRRIGON, OR. U.S.
    i have a couple of high-end shops near me, "QUICKSILVER AUDIO" and "THE TIN EAR"

    both are within three miles of each other, in KENNEWICK, WASH.
    about forty miles from my place.

    the owner of QUICKSILVER is a pretty swell fellow.
    him and me got to talking about DVD and BLU-RAY,
    and i got to mentioning my PIONEER DV-09 DVDP.
    he remembered back when he stocked it, and thought
    it was a pretty slick machine. he went into the office
    and gave me his copy of the 1999 PIONEER ELITE catalog,
    featuring the DV-09.

    another visit, his mother was running the shop while he was out,
    and she gave me a stack of STEREOPHILE issues that were past
    shelf date. pretty nice people there. they used to stock
    PIONEER and DENON heavily, but lately they've been gradually
    shifting to NAD and B&W.

    they also run a service department, and i've seen some swell gear
    go through there. even seen a late 80's INFINITY KAPPA speaker cabinet
    once...
     
  9. TVC15

    TVC15 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    I'm from Tucker (as in Tucker High School), live near Alpharetta. I know exactly what I'm talking about.... which is what that store *became*. Not what it *was*. When Ed went Home Theater it became less interesting. When Ed moved to Alpharetta... became less interesting.

    Now he's out of business, having previously ceded the two-channel market to Alan.

    Don't take it personally... Alpharetta is the dead-end of Atlanta in many ways, this just being one example. The metro area has been a "boom town" for many years.... Ed "followed the money", right? Chased the population (and developers) from Tucker / Stone Mountain, to Dunwoody, to Alpharetta. Changed emphasis to home theater... he hit the same wall all the developers did chasing the same money. He'd have been better off in Dunwoody, sticking with two-channel. More established, maturing community.

    When they stopped building mini-mansions in Alpharetta, Ed lost his base of Sony, Marantz, Panasonic HT installations. And no base of loyal two-channel folks, either. Already lost to Alan or some of the other smaller "specialists" around town.

    Ed's shop was closer to me, but I'd drive out to Audio Alternative every time to hear (and buy) the more interesting brands we all tend to discuss here. In fact, Alan's shop is unique... can try endless combinations of NAD, Rega, Mcintosh, VPI source gear with Vandersteen, Thiel, Totem... and buy a few records while you are there. I bought my Thiel 2.4's, P3-24, and Rega Apollo from Alan. Plus I stop by sometimes just to go through the records. He's big on analong, which Ed barely paid any attention to.
     
  10. darkmatter

    darkmatter Gort Astronomer Staff

    Met Julian at one of the recent HiFi shows, very keen and a big ATC enthusiast :)
     
  11. I can't say enough nice about Alan. We send customers back and forth all the time.
    My customers buy his Regas and his customers buy my vinyl.

    I drop by once a month to look at his used gear.
     
  12. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan

    Location:
    Atlanta
    Well I like Alan as well. I purchased my VPI ScoutMaster from him. I just think your comments were too harsh on Ed. In the 90s and early 200s his was the best high end shop in town. He was never a midfi dealer - even in his home theater years he had two high end rooms and brought in brands like dcs. Even on home theater he was doing very high end brands like the top of the line Sony and Runco projectors and ES level DVD players and Theta Casablanca controllers. Hindsight is 20/20 and he did get wrapped up a bit much in HT gear but ultimately it was a weak economy did him in just as it did Audio Atlanta in Marietta.

    I bought my Audio Research electronics from him. I would have bought my Maggies from him but he was not a dealer at the time so I ordered them from Lyric Hifi in NYC. Ed also offered stellar customer service and had a great repair guy in Sam.

    TommyTunes and I have been friends with Ed for many years, in my case since 1990. If we stand up strongly for Ed it is because he treated us very well and is a good guy as well.
     
  13. Bwilson1

    Bwilson1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Orlando, FL USA
  14. Jim Smith ran the US branch of AvantGarde out of Cumming GA until 5 years ago.

    So currently we have Audio Alternative (Lilburn), Georgia Home Theater (Smyrna),
    Playhouse Audio (Little Five Points), Gateway Sound (Tucker - they have GREAT stuff),
    KeMeLA, Verastarr (cables, not components), Evolution Home Theater (Duluth)
    and Electronic Home Inc (Briarcliff area).
     
  15. I forgot to add that 3 or more of our Best Buy locations here have Magnolia stores
    in them. No staff to speak of but they do have some decent components
    (Definitive Technologies, Vienna Acoustics, Martin Logan, etc).
     
  16. Matej Isak

    Matej Isak New Member

    Location:
    EU
    It's sad in a way. There is something special about walking into Hi-fi store and see amps, speaker etc. and actually hear them.

    We still have few hi-fi/high-end oriented stores round here, but they're are struggling like many.

    Internet surely brought options and affordable pricing, but I guess I'm old fashioned when it comes to hi-fi. Seeing components in person and being able to try them at home, was always a winning combination for me and a main reason I spend all the money there.

    When something is gonna go wrong, there's nothing like great customer care. And things can go wrong quickly with anything, even with the best brand names (personal experience). The pricer stuff, the more blood will boil when things go wrong. Having actual person or repairman to talk to is worth every penny imho.

    Trading in your previous purchased items for new ones is always a bonus to.

    It might be the mutual satisfaction of both sides for a high-end store to survive. More or less there were always enough commissions for the store owners to keep things running, but in recent years people demand huge discounts on everything or even contacting manufactures directly to get "the best" price. How does this works with real value of component, research, keeping things in stock, loaning them...? Not so great or...?

    There are still companies that sell only through dealers and it's working out for store owners and manufacturers. I'm not saying this is the ultimate solution. It's a good option.

    It's difficult in present times with all things happening around economy and social changes. We need people who loves music and craft, that like to work with real people and "real" hi-fi. Personal assistance even via email or phone can connect and deepen the relationship with buyer and seller. Many of manufacturers or familiar hi-fi stores, already took that root few years back and it's working quite nice for many of them.

    That's enough ranting I guess :)
     
  17. Jim T

    Jim T Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mars
    It may happen that one day much of the gear for sale will come direct from the manufacturer and reading reviews will be all there is other than a 30 day money back guarantee.

    It has to be hard being in the audo business these days with the masses not caring about quality.
     
  18. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan

    Location:
    Atlanta
    I visited Gateway Sound yesterday over lunch. Anyone who has spent time with Paul the owner knows what a great service-oriented store this is. Frankly business is tough for Paul as it is for everyone in the Atlanta market.

    Paul seems to believe that there is still a market for DACs however and he has beefed up his offerings there. I listened to a MacBook feeding 24/96 to a Weiss 202 which is much less sterile sounding than the Minerva DAC they had. Very nice sound. Paul also carries Usher Audio, Sonus Faber, C-J, Sim Audio, Modwright, and Esoteric.

    DACs are popular as both a cheap CD player sound quality upgrade, an entre to computer audio, and a destination product for headphone lovers looking for a DAC/headphone amp combination.
     
  19. Jim T

    Jim T Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mars
    -----------------------------------------------------
    Gateway's website is beautiful and he has some great lines. I'll have to stop out there one day. I would love to hear my discs on some of his gear and speakers.
     
  20. TVC15

    TVC15 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    And he has a billboard looming over Audio Alternative's location. Funny.
     
  21. jazzcrimes

    jazzcrimes New Member

    Location:
    Philadelphia
    I expect most of the hi fi dealers to shut down in my area over the next couple years. I attribute it to a couple things:

    1. Local hi fi shops have completely missed the boat on computer audio. The two shops I have been frequenting for years both have great speakers, CDP, and analog displays, but nothing to speak of with DACs or music servers. More importantly, the salesmen have only very basic knowledge of computer audio. I don't think they will ever recover from this.

    2. Inventory and shipping times. Most hi fi shops have zero inventory other than display models. I can routinely order something online and get it in half the time it takes for me to order it through a local brick and mortar shop.

    I'm willing to pay a little more at a local shop if the salesmen are knowledgable, new products are available, and I can get the product in a reasonable amount of time. But if they don't have the DAC for me to try, take twice as long to get the product, and still charge more. . . no thanks, I'll be taking my business online.
     
  22. motorcitydave

    motorcitydave Enlightened Rogue In Memoriam

    Location:
    Las Vegas, NV, USA
    Welcome to the Forum. You have some valid points there.
     
  23. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Anyone knows how Sound by Singer of NYC is doing these days?
     
  24. acdc7369

    acdc7369 Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    The loudness war actually makes music quieter, not louder.
     
  25. krlpuretone

    krlpuretone Forum Resident

    Location:
    Grantham, NH
    Still need to pile banded $100 bills on the counter to get them to acknowledge that you in fact have a pulse.
     
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