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Audio News
Topic: MillionDollarStereos.com

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Posted by rowuk on 07-10-2014
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Finally I have found a place where I don't need to know anything about quality playback, no hours, days, months, years of frustration searching for the holey grail of audio bliss. Now there is a site to go to where ALL questions are answered with a friendly smile.

Introducing:http://www.higherfi.com/million/

Even the title picture puts the listener ON THE STAGE with the lifelike presentation!

Romy, you could have had everything delivered finished!

Posted by Romy the Cat on 07-10-2014
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This is a part of HigherFi site. They are in a very specific business and they do what they do fine. The site is pretty much enumeration of everything in audio with price tags. They  completely silent and with no expertise of any kind offered to buyers  - juts a web store with checkout basket . For sure the "normal" audio dealer would consider of what HigherFi does as a preposterous. They feel that HigherFi juts move UPS boxes but they provide a full voluble service to audio community by advising and educating audio people how to  build playbacks. Ironically I do more appreciate of what HigherFi does - offer no buying service at all. The problem is that the advisory option that come with full-time audio dealer in most of cased costs nothing.

There are many reasons why and the one not the last one is because most of audio dealers are fealty, sleazy and incredibly uninformed human waste, not without sense of own stupid pomposity. I can give you many stories. For instance how a local guy her in Boston bought large Wilson and the price included the "Wilson-certified dealer" make the installation in the guy listening room.  As the "Wilson-certified dealers spent a day without having any clue of what they do then offers to the buy not even a discount for the speaker that they filed to setup but a full-paid day in local strip-club. That is who those idiots are.

So, if we generally has shitty dealer in business then why do not have them at all and use just HigherFi as some kind of audio-equipment exchanges where audio-makers would be able to market the things direct? Everyone know how stupid, invective and very much waste of time to deal with car dealers.  When I was leasing a new car two years back I find the exact deal I want over internet and scheduled to pick up my new car at the some kind of local dealer. I called them and informed that if the car will be 1 cent more then what I agreed and if I will be doing ANY talking besides juts to sign my lease paper then I will be instantly walking out. So, I did. It took 5 minutes to render all the paper work and to get exactly the car that I wanted. As I was leaving the dealer I was very proud of myself and I asked the sales manager how many people at his dealership but car in the same manner and I did. He told me that it was 85% of all customers.

The point of this story is that worthless dealership network exist as much as you give credit to it. For year taking to manufactures who refer me to their dealers I refuse to be referred and insist that  dealers are fucking devils  and if they want my business then it will be no stinky dealers involved. In a way the HigherFi does the same. They have very little mark up and offer no dealer services - identically as much service and most of the dealers do who change 50% mark up. They are leeches of the industry and they are customer rappers. So, wherever mechanisms exist out there to put dealer dirt out of business and to force the assholes to return back to McDonald - where they below - I would only welcome it.

Posted by mark on 07-12-2014
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That website is an example of how ludicrous the ultra high dollar audio gear can get.I have rarely,if  ever heard a high dollar(over 100k$) system consistently engage me in musical joy without distracting artificial abberations.I have met in person with Chris Moon, proprietor of higherfi in Sarasota and listened to a system with ntt speakers(like wilson) i believe and mentioned to my assistant afterward that that system sells for around 500k and it was "higherfi" but not the least bit musically engaging for me.I have put together systems from 1k-5k that most music lovers would consider far more realistic,natural and engaging, satisfying musically.
However Chris Moon is a professional buisiness man who formerly owned a pro studio in Minnesota which recorded the artist formerly known as Prince.I consigned several items in the 5 figure price range to him in the past and he is no bs,effective and professional.Further he told me about a non-profit program he and his family run to search for american MIA's and return their remains for closure for the families.So Romy,i think your post is spot on.Is that for real that story about wilson dealer who does faulty setup offers day in strip club?? Bizarre ! Be funny if it was not so tragic.

Posted by Romy the Cat on 07-13-2014
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 mark wrote:
So Romy,i think your post is spot on.Is that for real that story about wilson dealer who does faulty setup offers day in strip club?? Bizarre ! Be funny if it was not so tragic.

Yes, the story sounds as a fin fictional fragment from NPR’s “Wait, wait do not tell me” but, staidly it is true. The guy live right here at Boston suburbs and at that time we socialized relatively frequently. They did not “faulty setup”. They did unpacked the speakers, brought them up stairs end placed them it room.  However, they did not go for the installation satellites that are so mach important with this type of acoustic system and that was factored in the sale deal. I guess it was easier to take the guy to strip club and to deliver him a customer satisfaction then to spend a day in somebody room, moving the heavy speakers and listening the results….
 

Posted by rowuk on 07-13-2014
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Any type of charged project needs a plan so that everyone involved knows what needs to be done, when the proper people will start and when they are done.
I see no possibility to set up speakers in one working day - even bookshelf speakers need knowledge of the room, the rest of the playback chain and a method to confirm that the customer got what they paid for. I think that it is "nuts" to just add "installation services" to the price tag.
Where I work (we sell CADCAM solutions) we differentiate between INSTALLATION (just double click on setup and wait until the procedure is finished), IMPLEMENTATION - this involves actually configuring the software so the machine "works" and finally INTEGRATION which includes process optimization, training and adaptation to the customers established workflow.

In the case of speakers: Installation=take them out of the box and put them in an "attractive" place in the room. Implementation=plug them into the amplifiers and confirm that the position of the speaker is not too bad, that playback geometry is "standard audiophool equilateral triangle" and the distance from the wall  is OK for a fairly even bass reproduction. This stage would only involve things that could be put on an objective list and checked off.

Finally there is the integration stage. Here someone comes to live with you for n days, moderates any issues between you and the wife, fine tune the playback, teach you about the factors concerning Playback, sell you upgrades for things found deficient.

A strip joint is FAR easier to check off as successful than integrating playback........

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