EPIC RANT
See, this is what
drives me nuts on how the current audio market has gone. I hate not being able to demo speakers in a proper environment. The SF Bay Area used to be covered with boutiques. I could call ahead and demo what I wanted in a nice room for an hour easy. I would make days of it. Now, the few remaining survivors have basically turned into installation houses, usually with no demo/showrooms at all. Magnolia/Best is a joke, and a 10 minute demo is useless.
Right now, I have to drive about 90 minutes to SF for one of the few showrooms with a decent selection, and pay $50 to park (it's probably higher now come to think of it). Then, if I
do find something I like, unless it's a standmount it sure as heck ain't gonna fit in my car. So, I have to borrow a way-too-large dual wheel pickup truck from my ex father in-law. Last time I did that it cost me $3k when I tried to turn the beast around and scraped a bollard I couldn't see, cracking the cheap @** fiberglass. At best, one of the kids has driven all the gas out of it, so I have to return it tanked up, which is a cool C note in these parts, plus whatever it took to drive 150 miles round trip (another 50%). Blood pressure going up thinking about it.
Another excellent shop is closer, dude has a tiny sampling, and would probably still have to custom-order something I didn't get a chance to hear. So, again it's a leap of faith listening to one model and then ordering something else hoping it's similar.
...FedEx ground was a joke, Ebay seller would only allow signed delivery, FedEx ground claimed they were there on the first attempt, never showed up, 2nd and 3rd attempts were at hours my friend could not be home because of work, no door tag left.
At least the Ebay seller recalled the delivery and gave a full refund, no issues there but whenever I order anything I make sure it is either UPS or that Fedex will waive the signature requirement, too much shoddy garbage from Fedex ground which uses 3rd party delivery people.
EBay, I just can't imagine that for something new, unless I was really sure of the product. But, I can totally get why the seller would only allow signed delivery. One of my addictions is
custom knives. I'm in the "low to mid-fi", so about $1200-4000. My friends think nothing of dropping $4-15k on one. I'm not like a lot of guys who turn them over, but I do sell if it's not a match (I'm a southpaw). Even people I know and trust I
always get a signature verification. Ok, we're talking little boxes, but still same results. The horror stories - like my buddy (maker) sent 5 ($30k) worth of knives to a reseller UPS. He's done this many times. This time, UPS decided to leave the package outside a car wash 3 blocks away. I kid you not. Luckily, an employee just happened to know the seller spotted the box sitting outside. Any bum could have walked by and picked it up. I sold one where even with sig required it got dropped off in front of the wrong apartment door. Again, luckily the neighbor knew the guy. YMMV.
BTW, if using PP G&S, you're pretty heavily protected. They always side with the buyer.
Always. To the point that far too many scam artists use it to their advantage. I
hate PP, and had quite a battle with them recently. They froze my account, luckily at that moment I only had $1900 in there. They can keep your funds for 6 months, at which point they
may or may not give it back to you. Doesn't matter if that money was from a buyer, or not. At the time, I'd just sold a knife. The red flag for them was the word "knife" as I was selling at a friend's new website. They told me I was selling potentially hazardous materials. I contacted my buyer, told him what was happening. I refunded his money -
the only thing PP lets you do when your account is frozen - and he mailed me a check. PP later reinstated my account, and eventually refunded the 3% they kept for doing
nothing but making my life rough, and asking the buyer to go out of his way to help me out. I know some other guys that had accounts frozen with $10-20k in them. I used to keep my play money there. No longer!
But, I digress. Maybe I'm totally over thinking this, because speakers are so much better than they were 25 years ago. Lots of the places have great return policies, and the value offered by cutting out so many middlemen (like SVS and Buchardt) is pretty amazing. I don't know what/where I'm setting up, so once I have my Thiels back, that'll tell me if I've got too much speaker or too little (doubtful). A4L was a serendipitous find, I was first looking at the KEF's when I thought I was downsizing (before I sold my townhouse all of a sudden), and now the R7's look tempting. Then, I saw KEW talking about the Cantons. Other contenders are Ascend, RBH, Revel and Salk. I've at least heard the last 3, as well as knowing KEF fairly well. A 6 month wait for speakers to be built though - that's brutal.
I listen loud, but also listen very low. Not a lot of speakers can play quietly. While I was considering the downsize as I was sharing walls for the first time since the early 80's, I figured little stand mounts would be perfect. Then, the neighbors got a subwoofer for Xmas, loaded the shared wall and I was ready to move the Thiels in. They don't need no stinking subwoofer! (red is passive radiator)
Maybe on reason I've lived with them for over 25 years! A lot of complaints about the speaker (bass hump, directionality, brightness) all cured by positioning, a tamable room and careful component matching. Unfortunately, all my new spaces are not as forgiving, all open, and not a lot of opportunity to have them 5-7' out into the room. They need space to breath. But again, these days perfectly flat curves and amazing dispersion. Once I get my gear and software back from the ex, I can start to figure out my next steps. But first I'll enjoy the music! (I hope!)
/RANT
Stuff I got:
Balanced Audio Technology VK-220 (w/bat pak)
Balanced Audio Technology VK-3iX (w/bat pak & phono section)
Music Hall MMF-7.1 TT w/Sumiko Blue Point
Oppo BDP-105
PS Audio XStream Statement speaker/interconnects balanced & RCA/power
Thiel 2 2
Adcom GFA 555 II
Adcom GFP 555
Ariston Icon TT w/Grado Platinum 2
B+W DM14
Box full of various MIT Shotgun, Terminator II and Audioquest speaker/interconnects
