Back in the 80's it was fairly easy to find a audiophile store to really really audition speakers. Today, with the internet, at least here in the Houston area, there are more and more dealers reducing inventory because of the internet, thus just repping vendors. I ws told by one high end outlet here that they carry almost no stock, so how can I audition. He plays it up to the internet. People coming to audition then buying ff the internet. For quality equipment, I am not seeing price differences on the internet vs brick and mortar stores, aside from perhaps no sales tax, but then shipping usually would offset that.
So what is a person supposed to do today to audition great speakers. As someone posted on another thread, almost everybody loves something about the speakers they own, so it is extremely difficult to judge by reading posts. And the few remaining stores that you can actually audition in may have amps etc better than what you have, thus making the speakers sound better in the showroom.
So any help around this dilemma would be appreciated.
A for instance a local store has Sonus Faber, Martin Logan, Vienna, Revel, paradigm, klipsch, psb speakers, but they are driving them all with amps/pre-amps that are way over $5k Not taking anything away from those speakers, but it is not realistic.
So what is a person supposed to do today to audition great speakers. As someone posted on another thread, almost everybody loves something about the speakers they own, so it is extremely difficult to judge by reading posts. And the few remaining stores that you can actually audition in may have amps etc better than what you have, thus making the speakers sound better in the showroom.
So any help around this dilemma would be appreciated.
A for instance a local store has Sonus Faber, Martin Logan, Vienna, Revel, paradigm, klipsch, psb speakers, but they are driving them all with amps/pre-amps that are way over $5k Not taking anything away from those speakers, but it is not realistic.
