Starting off this video by quoting James Tanner (Bryston CEO), “The Demo Is Everything”, Chief Product Officer Andrew Welker asks if a demo has ever changed your mind? After all, at the end of the day, it’s how good something sounds to your ears.
Including a walk down memory lane to when Andrew was a university student and auditioned equipment in New York City and had his mind changed. Looking forward to your thoughts and comments on this, and do follow Andrew’s example, and don’t name and shame, just share your experiences.
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Yep, many times.
People who can't support their claims with a sound demo are grifters.
Please keep reminding folks, as a courtesy, to like and subscribe…
Some of us are older and need the remi ders so as not to forget. ✌
I remember being back in University and going with an older sister to audition PSB speakers. I remember how blown away I was with the segment from Star Trek VI when the Klingon mining planet of Praxis exploded and the shock wave moved from front speakers to back /surround speakers. WOWWW that was so cool for that time. 1991 I think. Left an impression on me. Been a theatre nut ever since.
Good video THX.
Closest to that is I was looking at Focal Aria 906s. Since they had their Chora 806s out and available I listened to those too. My ears could not discern $1000 difference and I went with the Choras.
Worst demo ever was listening to a pair of $6000 Genesis 3's; it was strident and boomy at the same time. The Thiel CS3.6 (an average loudspeaker by today's standards) we compared it against was positively brilliant in comparison. It shocked me that an audio salon could carry terrible products and pass it off as aspirational.
Best demo was the Nuance 330's, one of the first mainstream manufacturers to use a tweeter wave guide and flush mounting of the grill to eliminate diffraction. I was aware of what was going on with the "Nuance Nuke", which was a demo using Q-Sound recordings. Still, it impressed. I eventually bought a pair at a discount and used them in my main listening system for the next 20 years. The demo might have had questionable ethics, but the product was not in question.
I was lucky enough to grow up in an era where there were numerous brick and mortar stores where I could listen to various pieces of equipment. Even though whatever I was looking for, especially when it came to speakers, they almost never sounded like they did at the store when I got them home. I'm sure it was not only the equipment used at the store, but also my set up location and room acoustics were different at home. There usually wasn't a restocking fee back then, and if there was, it was very minimal. Restocking fees on some internet purchases that don't have a physical store location to return them to can be quite high, which I found out by trying some different headphones that I was interested in that weren't available locally to see if I liked them before purchasing them.
For many years I worked in car audio, and for years after that I worked in a used goods store where a huge variety of used home loudspeaker‘s came through. After being able to compare so many speakers, I found myself repeatedly drawn to older, warm, transparent, bright and lively British made speakers with extremely thin lightweight paper cones and dome tweeters. As a sidenote, in the 90s, there was a marked difference in sound quality between different car audio head units. It seemed like both the amplifier and DAC’s in brands such as Sony, JVC, Kenwood, we are noticeably poor compared to those of Alpine, Pioneer, and Clarion decks of this time. Some premium high end decks of this time used burr brown DA converters which were mind blowing at the time. There was about six of us sales people, and we all agreed about these differences in sound.
Generally, I don't buy major audio components without an in-store or factory demo. There have been exceptions: cartridges; phono stage; turnatable; SACD player; sub-woofer. The reasons vary. With cartridges, the stores I visited do not audition their entire lines for obvious reasons (i.e. there are a ton of them), so I rely on reviews and have found them to be accurate. For my phono stage, I went with a recommendation. I bought my turnatable from a friend so I knew what I was getting. The SACD player, bought according to reviews. Same with the sub, although the manufacturer did allow returns if unsatisfactory. Fortunately, these components all turned out to be good choices. For amps and speakers, I insist on demos. And I thank the good folks at Axiom (speakers) for their patience (and the tour!).