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I've got a small dealership in Omaha, NE. There are two high end dealers in town, and Omaha isn't large enough to support a third. My natural inclination is toward high-value rather than high-dollar audio, anyway.
I've been looking for about 2 years now for a line of speakers to carry. They must be relatively low cost and sound really good for the money. I've tried two brands which shall remain nameless. One didn't sound very good and the other was a company that wasn't very business-like.
I realize that for every 5 audiophiles there are at least 7 opinions, and that your opinion of "sounds good" and mine may differ. That's ok.
Any recommendations?
Follow Ups:
Lee-
I think that it is great you own a B&M shop! Here are the brand(s) that I have auditioned for several months at a time on business trips across the USA;
Aerial
B&W
Dynaudio
Magnepan
Monitor
PSB
REL- subwoofer- the absolute best!
Sonus Faber
Totem
Vandersteen
Wilson
Now, for my fave and the most truthful speaker- Thiel CS 2.4, CS 2.7 CS 3.7 - Caveat: these love high power/high current amps!
And they get great reviews, always a good thing for impressionable potential customers...
-CD-
Wharfedale; something like the 10.1 Diamond.
There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.
—Leonard Cohen
Along with some of the others mentioned - If you can get the more popular lines such as KEF, Monitor Audio, PSB, Paradigm, Dynaudio, Energy, B&W, Sonus Faber, (they now have a more entry level line) maybe Klipsch, Revel etc..Better to get some names people have heard of...
Mike
My former hi-fi dealer (now closed/retired) preferred the sound of higher-end gear, but had little luck moving it in this town. The big Acoustats, Martin Logans, and B&W 801 Matrixes just sat around forever. So he focused over the years on decent-sounding "econo" brands like Paradigm, Boston, and Infinity. I recall he did OK for awhile on some of the smaller Maggies.
Since you're trying to carve your niche as a "quality with value" dealer, you should maybe try to audition models and lines that have received great recent press (good for advertising) and have MSRPs within the reach of "on a budget" audiophiles. As a dealer, you can look at the wholesale prices and decide which offer you a sufficient profit margin.
When I was a salesman at a store on Route 4 West in Paramus, New Jersey, in what was the most hotly contested arena of trade since they tore down Radio Row, Sam Goody across the street was killing us with the JBL L100. Audiophiles can say what they wish about this controversial speaker, but they sure appealed to a lot of people, the quality of the drivers was superb, and they were standard equipment in every professional recording studio in the United States.
JBL protected Goody by not selling their line to anyone else in the neighborhood. So our store bought a pair, placed them on display, and allowed customers believe that the store carried them, and they could buy a pair from us if they wished.
Our store was promoting a high-margin 3-way Infinity model – practically our house brand – that was similar in size to the L100, but significantly cheaper. This was the speaker we were supposed to push instead. And it sounded pretty good for the money, too.
"Listen for yourself!" The salesmen would say. "Trust your ears! Where's the midrange?" That beautiful JBL midrange was there, all right – but it had been disconnected from the back, then replaced in the cabinet. Next, they'd switch over to the Infinity, and it was no contest. After the sale, everyone would run into the back of the store, give each other high fives, and do a bunch of lines.
Personally, I found such deceptions abhorrent, and I refused to participate in them. I had my own equipment preferences, and tried to steer my customers to those. That said, I was never known to pass up too many of those lines.
If I was setting up a high-value audio shop down the street from a high-end salon, I think I would stock a wide range of active studio monitors. I would buy a pair of whatever was selling best at my competitors' stores, let customers compare them for sound quality and value, and let the IC chips fall where they may.
The same monitors are sold by musical instrument stores. But unless you are in New York (and possibly LA), they will have very few models on display, and those they do have will be the lower-end models, and very poorly set up.
That said, I have no idea what the pricing structure is or the dealer requirements are for selling pro audio. But if you've heard something like a Dynaudio BM6a Mark II (now III) compared to a hi-fi speaker several times its price, selling the pro monitor seems like it should be a slam-dunk.
Good luck, Lee!
Chef Henry,
Your story sound like my experience with Crazy Eddie's. They threw me out of the store when I discovered the JBL L100's had the midrange drivers disconnected to make the Acousti Phase speakers sound better. The margins on Acousti Phase were so good, it allowed Crazy Eddies to sell Kenwood (and other) receivers at close to cost so people would think they were getting a great deal on a receiver and speakers! When customers came into the audio store I worked at and told me they had a Kenwood receiver and Acousti Phase speakers, I would say "you bought them at Crazy Eddies, right?"
That Acoustiphase was all over I guess. One famous downtown store had all salesguys pushing them like crazy (Eddy!) playing them much louder than the Infinities. Two colleagues in my office were so impressed and bought the Acoustiphase and a turntable which they said had 24 pole motor and a belt! That was a house brand. This store was not any run of the mill Canal or Chambers St store.
BTW, did anybody ever shop at Mashuguna Mike's?
Cheers
Bill
That's the only other store I knew of on Rt 4 Paramus. And your story is the reason they went out of business. A very slimy company, I know I worked for them in NYC - For 3 days...they wanted me to bait and switch. They would advertise some sort of Sony VCR real cheep then when you come in we say we don't have it or we only had 1 at that price and switch them over to the vcr that we bought 500 of at half the price.
They pretended to want to be a hi end dealer but really wanted the low end low information consumer. That's where the highest profits were.
Nope. This was the mid and late '70s, long before big box stores like 6th Avenue.
Guess again.
I remember a Tech HiFi but not the Infinity. I bought an Onkyo A5 amp from there. I bought a 3M Wollensack Cassette player and a pair Technics SB 5000A speakers from Goody. Used for many years.
Cheers
Bill
Tech it is! You win a Kleeneez record cleaning pad, or would if any still existed. The magnanimous company gave one of these gems away with every system purchase.
If memory serves, the Infinity was a model 3000. It was roughly the size of an L100, with a doped twelve-inch woofer, a cone mid, and cone tweeter. They actually sounded pretty good for the money, though they were no match for an L100 with its midrange connected!
Bill, do you or anyone else reading this remember Sam Goody's brilliant and eccentric tech, Tony Deluca?
Can you provide a definite price range?Many (most?) consumers would explode if asked to pay more than a few hundred dollars for a pair of passive loudspeakers. There are some surprisingly good "bookshelf" speakers in the sub-$500 range but most of them need dedicated stands and a subwoofer. In reality, it is hard to find a decent speaker or speaker system costing less than $1000 per pair.
You will also want to carry a decent array of headphones and self-powered desktop monitors, in order to cater to the latest trends in the marketplace. Relatively inexpensive, headphones can almost be considered as the "gateway drug" in audio.
First get them hooked, then keep them interested...
Edits: 04/14/14 04/14/14 04/14/14
What is low priced? I've only heard the Bryston Mini T but it was excellent at about $2500 and they have a complete line both cheaper and more expensive. And given what I've heard, what I've read about the rest of the line and their superb reputation as an amplifier manufacturer that they're all good speakers and they will really support the product(20 year warranty like their amps and they do honor the 20 years).
KEF Q series, Dali Zensors, Peachtree bookshelf D5
Perhaps KEF LS50 too.
All the best
Bill
The Peachtree D4 and D5 are real bargains.
I've had a pair of D4's in my office system for three years now. No other speaker has lasted that long in this system.
"The problem with quotes from the internet is that many of them just are just made up."
-Abraham Lincoln
The headphone market is very popular with the college crowd it seems. Given you have 11 colleges and universities in Omaha, selling to the high end headphone market may be viable. I think the tough part is getting them in the door, and having to compete with online margins. The good part is you have a steady influx of new customers with enough overlap for word of mouth.
Beyond that, I agree with the guy who said PSB. I think they offer remarkable value and a great product. I think Totem is also worth looking at. They have some very musical speakers.
nt
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read"
N
This info might help (didn't see anything listed).
Your post made me crave deep fried carp & fries (been a few years since my last serving).
The second thing first: I tried the carp once...repeat once...at Joe Tess' place. Blechhh! Granted, I wanted the whole experience, so I got a front half and a back half. The back half is survival food, at best. Joe Tess' is still there in South O just off Hwy 75. Surely you know Omaha for something better than carp. Zoo, SAC Museum, a bunch of steak places...
I don't carry new amplifiers yet. If I do I'm thinking seriously about carrying Sonance. They're a company that does speakers and amps for whole house home theatre, in which I have no interest. I had a Sonance 260 amp wander into the shop, and it's really quite nice sounding for the money. So now I always keep one in stock from eBay. Eventually we'd like to manufacture our own amps, probably solid state push-pull class A.
I'm guessing around 1982 for my last JT's dining experience, but still have family in Omaha.
Only familiar (somewhat) with Sonance regarding in-wall speakers, if it's the same company, but not their electronics.
Comments about systems for the local college students might be a good direction, if you can offer something up above simply purchasing the gear online.
Noah sez to GOD 'this Ark isn't big enough. I need one wiv at least 20 decks.
I've had a rethink about all these animals as well, so I just want fish -
Carp, actually.' 'why?' sez GOD. ' well, I always did fancy a multi story Carp Ark,
Sorry
Des
---and the rest of the family may fit your bill
Des
The deCapos are excellent, super efficient, with a single element XO
N/T
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" - Michael McClure
Or...
I'd recommend the Mirage speaker line myself. They should demo nicely if given some space and they are not expensive. Given that the design has a 360 degree radiation pattern above the low end, not a whisper sounds like it coming from the enclosure. Using recordings with inherent dimensionality to demo*, and a little suggestion to the shopper of what they should be looking for vis-à-vis conventional speaks in this price range, should help them to appreciate what's going on.
Maggies and Vandy's have been around for a very long time How's that gonna excite anybody. Show some innovation.
*an ECM trio recording should reveal what I'm talking about. And, don't play he demo too loud. Leave room for space in the stage.
I think that the Sonus Faber Venere's would be a good demo, too. Plus, they have a lotta press. The thing is you don't wanna have too much in the same price range cause the shopper can't focus and if they can't focus they can't commit, but I think(?) they cost more. Guys comin to hear these will have audio knowledge. You want something for them, too. Sumthin new.
And what rlw said, too. A unique and reasonably priced floorstander and one with a big line.
I like some of the recommendations already given, such as Vandersteen and Magnepan. I also like ProAc and Spendor for other commonly found brands. For something more off the beaten path, I heard the Odyssey Lorelei speaker and thought it sounded very good for the money.
I havent heard one in a long time, but thought they were pretty good for the money. Not sure how much you consider low cost, but there are obviously higher priced speakers whose fans consider the good value.
Great recommendation. I would not discount the older M5 or the M5i on the used market. The M series was excellent. The Epic series was not so good to my ears and I would stay away from closeouts on those. Haven't heard the new Elan.
It amazes me that Omaha can support even two high end audio retailers! The two speaker manufacturers that might merit consideration are Vandersteen and Magnepan. Both have reasonably broad product lines and offer good value.
Vandersteen and Magnepan. I own both and they offer incredible speakers at very, very good prices. Namely the MMG and the 2CE Sig II. I also like the Monitor Audio line.
I agree!! Those are the first names that crossed my mind as well. (Vandersteen and Magnepan)
Edits: 04/14/14
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