I was once in a high end hifi store looking at a new amp when a woman who looked like she was living rough approached me and started asking me about a system she liked, me being me treated her with respect and informed to the best of my ability about the hifi, she smiled at me and sed your the only assistant who as spoken to me. Realising she thought I worked there I told her I was only a customer like her, I looked around the shop to find some one to serve her I approached one of the staff and explained that she was interested in purchasing a hifi, he looked at me with disbelief that she wanted to bye from them. He then spoke to me and sed she is living rough and had only come into the shop to get warm and she wood go away if we ignored her, I got a bit annoyed about his attitude toward her soo sed go to her and at least be nice to her. Anyway after som convincing he went over to her. To cut a long story short she bought the system in cash it cost £2, 359 pounds. wilts the staff where getting on from the stock room she walked over to me gave me a big hug and pushed £50.00 pounds into my hand it turned out she was loaded gust bows to show you don’t judge a person by there looks after she left the manager of the shop came over to me and thanked me for me kindness and gave me a really good deal an the amp I wanted. I will never forget that day 😀👍
Great story, my dad had a business friend who owned a very successful Machine Shop with his brother. One day at lunch him and his brother went to the local Cadillac dealer in their work clothes to buy two new cars. “They had a great month’” They walked around the show room for an hour and no one gave them the time of day. On their way out they saw the Sales Manager and told him how poor they were treated and what they were there to buy. Even he said ya right. The look on his face when they pull up a couple days later in their new cars was priceless!!
The world really needs a term for guys who go to any hobby/specialty store to talk to employees and not spend money. Because he is in every store. I was acquainted with a bicycle mechanic in Indianpolis, a guy in his 50s or so who's ridden across the country four times. A mutual acquaintance told me an anecdote where a guy was in the shop who was the wealthy older guy who just picked up riding. A little overweight, hanging out at the counter in full team kit, going over the details of his very expensive carbon bike and his future plans for upgrades. Not even soliciting advice. Eventually he started talking about switching some component out for one that was two ounces lighter and the mechanic says "it seems to me you could still shave off about twenty pounds."
Hi Steve, I spent most of my life working in a Hi Fi stores in London and I had many wealthy customers. John Entwistle of The Who used to come in and on one occasion he asked to try out a cheap cartridge so I showed him a Stanton 500 series. He took it away and tried it out. When he came back and I asked him what he thought of it he took the cartridge and put it on the floor and stamped on it destroying it saying it was "Sh-t I knew the Who had a reputation for smashing up a lot of equipment in New York hi fi stores. I had told him when I first met him not to smash up any equipment. To cut a long story short he just smiled and told me to bill him for it and he paid up. He did spend lot of money with me and was a good customer. I knew people in photographic stores in the days of 35 MM film and they would keep exposed rolls of film behind the counter so that occasionally when a customer brought in a roll of film for developing & printing from a very exotic holiday they would switch the roll of film for one that had been exposed. They would pull the film out of the can and say to the customer ~ There's nothing on it just to get a reaction out of the customer. The customers would usually freak out until they were told, It's Ok it's just a blank film.
In the customer's defense: Its a lot harder to compare and evaluate audio than you might think. But that's why so many of us subscribe to reviewer channels. So very helpful!
I'm loving your Chanel Steve. I feel like I already know you. I'm a studio owner and vocal coach. I bought my first sansui rig when I was 13 in 1982. I love great audio. So thanks for opening up and sharing authentically. This shirt look looks great too. Have a great 2019 mate. Looking forward to sharing contributions! 👌🤘
This is the best video you have put out in a long time Steve. It is lots of fun to hear stories like this one. Merry Christmas and Happy new year to you
I use to walk by the Music Fidelity headquarters in London Wembley and hear The Owner play Clarinet from his Office. As a 15 year old teen I owned a Music Fidelity B1 amp.
Simon Lee Sax I have a couple of his records. You have to RESPECT a hifi designer/ manufacturer that can play music ! Used to live nearby too. I own many MU-FI components, starting with the A100. Happy retirement AM!
I sold and serviced audio gear on Cortlandt Street (Radio Row) in 1961-1964, and have vivid memories of "customers" that would take up your time, come on with a list of "how much is a Shure M7, how much for a AR3", and on and on for 15 items or so, ask your opinion, and then walk up the street to save $5 on a $1000 system (BIG money in 1962). We had one guy that would show up every two weeks or so with this kind of a shopping list, and one day the store manager asked him "Are you here to buy something or just break our balls"? It did not even faze him---he just kept on talking!
There was a time when Cerwin Vega built absolute weapons as speakers! The Cerwin Vega Stroker - the old ones with paper cones - were just amazing speakers that - given the right enclosure - seemed to work everywhere! If it was in your home cinema, in your car's trunk, on a party in open air or on a giant stage, it just didnt matter. God i miss those babies. A friend of mine still has (not exaggerating here) 40 to 50 chassis. He's using 16 seperate 18 inch Strokers in his home cinema (8 in front of him, 8 behind him). It is absolutely mind blowing not just how loud but how extremely fast and dynamic these 18 inchers can perform. Linstening to a drumset-recording on them just feels like out of this world.
This is what happens when people get bored! Lol. I love the Cervin Vega, first time encountered them was in a club back in the mid 80’s. The clarity, the tight bass, the fast attack. Awesome speakers.
I had times when I was young and aspired towards great sound, had no money for the fancier stuff. But the store salesmen in some would let me listen to fancy stuff knowing I couldn't afford it then. But a year or two later I could, and I used my money in the stores that treated me well, not super high end gear, but nice enough, a few times even just walked in and pointed at something and told them I want that one. They didn't immediately remember me the first time, but I reminded them I was the scruffy looking teenager a few years ago who they let listen to it, and this time I'm back with the money for it, don't need to listen to it as I did already, box it up and ring it up.
Someone I knew worked in a garage where they worked on cars. One day his boss was in the work area, and this person ran up to him from behind, pulled his trousers and underpants down, and scarpered. Somehow he kept his job. I think pranks were the norm.
This is hilarious Steve, fake pissing on an amp and putting it in a garbage can!!! My amp just blew up, ha, ha, ha. The wheel of fortune for answers. I love this any job must have ways of dealing with stress, especially when you are one on one with the public. Your former boss at Sound by Singer, must be proud Steve, you elevated your career to the next level. Steve keep this coming, Merry X-mas and Happy New Year!!!
Great stories, Steve, thank you. Speaking of stories: way back in the day I used to lecture in business studies, and for one of my first year papers I had a small army of tutors. One day, one of my tutors bought a new phone (this was prior upgrading deals), so he had this handset that was - for all intents and purposes - redundant. So for my introductory class, before anyone knew anyone else, I asked him to sit in the front row. Surreptitiously, I called his number and the offending handpiece rang, and without any change in composure, I continued lecturing and approached him, took his phone off him, and plunged it into my glass of water. Sufficed to say, I never had any issues with phones in class ever again. Those were the days.
Hey Steve, how about the guy who spends your time and takes your advice, then says " I can get it cheaper online, no thank you." This is why, or at least one reason, Radio Shack went out of business. People were coming in, getting advice, and not buying. These brick and mortar stores need to have your business if they are going to stay in business. If you like the store and service pay the higher price and support the store to keep them around. You are paying for the heat, lights, rent, employees, it is called overhead. Not to mention the privilege to touch, smell, hear, and see the product. If you like the service of your local record and hi fi stores please support them. I say this as a customer as I don't work for one.
Because I'm in the car business, my guilt for taking a salesman's time has actually led me to purchase some great values over the years, Dragonflys on every damn computer I own, 2 x Grado SR 80es, (1 for walking & 1 for loaning), a number of cables, Vinal accessories etc. We both Win.
One of my hifi coworkers from back in the day told me about salespeople wh would go to competing stores and slip hard-boiled eggs in to speakers with ported cabinets. 😂
In any future need to demonstrate the limits of a woofer, just connect the ends of a lamp cord to the terminals (any circuit-breaker bypassed, of course) and plug it into a 20A wall outlet. A serious commercial unit, as in the old Cetec Gauss demos, would take that without damage, but very few will.
@@xXmatthdXx They sounded really good. Haven't used them in ages since I upgraded my amp to a 7.2 unit. Now I use Wharfedale satellite speakers and a sub. The sound stage is brilliant though I know most audiophiles will think I'm a heretic for saying so haha.
I sold high end audio too, years ago, in San Francisco. Those "waste-of-timers" we called " Strokers". I had one particular stroker, who lead me on for about an hour before claiming he had to rush off to another appointment. Mind you, he seemed earnest with genuine interest to buy. My colleagues teased the heck out of me the rest of the day, and days after. He returned a week later asked for me, and said he's meeting a friend there who wanted a "sound system". His friend showed up 20 minutes later. For another hour, we went over what I had showed and demonstrated the week before. The friend ended up making a three and a half thousand dollar purchase. The friend turned out to be the late Paul Kanter of Jefferson Airplane/Starship and I made the sale to Paul. So, you never know. My colleagues were left with their jaws dropped. But, that was a rare case. Many are deliberate "strokers".
Living in NYC and frequenting both Sound By Singer and Lyric during my early audiophile days was not the best experiences of my life. I was a budding audiophile, I knew I had a sum of money coming to me, but that money was about a year down the road. I was new to the equipment, new to the terminology and new to what I was hearing. But even then I had discerning ears. Yet I had a lot of trouble being served and was met with a lot of skepticism. There was a place called Harvey's here in NYC where I must have walked in 5 times without a single salesman asking could they help me. In Lyric I finally had a salesman, Mike himself, who finally ceded to help me, but that was after about the third time I entered the store. Salesmen would look right past me and serve the person next to me. Sound By Singer gave me attention my first time there, so did a store called Audio Breakthrough's (who I eventually bought from. I became good friends with the guys there as well), Innovative Audio (who I also bought from many times) and Tech HiFi. I eventually got a salesman to notice me at Harvey's when a friend from Audio Breakthroughs became a salesman there. Why so much trouble? I'm black and these guys would immediately assume I wasn't buying. Mike at Lyric told me during a session that he knew I wasn't buying, but he'd deemed to service me anyway. I asked him "How do you know I'm not buying?" and he said, "Because I just know". I suppose his inner oracle must have kicked in. Needless to say I never bought from Harvey's, or Lyric. I did purchase used from Sound By Singer.
Wow. Have l some stories for you. I was a customer in good standing (or so I thought) shopping at Stereo Exchange when this salesman kept following me around like l was gonna steal something. Made me VERY uncomfortable...at Singer, the owner sniffed at me like l didn't know High-End. Guess what, l owned a pair of Vandersteen speakers and was pricing a Krell amp. You just gotta LOVE these guys. Audio SNOBBERY at its worst, brother
Excellent description of the "moochers", or simply lonely (aspiring) Audiophiles who wanted to talk and learn. But as you say, they ought to pay up once in a while and buy something to cover your time. Of course just be more forceful and direct about having other work to do and go do it, even if you leave them hanging in their mind. I worked a mom and pop computer store in the 80s home computer ramp up heyday, and we had several regulars like that, though some gave back by contributing info, pd software, tech tasks, and of course buying once in a while While some could be irritating, never knowing when to quit talking and walk away, others were fun regulars. If everything in the store was in order, owner had no issue shooting BS with them for 30-60 min or more, and we immediately addressed other customers as they entered, ending ongoing discussion abruptly
Now in my 19th year selling audio, and those time-wasters still don't get it, haha. It's brutal sometimes. One guy we call the Penguin, comes in and starts an uninterruptable monolog that will go on for at least 2 hours if you let him. Everyone in the back knows, that after about 15 minutes, they have to run up and grab you with some "urgent" need, to pull you away from him. He has purchased a few pieces over the years, but it doesn't approach the amount of time he's spent taking all our days up. The customer's I resent the most, are the one's who A/B compare for months trying to come to their decision, stopping in many times to narrow down their search, until you finally have to just tell them 100% hands-down this is the piece for you, then they say "That gives me something to think about", they leave and go buy it online. I call one guy "Subwoofer Steve" because I probably had 20 hours of time talking with him about his subwoofer, comparing every model available, etc. Holiday weekends stayed late to demo them for his friends too, then he finally buys it online from somewhere else. The story doesn't end there though, he came back in because he didn't hear any sound, and wanted my tech support and further expertise on how to set it up for free, since "You recommended it, so I'm sure you know how it works". Some people just don't get it. This same guy gives me the whole laundry list of components he has in his system every time he comes in. He's described his room to me so many times, I can picture it in my head and I've never even been there. After about 14-15 years he finally bought a Demo Music Hall TT that we were blowing out at cost to get the new model, and he says "So I bought something now, I'm a customer, so are you gonna be mad that we come in here?" as if he did me a huge favor. A couple months later he came back and needed it serviced because somehow he burnt out the motor on it already. Horrible.
Cerwin Vegas were tough as nails! They were very hard to blow! Especially since they had the sensitivity of Las Scalas, at 104db at 1w, at least their big 3-way 12" models that I owned, which were their best sounding ones, and which were as good or better than the JBL L100 and Klipsch Heresy.
I was in the trade for 35 years mate and it would drive me crazy. Ok, people say all sales is like that. No. I remember once I was picking up some stock for my shop from another and the owner of the store came out of the High End room flustered. He had been and still was demonstrating cartridge cables with different cartridges for hours that the customer had brought in to compare. Now I can tell you, that was just plain demeaning. I know people will say, that he was an idiot for doing that but this was back in the mid 80's and hes still in business.
From 1975 to 1980 I worked part-time for Sevenoaks HiFi whilst training to be a commercial photographer - I didn't get into audio engineering until 1987 (where I learnt to make a decent cuppa) At Sevenoaks HiFi I was told which products to push the most. Unfortunately, the rubbish HiFi had much better markups, but I just couldn't do it. I would demo kit (we had two listening rooms) and always recommend kit I knew was very good, but had a very small profit margin. One day the manager asked me into his office. Earlier in the year he had a new Sony CCTV system added. He then proceeded to playback video of my sales techniques in the shop. I owned up saying I just couldn't let customers spend their money on rubbish - I was quickly told my part time job was over. It was at that time the audiophile bug bit hard, and I did manage to buy (discounted) many quality componants. I loved speakers and owned Rogers LS7's, Mission 770's, and very expensive AR9's in 1982. The influence got me into high end audio/visuals for sure.
I can't tell you how many times I have gone into an audio store to listen for what it is I am after, and upon the realization of "just listening, not buying today" status was established, the salesmen became quite rude. Those cerwin vega woofers are very efficient, and the 15" dvc sub I had was fantastic.
I pulled a great one years ago. I had a test cassette that had a lot of songs that we used for testing and sales. One day I was looking at a Foster PortaPro 4 track cassette deck. I almost never used the stuff on the B side of the tape, so I got the bright idea to dub tracks 1 and 2 to 3 and 4 (which would normally be played in the other direction). Then I found a Nakamichi deck on display and put the tape in. I waited until the owner of the store walked through and hit the reverse button. The song that had been playing began playing backwards. Everyone came unglued. Much gnashing of teeth and pull of hair proceeded. Even putting that tape in a second deck did not convince them that it was a prank. The owner was busy removing the Nakamichi deck from display when someone grabbed the tape and put it in a third deck, which also promptly "broke". Instead of realizing that the tape was a prank, the owner got the idea in his head that the tape was breaking auto-reverse decks. Only by putting the tape in a non auto-reverse deck did the confusion turn to laughter.
I guarantee every salesman who ever complained about timewasters has wasted time in another store. Maybe at the record store or at the motorcycle dealership or the fancy cookware shop it doesn't matter. If you don't work in the industry and especially in the 70s and 80s, where else could you go? I do not agree I have to buy at every store I enter. I may still be doing my research. I might change my mind. I might schedule a listening session at one store and it helps me decide I liked what I heard in a different store more.
There lies the conundrum. As audiophiles we want to hear all the latest gear we read about, but we know sales people are there to sell stuff, not just audition. I rarely go into audio stores because I feel like I'm imposing on them if I don't have cash in hand ready to buy. Even if I'm on the hunt for a piece of equipment and haven't made up my mind yet so want to check out several options the sales people act put upon and it gets awkward. In my area audio stores are never busy. Everyone's aways just sitting around, so it's not like I'm keeping them from the sell of the century. Even if I just look around without needing a sales person it is like a museum with a "Look but don't touch" vibe, so I can't even check out speakers or amps to hear how they sound. So what's a guy to do? How do I get to go check out all the cool new fancy stuff so I can blog and tell friends and make informed arguments on chat sites and just get more acquainted with this hobby? Obviously big box stores will let me just look without feeling guilty, but they don't carry the finest gear. And making a trip to Vegas to the CES every year isn't feasible.
The Tech Hifi catalogs were the best. I used to flip through the pages for hours. Somehow they all got thrown out, wish I had saved at least one of them.
My local hifi store used to have a list in the back where they would write down how customers would mispronounce "Bowers & Wilkins". English is not our first language here in Norway. I'm glad I stuck with Infinity, I would probably have butchered "Bowers & Wilkins" myself.
Cerwin-Vega thanks you for that story. Audiophiles don't like to admit it but for loud rock and roll they're really one of the better choices you can make. They'll take some abuse and they have the right sound to make rock sound its best. True story.
The old joke was to go in a guitar store, try all the guitars and buy nothing. The new joke is going to a guitar store, trying out all the good guitars and then buy one online :-)
When I was a kid my dad would take me to a high end audio store called Harveys in Manhattan...I think that was the name of it. He and my mom would get into arguments everytime he purchased something there lol.
I believe back in the seventies I tried to find Sound by Singer, but could never find it. I used to live in Rockland County, and when getting into the area I felt totally lost. I think I stopped at a record store and then went back home after calling it quits. I used to work at Ear Drum Audio in Nanuet NY. Those were the days.
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac I just looked online for the address. Was Sound by Singer at the same location in the 70's? I do not believe I was looking in Manhattan. The address I got was from an ad in Absolute Sound, or Stereophile. One day I just got an urge to do something and got in my car and went on an adventure. That is going back a long ways to recall all the details. I do remember clearly was how I felt a bit intimidated by the shop's reputation. I sold some high end, but what Singer was known for was at top of the mountain. I figured I could find it on my own, and when it started getting dark I just turned around and went home. Believe it or not.. I felt intimidated. ;)
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac My bad...just located an old copy of Absolute Sound. It was most likely Lyric Hi Fi I went looking for. For, I was no where near Manhattan. I know I headed towards While Plains. I guess fifty years has a way to cause one not to be remembering some of the details. My bad! ;)
Great stories. Belate merry Xmas and happy new year. Did become a bit of an audiophile when I went to a high end audio show in 1999. After that I had a NAD 312, CD63KI and Menuet speakers, sounded really nice. Now playing Concept MC, Lehmannaudio Decade, Synthesis Nimis (tube integrated) and Wilson Watt Puppies (DIY), it sounds a bit better :) On CD Zappa sounded nasty and not much inviting, I thought it were the recordings. But on vinyl (the Bernie Grundman) re-issues are awesome! Even the originals (like NY) sound amazing.
Cerwin Vega.....D9s? Back in the day at least I really loved those speakers, ESPECIALLY for the price. A modest amp just really rocked your house and the neighbors. :)
Do you know if the Turtle Beach Stealth 350VR Gaming Headset is any good? I've never been an audiophile, just recently got PSVR for black friday and looking to upgrade from the default earbuds. I do also have an extremely cheap like maybe $10-$15 pair of headphones but they are just a little tight and fit directly on the ear, not over the ear which I think I would prefer, and they kind of start hurting after around an hour. If I try to push through the pain too long, it starts giving me a potentially nasty headache. Mostly looking to enhance VR experience, but even for non-VR gaming when comparing the cheap headphones to the tv speakers, I think I prefer the headphone audio because of the directional stereo sound. Anyways, I've never really been a headphone user, but kinda been awakened to new potential so to speak. would be willing to spend up to maybe $150-$200 for headset that is soft, comfy, and quality audio. Something I could wear for long gaming sessions and to get more out of my games. Not expecting high end, but yea from what relatively little research I've done, the 350VR seems pretty nice and only costs $60-$70 most places. As a newb, I just stumbled across your channel and figured might be worth asking someone who seems to know waaaay more about audio stuff than me. Does the 360VR seem like a good bet, or is there something better for me in my price range? Sorry for the long comment.
That guy made a purchase just to be your friend Steve lol! He said dam I gotta become a customer so I can keep talking to this guy Haaa ha. I have a friend that works in Magnolia design center in Westbury NY named Jeff Grahm I talked his head off for years till I became a customer and actually purchased some equipment ...sorry Jeff lol lol!
I never thought about the sales side that must be annoying but it takes me about three trips over a 6 month period to my audio store before I purchase anything but I do purchase
Was in the mid-80's. I was working on the sale of high-fasion and was dressed in expensive clothes. Suddenly had a lot of time left and went to town. Went past the Rolex store and went inside. Was nicely headed down to a more private sales room and was asked what I wanted. Well, a clock for + 1K (most watches in that segment). Watched and rated watches for half an hour, until I said he didn't have anything I liked and asked for a Smart clock. They were new to the market then. Plastic watches, and he stretched his hand under the counter and poured several from a paperbox on the table. Quickly look at them and chose one and say, this one I take. If eyes could killed, I would have been dead.
I keep finding audio salesmen that know less about audio than me and I know almost nothing. That is the real problem, they sell it like it's furniture or smth
But I guess it is sometimes difficult to really know if a person is a customer or a time waster, because if you are going to buy something that cost 10.000 dollars or maybe more, then some might need some time to know what they want. And it can take months before they make up their mind. I'm thinking about my own experience. I was going to buy a piano. It took many months of trying and testing and listeing etc. Then I finally bought the piano I wanted. But it took long time to decide what to buy. But I was happy I took my time, because a piano is something I will have for decades, not just a couple of years. And it was a salesman that maybe was of the more impatient type trying to sell me piano. He was rude to me at one point. I didn't buy a piano at his store. I had a couple of potential pianos in his store. Nice pianos for more than 10.000 dollars. But that store was out of question when he treated me badly. And if you sell expensive stuff, you have to be nice to the customers, because the aftermarked stuff with upgraded and service is an important aspect of very expensive gear.
Yeah I remember walking into a museum once.30 years ago I was told by my buddies. Hey you gotta check this gear out.so first 3 price tags I saw.i knew i was in the wrong place. Too late salesman walks up and says.what would you like to purchase today.i paused for a while.then said .look I just wanted to see what was in here.i cant afford anything in the store.i want a new stereo.but this gear is out of reach for me.he understood. He then goes come listen to these(1st time listening to electro stats)I was amazed.then the tube amps.i was in that store for probably an hour.hes showing me some gear.he says to me thanks for being honest.he goes now you know what's in here. Maybe in the future you come back as a customer. I gave him $1 for coffee. He was grateful. But i never made it back to the store
the movie Earthquake has a "new" sound technology - Sensurround- Cerwin Vega subwoofers up against the various walls of the theater. sadly, the "earthquake" sounds/signal sucked. it was a steady tone, not at all like a real earthquake.
People love to hate on Cerwin Vega's. I had some 380SE's (their top of the line) for decades, they were great sounding speakers. I still use the 15" woofers from them in my 2 way horn speakers because I haven't found anything that sounds better, goes as low, or is more efficient. Cerwin Vega used to demo speakers by plugging them into the wall and playing the 60Hz AC wave, so yes they're pretty tough too.
@@fredriksvard2603 it depends what you're into. I tend to be quite an electronica head so I'll choose loud over perfect quality to some extent, although if you like to enjoy jazz and classical with a glass of fine wine and cheese board at conversational level then pick the book shelves
In the 70's I worked in New York on 45th Street(which was packed with electronics shops). As you mentioned, there were guys(always guys) who liked to spend their lunch hours wasting our time. They would go from shop to shop until it was time to go back to work. Invariably they either worked for the post office or were, what we referred to them as, "pipe smokers." We had an older salesman named Hy. We called him Hy-Fi. His solution was to attach a large piece of paper (to these guys' backs) that said "mooch." This was like...every day. A pipe smoker would come in, bust our balls, and then walk out...marked by Hy. When they went into another shop on the street, the sales people would see the "MOOCH" tag and know not to waste time on them.
how about AudioQuest wire sales? :) Those were and still are a prank correct??? quality stuff but talk about law of diminishing returns... BTW I LOVE high end audio and have since I was about 14 yrs old. I used to frequent The Sound Station in Bartlesville, OK. I would bug the guys to let me clean the store for free so I could hang out and listen to stuff. I got a lot of my car audio from them when I grew up and my parents did also. I still have our Paradigm 3SE speakers goodtimes
Hilarious !! I think i salesman who's there only for the commission would tell the guy off, since you/we are audio lovers so cant resist talking about our passion.. and these types take advantage of that and have lots of time to waste.
Ya, So I'M that GUY who wasted your time back in the day. When you told me to hit the road, I went somewhere else and bought my stuff! HAHA! Kidding...Never met you before in my life. Don't even live in NY. You should have done the newspaper/80 % off thing! Hilarious!
Like many here I was in sales .the audio market in the 80s sucked. Big company's that had premium lines stated pulling products out of best buy ,highland ,and circuit city. Many stated making cheap lines of audio products for the super stores and then the premium lines for full service stores. I said the he'll with it and started selling video. (The famous Mitsubishi HSU 52 VHS VCR cost 196.00 and sold for 500. On a good Saturday I could sell 10 on those. Make an out 400 in a day. I did that for about 10years or until video stated to get very cheap. It was fun.
We get a lot of people wasting time in the Antique shop.. And we get people who know the answer to something there asking but want to know if we know it..lol
I do that often, especially with audio and video gear. I want to see if they will lie to me to make a sale. I am more immpressed if you tell me you don't know or offer to look it up or ask someone else that might know. If you just make something up that sounds good I will probably just walk. I might call them out on it though, then walk. Anymore though I normally know what I want when I walk in and the only question I ask is "do you have it". I really love it when they say " No, but we can order it.". Well ya, so can I lol, I kind of wanted it today which is why I got in my car and drove here. I understand they are probably obligated to say that though, just doesn't make much sense in this day and age though.
2:34...."then there was the time Andy Singer was on vacation and we decided we were going to" ( place anything that seems funny at the time here but turned out to be a bad idea) the next speaker we tried to blow was the WIlson WAMM's
I disagree. I am sorry, but people should feel NO obligation to buy when they enter a store. I wonder how many sales were blown because of snotty sales people that thought they could predict the buying behavior of everybody that walked through the door. Sometimes it's a self fulfilling prophecy, you know. The best philosophy is treat everybody nice and you may get a sale or two. I bet one of you hosers is going to call me a tire kicker.
Ten years ago i needed a new CD player. I go to the local hifi dealer and after some looking at different machines, i ask a salesperson what is the difference between the 500 and 800$ models of the same manufacturer. He then tells me to look it up on the internet. I reply, what is the best store on the internet? He just says: i don't care.
Is there a glossary of audio terms? Everytime I read comments there's this or that model # with "fast attack", or "mids are "chalky". I'm part wanting to know more and part thinking bs.
They are just a way of communicating the sounds we hear into words that someone could understand. Most are pretty self explanatory. Transparent, hard, bright or dark, spacious, detailed, soundstage, imaging, flabby, boomy, smeered, thin, dry, rich, I haven't come across chalky midrange. Fast attack surely suggests that a system responds quickly to a sudden signal such as something struck hard and fast, like a drum or the leading edge of the note of a plucked guitar string. Not BS. Hope this helps.
K D 9, Robert Harley, of Stereophile and Absolute Sound has put out several books on HiFi and how to choose what to get and why. I have one from a number of years ago, I think it’s called the guide to high end audio that explains all the terms used by the experts.
@LD Blake There is a whole language that has been built up over the years to describe the sound of components. I believe J. Gordon Holt of Stereophile was the first to actually create a “dictionary” with specific meanings to the terms.
@Larry Niles because it comes off as pretentious is why I would think it was bs. Doesn't help when you see comments like "are you worthy of being an audiophile" like wth man.
Spark color-here at the transmitter-green-blue sparks=copper,white = aluminum.And these are with a burning metal smell.Other smells-transformers!!!insulators!!!Funny----something that was a nonconductor is now a CONDUCTOR!!!!Then an empty space where a component USED to be!
Oh I was such an asshole to my coworkers. I would randomly start playing 15k/16k sine waves (while having my own ears protected). I used to often give out music recommendations and sometimes I would just pass a pair of headphones to my coworkers and start blasting meme/cringe music. Sometimes I would even shorten links to porn videos and send it over in the company Hangouts chats and tell them to play them over the speakers. Did a bunch of other stuff, man I had a good time, love being freelance now but miss messing around with coworkers.
@Larry Niles was never at unsafe levels. Wouldn't play the sine waves above 60-70db from a set of headphones I kept near me. Which is why I'd keep my IEMs in. The meme songs part actually everyone did to each other, and no we didn't actually "blast" anything, it's all the companies equipment, I don't mess around with that.
Never let the smoke out of the wire. You can never get it back in.
good one!
I was once in a high end hifi store looking at a new amp when a woman who looked like she was living rough approached me and started asking me about a system she liked, me being me treated her with respect and informed to the best of my ability about the hifi, she smiled at me and sed your the only assistant who as spoken to me. Realising she thought I worked there I told her I was only a customer like her, I looked around the shop to find some one to serve her I approached one of the staff and explained that she was interested in purchasing a hifi, he looked at me with disbelief that she wanted to bye from them. He then spoke to me and sed she is living rough and had only come into the shop to get warm and she wood go away if we ignored her, I got a bit annoyed about his attitude toward her soo sed go to her and at least be nice to her. Anyway after som convincing he went over to her. To cut a long story short she bought the system in cash it cost £2, 359 pounds. wilts the staff where getting on from the stock room she walked over to me gave me a big hug and pushed £50.00 pounds into my hand it turned out she was loaded gust bows to show you don’t judge a person by there looks after she left the manager of the shop came over to me and thanked me for me kindness and gave me a really good deal an the amp I wanted. I will never forget that day 😀👍
Great story, my dad had a business friend who owned a very
successful Machine Shop with his brother. One day at lunch him and
his brother went to the local Cadillac dealer in their work clothes to buy two new cars.
“They had a great month’”
They walked around the show room for an hour and no one
gave them the time of day.
On their way out they saw the
Sales Manager and told him
how poor they were treated
and what they were there to buy.
Even he said ya right.
The look on his face when they
pull up a couple days later in their
new cars was priceless!!
Nice one I wood have liked to have been there to see the look on there faces for my self. Happy holidays 👍
Ian Yates cool story
Jarod Reddig thanks for the reply have a nice Christmas
Tony C. Ok so I spelt it wrong so what you got the jist we carnt all be Mensa tea fall boffins
"This is not a museum...". So true.
The world really needs a term for guys who go to any hobby/specialty store to talk to employees and not spend money. Because he is in every store.
I was acquainted with a bicycle mechanic in Indianpolis, a guy in his 50s or so who's ridden across the country four times. A mutual acquaintance told me an anecdote where a guy was in the shop who was the wealthy older guy who just picked up riding. A little overweight, hanging out at the counter in full team kit, going over the details of his very expensive carbon bike and his future plans for upgrades. Not even soliciting advice. Eventually he started talking about switching some component out for one that was two ounces lighter and the mechanic says "it seems to me you could still shave off about twenty pounds."
Thanks for all the fantastic programs on your channel all year.
Merry Christmas and a happy New year filled with great sounding equipment!
Hi Steve, I spent most of my life working in a Hi Fi stores in London and I had many wealthy customers.
John Entwistle of The Who used to come in and on one occasion he asked to try out a cheap cartridge so I showed him a Stanton 500 series.
He took it away and tried it out. When he came back and I asked him what he thought of it he took the cartridge and put it on the floor and stamped on it destroying it saying it was "Sh-t
I knew the Who had a reputation for smashing up a lot of equipment in New York hi fi stores.
I had told him when I first met him not to smash up any equipment.
To cut a long story short he just smiled and told me to bill him for it and he paid up. He did spend lot of money with me and was a good customer.
I knew people in photographic stores in the days of 35 MM film and they would keep exposed rolls of film behind the counter so that occasionally when a customer brought in a roll of film for developing & printing from a very exotic holiday they would switch the roll of film for one that had been exposed. They would pull the film out of the can and say to the customer ~ There's nothing on it just to get a reaction out of the customer.
The customers would usually freak out until they were told, It's Ok it's just a blank film.
Funny! !! Loved the 80% sale story...first belly laugh of the day.
Great start, thanks Steve!
In the customer's defense: Its a lot harder to compare and evaluate audio than you might think. But that's why so many of us subscribe to reviewer channels. So very helpful!
I'm loving your Chanel Steve. I feel like I already know you. I'm a studio owner and vocal coach. I bought my first sansui rig when I was 13 in 1982. I love great audio. So thanks for opening up and sharing authentically.
This shirt look looks great too.
Have a great 2019 mate. Looking forward to sharing contributions! 👌🤘
Merry Christmas Steve! Thanks for all you do.
Thankyou steve and guests happy Listening and a peaceful new year ,,
This is the best video you have put out in a long time Steve. It is lots of fun to hear stories like this one. Merry Christmas and Happy new year to you
thanks!
I use to walk by the Music Fidelity headquarters in London Wembley and hear The Owner play Clarinet from his Office. As a 15 year old teen I owned a Music Fidelity B1 amp.
I could google this but I'd rather ask you; do you know of any ~$100 amps that aren't too bad? (for guitar)
Simon Lee Sax
I have a couple of his records.
You have to RESPECT a hifi designer/ manufacturer that can play music !
Used to live nearby too.
I own many MU-FI components, starting with the A100.
Happy retirement AM!
Pogo M no I don’t know much about guitar amps but I can ask my friends that play for their advice.
I sold and serviced audio gear on Cortlandt Street (Radio Row) in 1961-1964, and have vivid memories of "customers" that would take up your time, come on with a list of "how much is a Shure M7, how much for a AR3", and on and on for 15 items or so, ask your opinion, and then walk up the street to save $5 on a $1000 system (BIG money in 1962). We had one guy that would show up every two weeks or so with this kind of a shopping list, and one day the store manager asked him "Are you here to buy something or just break our balls"? It did not even faze him---he just kept on talking!
There was a time when Cerwin Vega built absolute weapons as speakers! The Cerwin Vega Stroker - the old ones with paper cones - were just amazing speakers that - given the right enclosure - seemed to work everywhere! If it was in your home cinema, in your car's trunk, on a party in open air or on a giant stage, it just didnt matter. God i miss those babies. A friend of mine still has (not exaggerating here) 40 to 50 chassis. He's using 16 seperate 18 inch Strokers in his home cinema (8 in front of him, 8 behind him). It is absolutely mind blowing not just how loud but how extremely fast and dynamic these 18 inchers can perform. Linstening to a drumset-recording on them just feels like out of this world.
This is what happens when people get bored! Lol.
I love the Cervin Vega, first time encountered them was in a club back in the mid 80’s. The clarity, the tight bass, the fast attack. Awesome speakers.
Steve, You're a savage! 😂
I had times when I was young and aspired towards great sound, had no money for the fancier stuff. But the store salesmen in some would let me listen to fancy stuff knowing I couldn't afford it then. But a year or two later I could, and I used my money in the stores that treated me well, not super high end gear, but nice enough, a few times even just walked in and pointed at something and told them I want that one. They didn't immediately remember me the first time, but I reminded them I was the scruffy looking teenager a few years ago who they let listen to it, and this time I'm back with the money for it, don't need to listen to it as I did already, box it up and ring it up.
Love the stories!
Merry Christmas, Steve!
Happy holidays, Steve!
Someone I knew worked in a garage where they worked on cars. One day his boss was in the work area, and this person ran up to him from behind, pulled his trousers and underpants down, and scarpered. Somehow he kept his job. I think pranks were the norm.
This is hilarious Steve, fake pissing on an amp and putting it in a garbage can!!! My amp just blew up, ha, ha, ha. The wheel of fortune for answers. I love this any job must have ways of dealing with stress, especially when you are one on one with the public. Your former boss at Sound by Singer, must be proud Steve, you elevated your career to the next level. Steve keep this coming, Merry X-mas and Happy New Year!!!
very enjoyable....thank you. So that's where i recognized you from--Sound By Singer
Love the pranks and practical jokes!
Great stories, Steve, thank you.
Speaking of stories: way back in the day I used to lecture in business studies, and for one of my first year papers I had a small army of tutors. One day, one of my tutors bought a new phone (this was prior upgrading deals), so he had this handset that was - for all intents and purposes - redundant. So for my introductory class, before anyone knew anyone else, I asked him to sit in the front row. Surreptitiously, I called his number and the offending handpiece rang, and without any change in composure, I continued lecturing and approached him, took his phone off him, and plunged it into my glass of water.
Sufficed to say, I never had any issues with phones in class ever again.
Those were the days.
Hey Steve, how about the guy who spends your time and takes your advice, then says " I can get it cheaper online, no thank you." This is why, or at least one reason, Radio Shack went out of business. People were coming in, getting advice, and not buying. These brick and mortar stores need to have your business if they are going to stay in business. If you like the store and service pay the higher price and support the store to keep them around. You are paying for the heat, lights, rent, employees, it is called overhead. Not to mention the privilege to touch, smell, hear, and see the product. If you like the service of your local record and hi fi stores please support them. I say this as a customer as I don't work for one.
Because I'm in the car business, my guilt for taking a salesman's time has actually led me to purchase some great values over the years, Dragonflys on every damn computer I own, 2 x Grado SR 80es, (1 for walking & 1 for loaning), a number of cables, Vinal accessories etc. We both Win.
Thanks for the Christmastime stories! Some great pranks there.
One of my hifi coworkers from back in the day told me about salespeople wh would go to competing stores and slip hard-boiled eggs in to speakers with ported cabinets. 😂
Just want to wish you Steve a merry Christmas happy New year happy holidays bring in 2019 in a mighty way
Thanks, you too!
In any future need to demonstrate the limits of a woofer, just connect the ends of a lamp cord to the terminals (any circuit-breaker bypassed, of course) and plug it into a 20A wall outlet. A serious commercial unit, as in the old Cetec Gauss demos, would take that without damage, but very few will.
Customer service, it's my idea of purgatory.
I just bought a set of Mordaunt Short M20 (Black) speakers from Richer Sounds can't wait to open them on Christmas tomorrow!
I have a set of MS20s from the 80s
Karl Hamilton nice man, how do they sound
@@xXmatthdXx They sounded really good. Haven't used them in ages since I upgraded my amp to a 7.2 unit. Now I use Wharfedale satellite speakers and a sub. The sound stage is brilliant though I know most audiophiles will think I'm a heretic for saying so haha.
Karl Hamilton yeh they seem like good speakers you have if you like them that’s all there is to it right haha
I sold high end audio too, years ago, in San Francisco. Those "waste-of-timers" we called " Strokers". I had one particular stroker, who lead me on for about an hour before claiming he had to rush off to another appointment. Mind you, he seemed earnest with genuine interest to buy. My colleagues teased the heck out of me the rest of the day, and days after. He returned a week later asked for me, and said he's meeting a friend there who wanted a "sound system". His friend showed up 20 minutes later. For another hour, we went over what I had showed and demonstrated the week before. The friend ended up making a three and a half thousand dollar purchase. The friend turned out to be the late Paul Kanter of Jefferson Airplane/Starship and I made the sale to Paul. So, you never know. My colleagues were left with their jaws dropped. But, that was a rare case. Many are deliberate "strokers".
so, you essentially wrote 'the movie' with anecdotes! Woah
Living in NYC and frequenting both Sound By Singer and Lyric during my early audiophile days was not the best experiences of my life. I was a budding audiophile, I knew I had a sum of money coming to me, but that money was about a year down the road. I was new to the equipment, new to the terminology and new to what I was hearing. But even then I had discerning ears. Yet I had a lot of trouble being served and was met with a lot of skepticism. There was a place called Harvey's here in NYC where I must have walked in 5 times without a single salesman asking could they help me. In Lyric I finally had a salesman, Mike himself, who finally ceded to help me, but that was after about the third time I entered the store. Salesmen would look right past me and serve the person next to me. Sound By Singer gave me attention my first time there, so did a store called Audio Breakthrough's (who I eventually bought from. I became good friends with the guys there as well), Innovative Audio (who I also bought from many times) and Tech HiFi. I eventually got a salesman to notice me at Harvey's when a friend from Audio Breakthroughs became a salesman there. Why so much trouble? I'm black and these guys would immediately assume I wasn't buying. Mike at Lyric told me during a session that he knew I wasn't buying, but he'd deemed to service me anyway. I asked him "How do you know I'm not buying?" and he said, "Because I just know". I suppose his inner oracle must have kicked in. Needless to say I never bought from Harvey's, or Lyric. I did purchase used from Sound By Singer.
Wow. Have l some stories for you. I was a customer in good standing (or so I thought) shopping at Stereo Exchange when this salesman kept following me around like l was gonna steal something. Made me VERY uncomfortable...at Singer, the owner sniffed at me like l didn't know High-End. Guess what, l owned a pair of Vandersteen speakers and was pricing a Krell amp. You just gotta LOVE these guys. Audio SNOBBERY at its worst, brother
Excellent description of the "moochers", or simply lonely (aspiring) Audiophiles who wanted to talk and learn. But as you say, they ought to pay up once in a while and buy something to cover your time. Of course just be more forceful and direct about having other work to do and go do it, even if you leave them hanging in their mind.
I worked a mom and pop computer store in the 80s home computer ramp up heyday, and we had several regulars like that, though some gave back by contributing info, pd software, tech tasks, and of course buying once in a while
While some could be irritating, never knowing when to quit talking and walk away, others were fun regulars. If everything in the store was in order, owner had no issue shooting BS with them for 30-60 min or more, and we immediately addressed other customers as they entered, ending ongoing discussion abruptly
same problem today with tire kickers. They get all the information from you and buy it online because it's slightly cheaper.
Now in my 19th year selling audio, and those time-wasters still don't get it, haha. It's brutal sometimes. One guy we call the Penguin, comes in and starts an uninterruptable monolog that will go on for at least 2 hours if you let him. Everyone in the back knows, that after about 15 minutes, they have to run up and grab you with some "urgent" need, to pull you away from him. He has purchased a few pieces over the years, but it doesn't approach the amount of time he's spent taking all our days up. The customer's I resent the most, are the one's who A/B compare for months trying to come to their decision, stopping in many times to narrow down their search, until you finally have to just tell them 100% hands-down this is the piece for you, then they say "That gives me something to think about", they leave and go buy it online. I call one guy "Subwoofer Steve" because I probably had 20 hours of time talking with him about his subwoofer, comparing every model available, etc. Holiday weekends stayed late to demo them for his friends too, then he finally buys it online from somewhere else. The story doesn't end there though, he came back in because he didn't hear any sound, and wanted my tech support and further expertise on how to set it up for free, since "You recommended it, so I'm sure you know how it works". Some people just don't get it. This same guy gives me the whole laundry list of components he has in his system every time he comes in. He's described his room to me so many times, I can picture it in my head and I've never even been there. After about 14-15 years he finally bought a Demo Music Hall TT that we were blowing out at cost to get the new model, and he says "So I bought something now, I'm a customer, so are you gonna be mad that we come in here?" as if he did me a huge favor. A couple months later he came back and needed it serviced because somehow he burnt out the motor on it already. Horrible.
Cerwin Vegas were tough as nails! They were very hard to blow! Especially since they had the sensitivity of Las Scalas, at 104db at 1w, at least their big 3-way 12" models that I owned, which were their best sounding ones, and which were as good or better than the JBL L100 and Klipsch Heresy.
I was in the trade for 35 years mate and it would drive me crazy. Ok, people say all sales is like that. No. I remember once I was picking up some stock for my shop from another and the owner of the store came out of the High End room flustered. He had been and still was demonstrating cartridge cables with different cartridges for hours that the customer had brought in to compare.
Now I can tell you, that was just plain demeaning. I know people will say, that he was an idiot for doing that but this was back in the mid 80's and hes still in business.
From 1975 to 1980 I worked part-time for Sevenoaks HiFi whilst training to be a commercial photographer - I didn't get into audio engineering until 1987 (where I learnt to make a decent cuppa)
At Sevenoaks HiFi I was told which products to push the most. Unfortunately, the rubbish HiFi had much better markups, but I just couldn't do it. I would demo kit (we had two listening rooms) and always recommend kit I knew was very good, but had a very small profit margin. One day the manager asked me into his office. Earlier in the year he had a new Sony CCTV system added. He then proceeded to playback video of my sales techniques in the shop. I owned up saying I just couldn't let customers spend their money on rubbish - I was quickly told my part time job was over.
It was at that time the audiophile bug bit hard, and I did manage to buy (discounted) many quality componants. I loved speakers and owned Rogers LS7's, Mission 770's, and very expensive AR9's in 1982. The influence got me into high end audio/visuals for sure.
Merry Christmas Steve.
Any after hours listening in the store for fun like kids in the candy store with your favorite LPs?
Looking forward to more of your stories and experience in your hifi happy holidays
hola steve Guttenberg merry chrisms and happy new year have a good one
I can't tell you how many times I have gone into an audio store to listen for what it is I am after, and upon the realization of "just listening, not buying today" status was established, the salesmen became quite rude. Those cerwin vega woofers are very efficient, and the 15" dvc sub I had was fantastic.
Merry Christmas, Steve.
I pulled a great one years ago. I had a test cassette that had a lot of songs that we used for testing and sales. One day I was looking at a Foster PortaPro 4 track cassette deck. I almost never used the stuff on the B side of the tape, so I got the bright idea to dub tracks 1 and 2 to 3 and 4 (which would normally be played in the other direction). Then I found a Nakamichi deck on display and put the tape in. I waited until the owner of the store walked through and hit the reverse button. The song that had been playing began playing backwards. Everyone came unglued. Much gnashing of teeth and pull of hair proceeded. Even putting that tape in a second deck did not convince them that it was a prank. The owner was busy removing the Nakamichi deck from display when someone grabbed the tape and put it in a third deck, which also promptly "broke". Instead of realizing that the tape was a prank, the owner got the idea in his head that the tape was breaking auto-reverse decks. Only by putting the tape in a non auto-reverse deck did the confusion turn to laughter.
Sounds like an interesting business. Merry Christmas!
I guarantee every salesman who ever complained about timewasters has wasted time in another store. Maybe at the record store or at the motorcycle dealership or the fancy cookware shop it doesn't matter. If you don't work in the industry and especially in the 70s and 80s, where else could you go? I do not agree I have to buy at every store I enter. I may still be doing my research. I might change my mind. I might schedule a listening session at one store and it helps me decide I liked what I heard in a different store more.
Love your stories Steve
There lies the conundrum. As audiophiles we want to hear all the latest gear we read about, but we know sales people are there to sell stuff, not just audition. I rarely go into audio stores because I feel like I'm imposing on them if I don't have cash in hand ready to buy. Even if I'm on the hunt for a piece of equipment and haven't made up my mind yet so want to check out several options the sales people act put upon and it gets awkward. In my area audio stores are never busy. Everyone's aways just sitting around, so it's not like I'm keeping them from the sell of the century. Even if I just look around without needing a sales person it is like a museum with a "Look but don't touch" vibe, so I can't even check out speakers or amps to hear how they sound. So what's a guy to do? How do I get to go check out all the cool new fancy stuff so I can blog and tell friends and make informed arguments on chat sites and just get more acquainted with this hobby? Obviously big box stores will let me just look without feeling guilty, but they don't carry the finest gear. And making a trip to Vegas to the CES every year isn't feasible.
The Tech Hifi catalogs were the best. I used to flip through the pages for hours. Somehow they all got thrown out, wish I had saved at least one of them.
My local hifi store used to have a list in the back where they would write down how customers would mispronounce "Bowers & Wilkins". English is not our first language here in Norway. I'm glad I stuck with Infinity, I would probably have butchered "Bowers & Wilkins" myself.
Merry Christmas, Steve!
What colour sparks?😂 Have a great xmas everyone,,many thanks for the videos.
Master of Sparks? czcams.com/video/hhN2V9qm2Mk/video.html
Cerwin-Vega thanks you for that story. Audiophiles don't like to admit it but for loud rock and roll they're really one of the better choices you can make. They'll take some abuse and they have the right sound to make rock sound its best. True story.
The old joke was to go in a guitar store, try all the guitars and buy nothing. The new joke is going to a guitar store, trying out all the good guitars and then buy one online :-)
When I was a kid my dad would take me to a high end audio store called Harveys in Manhattan...I think that was the name of it. He and my mom would get into arguments everytime he purchased something there lol.
I believe back in the seventies I tried to find Sound by Singer, but could never find it. I used to live in Rockland County, and when getting into the area I felt totally lost. I think I stopped at a record store and then went back home after calling it quits. I used to work at Ear Drum Audio in Nanuet NY. Those were the days.
I wonder why you didn't go to a phone booth, and dial information, get the number and call the store? Ear Drum was great too.
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac I just looked online for the address. Was Sound by Singer at the same location in the 70's? I do not believe I was looking in Manhattan. The address I got was from an ad in Absolute Sound, or Stereophile. One day I just got an urge to do something and got in my car and went on an adventure. That is going back a long ways to recall all the details. I do remember clearly was how I felt a bit intimidated by the shop's reputation. I sold some high end, but what Singer was known for was at top of the mountain. I figured I could find it on my own, and when it started getting dark I just turned around and went home. Believe it or not.. I felt intimidated. ;)
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac My bad...just located an old copy of Absolute Sound. It was most likely Lyric Hi Fi I went looking for. For, I was no where near Manhattan. I know I headed towards While Plains. I guess fifty years has a way to cause one not to be remembering some of the details. My bad! ;)
Happy Christmas!
Great stories.
Belate merry Xmas and happy new year.
Did become a bit of an audiophile when I went to a high end audio show in 1999.
After that I had a NAD 312, CD63KI and Menuet speakers, sounded really nice.
Now playing Concept MC, Lehmannaudio Decade, Synthesis Nimis (tube integrated) and Wilson Watt Puppies (DIY), it sounds a bit better :)
On CD Zappa sounded nasty and not much inviting, I thought it were the recordings. But on vinyl (the Bernie Grundman) re-issues are awesome! Even the originals (like NY) sound amazing.
Cerwin Vega.....D9s? Back in the day at least I really loved those speakers, ESPECIALLY for the price. A modest amp just really rocked your house and the neighbors. :)
Do you know if the Turtle Beach Stealth 350VR Gaming Headset is any good? I've never been an audiophile, just recently got PSVR for black friday and looking to upgrade from the default earbuds. I do also have an extremely cheap like maybe $10-$15 pair of headphones but they are just a little tight and fit directly on the ear, not over the ear which I think I would prefer, and they kind of start hurting after around an hour. If I try to push through the pain too long, it starts giving me a potentially nasty headache.
Mostly looking to enhance VR experience, but even for non-VR gaming when comparing the cheap headphones to the tv speakers, I think I prefer the headphone audio because of the directional stereo sound.
Anyways, I've never really been a headphone user, but kinda been awakened to new potential so to speak. would be willing to spend up to maybe $150-$200 for headset that is soft, comfy, and quality audio. Something I could wear for long gaming sessions and to get more out of my games. Not expecting high end, but yea from what relatively little research I've done, the 350VR seems pretty nice and only costs $60-$70 most places.
As a newb, I just stumbled across your channel and figured might be worth asking someone who seems to know waaaay more about audio stuff than me. Does the 360VR seem like a good bet, or is there something better for me in my price range? Sorry for the long comment.
Great stuff Steve!
So one afternoon we figured it would be a great idea to set a pair of B&W M1s on a pair of Krell FPB750 monoblocks :)
That guy made a purchase just to be your friend Steve lol! He said dam I gotta become a customer so I can keep talking to this guy Haaa ha. I have a friend that works in Magnolia design center in Westbury NY named Jeff Grahm I talked his head off for years till I became a customer and actually purchased some equipment ...sorry Jeff lol lol!
I never thought about the sales side that must be annoying but it takes me about three trips over a 6 month period to my audio store before I purchase anything but I do purchase
Was in the mid-80's. I was working on the sale of high-fasion and was dressed in expensive clothes. Suddenly had a lot of time left and went to town. Went past the Rolex store and went inside. Was nicely headed down to a more private sales room and was asked what I wanted. Well, a clock for + 1K (most watches in that segment). Watched and rated watches for half an hour, until I said he didn't have anything I liked and asked for a Smart clock. They were new to the market then. Plastic watches, and he stretched his hand under the counter and poured several from a paperbox on the table. Quickly look at them and chose one and say, this one I take.
If eyes could killed, I would have been dead.
I keep finding audio salesmen that know less about audio than me and I know almost nothing. That is the real problem, they sell it like it's furniture or smth
But I guess it is sometimes difficult to really know if a person is a customer or a time waster, because if you are going to buy something that cost 10.000 dollars or maybe more, then some might need some time to know what they want. And it can take months before they make up their mind. I'm thinking about my own experience. I was going to buy a piano. It took many months of trying and testing and listeing etc. Then I finally bought the piano I wanted. But it took long time to decide what to buy. But I was happy I took my time, because a piano is something I will have for decades, not just a couple of years. And it was a salesman that maybe was of the more impatient type trying to sell me piano. He was rude to me at one point. I didn't buy a piano at his store. I had a couple of potential pianos in his store. Nice pianos for more than 10.000 dollars. But that store was out of question when he treated me badly. And if you sell expensive stuff, you have to be nice to the customers, because the aftermarked stuff with upgraded and service is an important aspect of very expensive gear.
Yeah I remember walking into a museum once.30 years ago
I was told by my buddies. Hey you gotta check this gear out.so first 3 price tags I saw.i knew i was in the wrong place.
Too late salesman walks up and says.what would you like to purchase today.i paused for a while.then said .look I just wanted to see what was in here.i cant afford anything in the store.i want a new stereo.but this gear is out of reach for me.he understood. He then goes come listen to these(1st time listening to electro stats)I was amazed.then the tube amps.i was in that store for probably an hour.hes showing me some gear.he says to me thanks for being honest.he goes now you know what's in here. Maybe in the future you come back as a customer. I gave him $1 for coffee. He was grateful.
But i never made it back to the store
the movie Earthquake has a "new" sound technology - Sensurround- Cerwin Vega subwoofers up against the various walls of the theater. sadly, the "earthquake" sounds/signal sucked. it was a steady tone, not at all like a real earthquake.
People love to hate on Cerwin Vega's. I had some 380SE's (their top of the line) for decades, they were great sounding speakers. I still use the 15" woofers from them in my 2 way horn speakers because I haven't found anything that sounds better, goes as low, or is more efficient. Cerwin Vega used to demo speakers by plugging them into the wall and playing the 60Hz AC wave, so yes they're pretty tough too.
Erik Ross id rather have cv than a pair of anemic ”high end” bookshelf speakers that can’t move air
@@fredriksvard2603 it depends what you're into. I tend to be quite an electronica head so I'll choose loud over perfect quality to some extent, although if you like to enjoy jazz and classical with a glass of fine wine and cheese board at conversational level then pick the book shelves
Tim Lewis i want air and transients with classical and jazz too, all small speakers sound the same to me
How about the 20 questions turntable customer, then he goes and buys elsewhere. Then 20 more for the cartridge and buys elsewhere.
HouseofRecordsTacoma There is a ring of hell for people who showroom
Retail ... ugh. I just felt like a sitting duck ...
LOL great stuff.
In the 70's I worked in New York on 45th Street(which was packed with electronics shops). As you mentioned, there were guys(always guys) who liked to spend their lunch hours wasting our time. They would go from shop to shop until it was time to go back to work. Invariably they either worked for the post office or were, what we referred to them as, "pipe smokers." We had an older salesman named Hy. We called him Hy-Fi. His solution was to attach a large piece of paper (to these guys' backs) that said "mooch." This was like...every day. A pipe smoker would come in, bust our balls, and then walk out...marked by Hy. When they went into another shop on the street, the sales people would see the "MOOCH" tag and know not to waste time on them.
Dealing with the public no matter what you are trying to sell is a delicate tight rope.
how about AudioQuest wire sales? :) Those were and still are a prank correct???
quality stuff but talk about law of diminishing returns...
BTW I LOVE high end audio and have since I was about 14 yrs old. I used to frequent The Sound Station in Bartlesville, OK.
I would bug the guys to let me clean the store for free so I could hang out and listen to stuff.
I got a lot of my car audio from them when I grew up and my parents did also. I still have our Paradigm 3SE speakers
goodtimes
Hilarious !! I think i salesman who's there only for the commission would tell the guy off, since you/we are audio lovers so cant resist talking about our passion.. and these types take advantage of that and have lots of time to waste.
Why is the content so high quality ?
Ya, So I'M that GUY who wasted your time back in the day. When you told me to hit the road, I went somewhere else and bought my stuff! HAHA!
Kidding...Never met you before in my life. Don't even live in NY.
You should have done the newspaper/80 % off thing! Hilarious!
Like many here I was in sales .the audio market in the 80s sucked. Big company's that had premium lines stated pulling products out of best buy ,highland ,and circuit city. Many stated making cheap lines of audio products for the super stores and then the premium lines for full service stores. I said the he'll with it and started selling video. (The famous Mitsubishi HSU 52 VHS VCR cost 196.00 and sold for 500. On a good Saturday I could sell 10 on those. Make an out 400 in a day. I did that for about 10years or until video stated to get very cheap. It was fun.
We get a lot of people wasting time in the Antique shop.. And we get people who know the answer to something there asking but want to know if we know it..lol
I do that often, especially with audio and video gear. I want to see if they will lie to me to make a sale. I am more immpressed if you tell me you don't know or offer to look it up or ask someone else that might know. If you just make something up that sounds good I will probably just walk. I might call them out on it though, then walk. Anymore though I normally know what I want when I walk in and the only question I ask is "do you have it". I really love it when they say " No, but we can order it.". Well ya, so can I lol, I kind of wanted it today which is why I got in my car and drove here. I understand they are probably obligated to say that though, just doesn't make much sense in this day and age though.
Sounds like you had to deal with alot of Skunks in hifi.
2:34...."then there was the time Andy Singer was on vacation and we decided we were going to" ( place anything that seems funny at the time here but turned out to be a bad idea) the next speaker we tried to blow was the WIlson WAMM's
I disagree. I am sorry, but people should feel NO obligation to buy when they enter a store. I wonder how many sales were blown because of snotty sales people that thought they could predict the buying behavior of everybody that walked through the door. Sometimes it's a self fulfilling prophecy, you know. The best philosophy is treat everybody nice and you may get a sale or two. I bet one of you hosers is going to call me a tire kicker.
Ten years ago i needed a new CD player. I go to the local hifi dealer and after some looking at different machines, i ask a salesperson what is the difference between the 500 and 800$ models of the same manufacturer. He then tells me to look it up on the internet. I reply, what is the best store on the internet? He just says: i don't care.
I thought he was going to talk about how they used to rip people off lol.
Since the internet now they shop around online trying to get the best price.
Is there a glossary of audio terms? Everytime I read comments there's this or that model # with "fast attack", or "mids are "chalky".
I'm part wanting to know more and part thinking bs.
They are just a way of communicating the sounds we hear into words that someone could understand. Most are pretty self explanatory. Transparent, hard, bright or dark, spacious, detailed, soundstage, imaging, flabby, boomy, smeered, thin, dry, rich, I haven't come across chalky midrange. Fast attack surely suggests that a system responds quickly to a sudden signal such as something struck hard and fast, like a drum or the leading edge of the note of a plucked guitar string. Not BS. Hope this helps.
K D
9, Robert Harley, of Stereophile and Absolute Sound has put out several books on HiFi and how to choose what to get and why. I have one from a number of years ago, I think it’s called the guide to high end audio that explains all the terms used by the experts.
@@juliaset751 thanks Julia, I'll check it out!
@LD Blake There is a whole language that has been built up over the years to describe the sound of components. I believe J. Gordon Holt of Stereophile was the first to actually create a “dictionary” with specific meanings to the terms.
@Larry Niles because it comes off as pretentious is why I would think it was bs. Doesn't help when you see comments like "are you worthy of being an audiophile" like wth man.
OK, I have a problem here. I don't think any of those pranks were mean. In fact I thought they were hilarious. Does that make me a psychopath?
Spark color-here at the transmitter-green-blue sparks=copper,white = aluminum.And these are with a burning metal smell.Other smells-transformers!!!insulators!!!Funny----something that was a nonconductor is now a CONDUCTOR!!!!Then an empty space where a component USED to be!
Steve, hope Santa gets you over 💯 k this year.
i had a pair or CV Strokers ....... semi indestrctable monsters !!!!!
What colour sparks??? ... LOL
People who ask to much questions usually do not buy anything. Questions are normal procedure, until they ask to much then my alarm goes.
I ask so many questions whenever I'm buying expensive stuff lol. But I usually get most of the answers from the internet
Oh I was such an asshole to my coworkers.
I would randomly start playing 15k/16k sine waves (while having my own ears protected).
I used to often give out music recommendations and sometimes I would just pass a pair of headphones to my coworkers and start blasting meme/cringe music. Sometimes I would even shorten links to porn videos and send it over in the company Hangouts chats and tell them to play them over the speakers. Did a bunch of other stuff, man I had a good time, love being freelance now but miss messing around with coworkers.
@Larry Niles was never at unsafe levels. Wouldn't play the sine waves above 60-70db from a set of headphones I kept near me. Which is why I'd keep my IEMs in. The meme songs part actually everyone did to each other, and no we didn't actually "blast" anything, it's all the companies equipment, I don't mess around with that.
... I guess I don't really need to defend myself as I'm mates with everyone I worked with and we had good times
wow!