Dr Bunsen Honeydew wrote:It is the sole purpose of a retailer to rip you off, he has no other function.
Well, KJ Leisuresound used to give excellent service, 'back in the day'. Walrus were good, too. They were ex-KJ chaps.
In a way, I doff my hat to hifi dealers - anyone who has to put up with a bunch of fussy, geeky audiophiles for customers has earned my total sympathy!
Jerry - unrepentant boxswapper Life's too short for boring hifi !
Current system ... MBL 116F speakers, ... various and varying electronics and cables ... Laptop (TIDAL hirez)
For me there is nothing intrinsically wrong with dealerships. Its all about surplus value [ c.f chapter 18 Das Capital Vol 1] however, If in order for a dealership to survive the retail cost must increase by at least 100% [ which seems to be the case] then any benefit they can offer is surely completely negated . Any right thinking person could in no way conclude that the benefits of a dealership are worth 100% mark up compared to the alternatives.
They currently only survive because certain manufacturers have a dealership cartel and you can not buy direct. They are in effect anti-competitive monopolies . good for health care , schools ,police and the armed services . not good for hi-fi .
How retail profit margins are established is a bit of a mystery, as they vary so much industry to industry. Why should computers be as low as 10-15% yet jewellery is 2-300%. Hi-Fi sits in the middle at about 100% mark up (=50% discount), but even that varies, cables can be 150% or more where as some agencies that have become "must have" because of the industry bullshit only give 70-80%. Plus it depends on the dealers turnover and if he meets his contracted sales target with those manufacturers. He can get more margin for being a good boy and only really trying to sell those products and have his margin increased, or he can lose margin if he sells competing products. So you can see what a corrupt bullshit bag of nails the whole thing is, and the sooner it is done away with the better for the customer.
The curious thing is in theory these dealer contracts are illegal under the sale of goods act as they are counter to free trade, but for some reason they are getting away with it. In the early 90's recession when these contracts appeared, instigated by Linn as a result of the flat earth war (Linn and Naim falling out), and all the big guys copy catted when they saw they were getting away with it, the Dept of Trade were talking about banning it or prosecuting, but nothing seems to have been done. I am not even sure if a test case was ever fought.
All points duly noted... however as I said, if they know all of this and still want to buy from them, well that's up to them. Like all busines shops are there to make money. Like all business, the more the better.
I for one would take some pursuading to buy from any retailer now, as the second hand market is full of true bargains, but I won't name call anyone who wishes to buy from a Hi-Fi shop. If they are happy with their purchase and it brings them musical pleasure... job done!
Freedom in hifi is of course fettered. Herbert Marcuse a German Marxist, coined the phrase repressive tolerance. Tolerance of the status quo, because that's what reasonable moderate people do, leads to oppression. How many HI-FI brands must be purchased new from a retailer or not at all. That's not freedom, that's repressive tolerance.
The sale of goods act was supposed to stop this. The end of retail price maintenance nearly 50 years ago was never fully implemented, it was supposed to allow anyone to sell anything at the price they wanted to, so retailer margins were not fixed. This was the legislation that created the likes of Comet and the discount houses, but with the onset of the flat earth instigated by Linn with Naim in tow in restricting the giving of agencies and an under the counter agreement about discounts (completely illegal) started the present trend. This is what created the industry bullshit cartel of the reviewers, the mags, the shops, and the only loser *YOU*. In fact a lot of people are looking now at the times of the discounters as a golden age as some of the product from Japan sold then is now finally beginning to be respected after all the slander thrown at by the like of Ivor and his pet clones.
Look at my Pioneer PL71 turntable, completely under the radar, direct drive so must be crap - Ivor said so. A very good arm that tracks my Ortofon SPU gold and my Decca London Gold perfectly and a *highly* musical turntable in standard form.