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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2017 10:36:23 GMT -6
This is one of the reasons I've gone for prosumer / mid range gear.. It's an absolute faff to try and get your hands on professional gear in the UK, actually scratch that it's difficult to get your hands on even mid range gear to test.
Presonus had no demo stock of the Sceptre's and even if I were to order them in it would take a month, Dynaudio's aren't available until September and there's a small chance I might get a demo pair out of them. I was discussing it with a shop tech, they said that the pro audio scene here is tiny. Prosumer gear is what sells by the truckload..
So trying to demo any piece of equipment that costs over 1K will probably result in you waiting for a month and even then you might not be able to test it out. If you're spending 3K on a piece of equipment, you want to hear it right? We do have a decent returns policy but the refund can take up to 30 days, so you try a piece of gear out for a week and then in total wait 37 days to get the next piece. Frankly comparing stuff without reviews is pretty much a no go.!
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Post by ChaseUTB on Aug 16, 2017 11:02:25 GMT -6
This is one of the reasons I've gone for prosumer / mid range gear.. It's an absolute faff to try and get your hands on professional gear in the UK, actually scratch that it's difficult to get your hands on even mid range gear to test. Presonus had no demo stock of the Sceptre's and even if I were to order them in it would take a month, Dynaudio's aren't available until September and there's a small chance I might get a demo pair out of them. I was discussing it with a shop tech, they said that the pro audio scene here is tiny. Prosumer gear is what sells by the truckload.. So trying to demo any piece of equipment that costs over 1K will probably result in you waiting for a month and even then you might not be able to test it out. If you're spending 3K on a piece of equipment, you want to hear it right? We do have a decent returns policy but the refund can take up to 30 days, so you try a piece of gear out for a week and then in total wait 37 days to get the next piece. Frankly comparing stuff without reviews is pretty much a no go.! Yes I have never been able to demo anything. I'm in Atlanta Ga and there was one pro audio store but they got finessed on demos and stopped.. that's was five years ago.. unless you have A credit card an established business rapport with a local dealer or store I doubt.. Of course the bigbstirrs have their faves and " pros " they keep with demos but yeah I am not one of the elite hahaha
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Post by notneeson on Aug 16, 2017 11:17:53 GMT -6
I'm surprised Atlanta would be that challenging. Here in the SF Bay Area there are fewer places than there used to be (RIP Leo's) but Cutting Edge is sill going and there are one or two rental outfits with pro gear as well.
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ericn
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Post by ericn on Aug 16, 2017 11:18:29 GMT -6
In the great old days of professional audio, manufacturers had demo stock and / or required dealers to have a demo unit. That all changed as the project studio took over and consumers required discounts / deals. Somebody had to pay for a demo piece! A dealer like DSPdoctor will have a great Demo return policy but your not going to get the big discount and your going to have to pay for the unit up front for security. That sucks right? Well the manufacturer is going to put the dealer on the hook and thus the dealer is going to put you on the hook! You might get a discount dealer to send you the product out with a return it if you don't like it deal, but don't do it without a this in writing from the sales manager! Also realize Your credit card company can take forever to issue your money back !
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2017 11:22:57 GMT -6
This is one of the reasons I've gone for prosumer / mid range gear.. It's an absolute faff to try and get your hands on professional gear in the UK, actually scratch that it's difficult to get your hands on even mid range gear to test. Presonus had no demo stock of the Sceptre's and even if I were to order them in it would take a month, Dynaudio's aren't available until September and there's a small chance I might get a demo pair out of them. I was discussing it with a shop tech, they said that the pro audio scene here is tiny. Prosumer gear is what sells by the truckload.. So trying to demo any piece of equipment that costs over 1K will probably result in you waiting for a month and even then you might not be able to test it out. If you're spending 3K on a piece of equipment, you want to hear it right? We do have a decent returns policy but the refund can take up to 30 days, so you try a piece of gear out for a week and then in total wait 37 days to get the next piece. Frankly comparing stuff without reviews is pretty much a no go.! Yes I have never been able to demo anything. I'm in Atlanta Ga and there was one pro audio store but they got finessed on demos and stopped.. that's was five years ago.. unless you have A credit card an established business rapport with a local dealer or store I doubt.. Of course the bigbstirrs have their faves and " pros " they keep with demos but yeah I am not one of the elite hahaha I suppose that's one thing, they don't go via rapport here.. Gear either has to be prosumer or popular, let's take Genelec's or Adams for example you can walk into your local music store and they will just "pre-charge" your card. Then you're free to take it home and demo it.. For some reason there seems to be a lot of Adam A77X's walking about so I'd have no trouble getting those to try out, when it comes to anything else (like avantone, presonus, amphion, upper range focals, barefoots, PSI etc. etc.) you've no chance. The issue being, it's not even the shop that doesn't stock it they don't have them at the distributors either. I suppose there's the odd case like the ME Gethain's were available to demo, but I mean it's extremely rare.. Usually it's because they're making a sales push, even then once you'd accepted the item for that fringe specific piece of gear there were no returns on that item which probably explains why you can get a demo pair in the first place.
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Post by svart on Aug 16, 2017 11:23:51 GMT -6
Another reason that I just went with the standard studio gear list.. 1176, LA2A, etc.
You know what you're getting when you buy the usual suspects, and you know that they've stood the test of time. No demos or guesswork needed.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2017 11:30:33 GMT -6
Another reason that I just went with the standard studio gear list.. 1176, LA2A, etc. You know what you're getting when you buy the usual suspects, and you know that they've stood the test of time. No demos or guesswork needed. I agree, but if that's the case what's the point in them manufacturing fringe gear? If they had demo stock surely they would sell more? There's no end of people looking for upgrades on GS and that's the UK included. A word of mouth piece becomes popular and all of a sudden it's available everywhere with plenty of demo stock, the quandary being that for word of mouth to happen people have to use it in the first place.. Then we can be in a place to enage a juxtaposition.
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Post by jcoutu1 on Aug 16, 2017 12:09:52 GMT -6
Another reason that I just went with the standard studio gear list.. 1176, LA2A, etc. You know what you're getting when you buy the usual suspects, and you know that they've stood the test of time. No demos or guesswork needed. I agree, but if that's the case what's the point in them manufacturing fringe gear? If they had demo stock surely they would sell more? There's no end of people looking for upgrades on GS and that's the UK included. A word of mouth piece becomes popular and all of a sudden it's available everywhere with plenty of demo stock, the quandary being that for word of mouth to happen people have to use it in the first place.. Then we can be in a place to enage a juxtaposition. Buy used items at a good price and sell if you don't like them. That's how I operate.
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Post by johneppstein on Aug 16, 2017 12:46:59 GMT -6
I'm surprised Atlanta would be that challenging. Here in the SF Bay Area there are fewer places than there used to be (RIP Leo's) but Cutting Edge is sill going and there are one or two rental outfits with pro gear as well. Audio Images Corp is still going on Bryant street although my dear friend Ron Timmons passed away last year. His partner Jim Chen and Jim's son are carrying on. AIC bought out the last of Leo's stock when they closed. If you go in tell Jim I said "Hi!" and that I miss being able to take the bus down to the shop.
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Post by swurveman on Aug 16, 2017 13:00:06 GMT -6
I demo'd an SSL Sigma directly from SSL. I also have spent enough with one US dealer that I could demo something if I wanted to. Once I did a big deal (~50K), they've treated me differently.
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Post by notneeson on Aug 16, 2017 13:01:03 GMT -6
I'm surprised Atlanta would be that challenging. Here in the SF Bay Area there are fewer places than there used to be (RIP Leo's) but Cutting Edge is sill going and there are one or two rental outfits with pro gear as well. Audio Images Corp is still going on Bryant street although my dear friend Ron Timmons passed away last year. His partner Jim Chen and Jim's son are carrying on. AIC bought out the last of Leo's stock when they closed. If you go in tell Jim I said "Hi!" and that I miss being able to take the bus down to the shop. I will keep that in mind, thanks!
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Post by jampa on Aug 16, 2017 13:34:02 GMT -6
It's an absolute faff to try and get your hands on professional gear in the UK, actually scratch that it's difficult to get your hands on even mid range gear to test. Try the bottom of the South Island of New Zealand!
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Post by c0rtland on Aug 16, 2017 13:40:06 GMT -6
We are really fortunate here in the USA. Easy to forget that sometimes.
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Post by stormymondays on Aug 16, 2017 13:56:56 GMT -6
Don't KMR and Funky Junk have a good selection and policies?
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Post by ChaseUTB on Aug 16, 2017 18:03:58 GMT -6
I'm surprised Atlanta would be that challenging. Here in the SF Bay Area there are fewer places than there used to be (RIP Leo's) but Cutting Edge is sill going and there are one or two rental outfits with pro gear as well. Sam ash and guitar center ... Atlanta Pro audio was the only pro store that would let me demo used pieces they were tryna flip for the high anything else was special order and subject to restocking fee/ return fee/ open box fee ... yeah a warm audio wa76 was a special order item at ATL pro Audio ... Sam ash had the wa76 tho and maybe wa2a and that's the high end 😂😂 @shadowamd I meant rapport like you have spent thousands with this business so they know you ... maybe Ragan put the Adams and Dyn's on the CC, maybe he had a great rapport with his sales guy and was able to truly demo.. Closest Pro Audio is VK in Nashville and that's 6hr round trip.. The Barefoot FootPrint are also special order and beside chuck levin they are a VK exclusive brand .. I suggested Unity audio they are in the U.K. 🤘
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Post by jimwilliams on Aug 17, 2017 9:35:38 GMT -6
Buy used and you may save enough to put your kid through college.
Buy new and you will pay to put the other guy's kid through college.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2017 9:40:52 GMT -6
Buy used and you may save enough to put your kid through college. Buy new and you will pay to put the other guy's kid through college. Untill it breaks on you and you'd wish you'd of gone for new with a warranty.. I've had a Daking Pre-amp, API pre-amp, Equator D5's and an Engl Savage all go faulty on me in the last 3 years .. Just unlucky I suppose.
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Post by thehightenor on Aug 17, 2017 12:41:19 GMT -6
I'm in the UK and I've used Funky Junk and KMR for demos.
KMR aren't as good as they used to be, in that they want to sell you gear then offer a refund if you don't like it, where as they used to lend gear over a weekend.
Funky Junk still lend out gear to demo, so these days Funky Junk have been getting my limited budget.
Digital Village were great for demo's and often taxied over a car full of high end kit for me to try out! But they went bust and the new German company don't offer the same facility.
So if you want a demo of high end kit I recommend Funky Junk.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2017 13:10:29 GMT -6
I've just discovered bax audio, I was straight up honest with them and said I'm only buying these monitors to compare them to some others.. They said that's fine you've got 60 days to return them..
I was like awesome, shall be buying stuff (to keep) from you guys in the future. Through this whole monitor buying venture, I've definitely found the right places to buy from..! P.S they did multi-deals like on the L/R speaker which were a £100.00 cheaper than anywhere else.
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Post by jimwilliams on Aug 18, 2017 9:21:28 GMT -6
Buy used and you may save enough to put your kid through college. Buy new and you will pay to put the other guy's kid through college. Untill it breaks on you and you'd wish you'd of gone for new with a warranty. Then you get to put the repair guy's kids through college. See a pattern here?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2017 11:14:16 GMT -6
Untill it breaks on you and you'd wish you'd of gone for new with a warranty. Then you get to put the repair guy's kids through college. See a pattern here? Aye, when it comes to pro-audio the only one's winning are the people selling the shovels (or repairing them) ..
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Post by johneppstein on Aug 18, 2017 21:03:22 GMT -6
Don't KMR and Funky Junk have a good selection and policies? I was wondering excactly that...
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Post by johneppstein on Aug 18, 2017 21:06:02 GMT -6
I've just discovered bax audio, I was straight up honest with them and said I'm only buying these monitors to compare them to some others.. They said that's fine you've got 60 days to return them.. I was like awesome, shall be buying stuff (to keep) from you guys in the future. Through this whole monitor buying venture, I've definitely found the right places to buy from..! P.S they did multi-deals like on the L/R speaker which were a £100.00 cheaper than anywhere else. Yeah, it's all about building relationships. It's a bit of work but it pays off.
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Post by adamjbrass on Aug 22, 2017 8:29:57 GMT -6
Best way to demo gear is to become a gear pimp
I have found no other better way
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Post by Johnkenn on Aug 22, 2017 8:49:01 GMT -6
Buy used and you may save enough to put your kid through college. Buy new and you will pay to put the other guy's kid through college. Buy used and don't have a warranty Buy new and have a warranty
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