how happy with your dealer?

Dear Richard,

As you know, one important thing in this world is : nothing's free, except this forum...

Nonetheless, I will suggest names if I find one good distributor in Brittany

Regards

Klva

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Mine has Naim kit at home. He has been know to steal components from his own systenm to provide the right combination for a customer demo.
For me for example he brought his own XPS2 in which promptly blew a fuse in the shop. He informed me later that the biggest problem coming from that was that his wife was thoroughly pissed that she had to do without the CDS3 will he got a fuse and fixed his XPS2.
I think that is a pretty proactive approach.
The other thing is he has advice and will give straight answers to questions such as what he recommends as the order of stacking of components on a Fraim. etc.

He is also always ready to try and help by telephone, which in my case is pretty important since I am a long way away.

You may say all this is no big deal but IMO it is not common in modern customer relations. He is not about the customer is always right, you get an honest answer which is far better in the long run.

I reckon he's a pretty good dealer.

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Since we are naming names this is Chris henry who runs Overture HiFi in Banbury. He is an excellent fellow.

regards

GEOFF

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Originally posted by tpc:
I can only say that I have been very well served by my local dealer, Audio Excellence, in Worcester.

When I first met them I was having problems with my SBL's. They eventually came to my home with a top man from Naim and reset everything up for me. This included re sealing the base units, re stacking my rack and sorting out cabling and other anomalies.


This was all FOC.

I have subsequently bought a CDX2/XPS2 from them and am awaiting delivery as you read this posting. However, this is some 12 months after their visit and I have never had any pressure from them to buy anything until I had had the A/B demos and was happy with my selection.

I have to thank Maurice for him patience with us and say that that he is a good guy to deal with (other than he is a Man U supporter but I guess no one's perfect).

T

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have to second these sentiments.
pcm

I found the naim dealers in manchester city centre to be very snooty, didnt seem to be interested in my business - maybe they have too many overpaid footballers as customers so as not to be worried.

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Originally posted by blythe:
I get the impression that Naim are quite particular with regards to who stocks their equipment.

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Certainly, that would make sense. Not so sure if that's the case in the US, tho.

As the company expand, I am not sure if they can be picky especially, if they are getting into the HT market.

this is quite off subject, but, I am curious how on earth Naim would deal with cable clutter on the back of any Home Theatre systems.

Hawthorne Stereo

From my experience the staff's comprised of 50% very helpful, knowledgeable, and patient types (specifically, the laid-back indie/emo looking guys) and 50% cocky, snooty, and impatient types (more recent hires?). Anyhow, isn't this mix typical of any retailer of any "high end" products? Hmmm, not sure I should be complaining given the low bar set everywhere else.

Like Graham I would welcome another option in the greater Puget Sound area.

Hey Graham, I deleted and re-posted! Anyhow, my overwhelmingly positive experiences were 2-3 years ago; everything since has been mostly unpleasant. Your reply gives me the feeling the good guys left.

What's with that no home demo thing? That's completely unacceptable, given the magnitude of the cash outlay. Wait- how come someone on the previous page said they have a decent demo plan? Do they hand-pick demo candidates?

(Others- what I stated in my deleted post is it seems the grumpy eggs at Hawthorne were spoiled in the dot-com/MSFT millionaire-a-minute my-neighbor-has-one-here's-my-credit-card days in Seattle and haven't returned to Earth.)

[This message was edited by Ludwig on Fri 16 April 2004 at 3:10.]

I’ve had a very good relationship with Hawthorne stereo here in Seattle. Very helpful, knowledgeable and pleasant to deal with. I once came in late to hear some gear and they set it up and left me alone to audition it at my own pace. They checked in to see if I needed anything but otherwise they let me do as I pleased.

Maybe when you bring an attitude with you, you get one in response?


Definitive Audio on the other hand didn’t carry what I wanted but would order it if I bought it? I didn’t see the point of paying their markup if I couldn’t hear it first. They were really only interested in selling Plasma TV’s and the best cables they had were Monster Cables. NAIM deserves a better dealer than someone like Definitive Audio. The 2 times I went in were extremely disappointing. Magnolia Hi-Fi is on par with Definitive Audio


Mitch

Well not to get into a Seattle-fest but here's my two-cents...

I like all of the Hawthorne folks I have dealt with other the past few years. I think it's hard running a small shop like this these days (and in this city) and I will try and support them when I can. I have had several home demos, and certainly not bought everything I tried. Nonetheless, they have always provided what I felt was honest advice, and have never tried to push anything on me I wasn't looking for. In addition, they often come up with interesting things to listen to- e.g.recent auditions with Devore. I don't agree with them having any "attitude". I was in Sounds by Singer in NYC last week- now there's an attitude (and I'm a New Yorker!)

Definitive Audio, on the other hand, drives me nuts. I was recently looking all around for new or used speakers (for those who don't know, there are a row of audio stores near one another in Seattle). I was down to the Devore's or Allae''s at Hawthorne, and went shopping with me wife for the final approval. We went into Definitive for the f**k of it, and dealt with an onslaught of B and W and Linn foot-tapping the likes of which I have never seen.

Now, I must admit I ended up buying my Audio Physic's from an unknown on the street (to me), Premier Audio. But again, that was after hours of demo's there, and going back to Hawthorne to compare, when they knew I was considering other speakers down the street.

In the long run I bought my speakers because I really like them, but I'll be going to Robert and his crew at Hawthorne for my CDX2 later this year.

Bruce

"Hopefully during one of the next Seattle Naim-addiction anonymous meetings"

Could it be time for the next one soon" It will be tough to compete with Chris' CDS3/552/500....but I have a nice dog (see sistem pics 2004).

Bruce

I'd also be up for a Seattle shin-dig (got sick as a dog last time). As long as we don't talk politics, work, or Graham's attitude problem.

Has Chris sorted out his speaker situation?

My dealer is Ilan Tamir - the Naim dealer in Israel.

He has golden ears, golden hands and golden mind. His touch is amazing and there is no way when he visits me - even if I buy nothing, he touches here and there and the sound comes better.

OK, he is not 100% perfect (and who is?), and we have some hard talks here and there, but here in Israel, to my opinion, he is the first and the best pro.

It is nice to see in the Israeli forum, how many problems and how many things to deal with have all the audiophiles who don't have Naim equipment (I could write a book telling about cables replacing problems for example) and how silence are all the Naim funs. Interesting in this point is the claim that Naim equipment is expensive. I didn't find here better systems than Naim - but if you consider that Naim gives any thing you need, to my mind Naim is one of the cheapest systems around - here in Israel.

Arye

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Originally posted by ghunter:
I think it's unethical to engage Hawthorne in a sales process if I'm not going to buy the unit from them. Demo-by-mail isn't something that most dealers are willing to do either, given NANA's policy of not infringing on fellow dealers' territories.

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But what one to do if a local dealer is not accommodating your needs?

Especially in a case of partnering a Naim preamp to non-Naim amps, I think it is a mandetory for home demo. Or at least a dealer should be sympathetic about the situation.

Must confess I tried three other Naim dealers before going to Cymbiosis - I was asking reasonable questions but they obviously didn't like the way I looked or something...

andy c!

Andy,
I know that feeling well! The magic of Cymbiosis, no pretensions just good service, whether you go in wearing a suit or overalls.
David

I think it's fair to say that, in all walks of life, sometimes you "click" with someone, sometimes you take an instant dislike for someone.

I have visited a dealer and simply didn't like the guy. I don't actually know why I felt this way, i just didn't feel comfortable with him.

Personality clash maybe?

A friend of mine uses this same dealer and loves the service and regularly pops in for a coffee there. I guess he just "clicked", whereas I didn't.

Computers are supposed to work on 1's and 0's - in other words "Yes" or "No" - why does mine frequently say "Maybe"?......

Another honourable mention for Chris at Overture, Banbury.

His enthusiasm, product knowledge and advice was superb (and I was only buying secondhand).

Julian

Infidelity in Kingston.

In the ten years or so I've been going there I can't remember a single bad experience. The many good ones include lending me a Dyna P75 on Saturday (fixed grin ever since...), and physically moving and resetting my SBLs for me when I moved house a few years ago (this took at least three hours). Really do know how to set up an LP12 (even if I traded mine in for a P9....).

And they don't moan too much now that I spend all my money in the racing bike shop next door

Tim

Real Music is one of the top 5 Hi-Fi stores in the world. It's true! I read it in......ummm, Arena magazine

Jay

PS. This is actually true. Chris will be able to tell us the issue number. I'm sure he still has it

My dealer for the last several years has been Gene Rubin Audio and he is the best audio dealer I have ever worked with bar none. He introduced me to Naim electronics and has been a solid source of counsel regarding all aspects of audio. I no longer even think of calling othe dealers or reading the audio rags.

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my experiences with billy vee have been poor

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That's a shame, mine was excellent. After a terrible demo elsewhere Billy Vee were great.

Seth

Loud and Clear - Glasgow

Although I finally settled on a Linn system at my given budget, I returned to L&C to buy my Fraim - simply the best rack there is.......

Should funds permit, I will no doubt return for a further Naim dem as both manufacturers try hard to give us the music - and that is what counts.

When I returned to inform them I had chosen Linn, John at L&C was just as pleased that I bought what I was happy with as if I had bought a Naim system from him.

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Originally posted by Craig C:
My dealer for the last several years has been Gene Rubin Audio and he is the best audio dealer I have ever worked with bar none.

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Craig,

But he's not in the Illinois is he?

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Originally posted by ghunter:
Good point, Kuma. Not all of us are happy with our local dealers (I assume that's partly why you started this thread) and we're in a sticky spot when it does come to home demos. What I've done is take advantage of the fact that I travel a lot for my work and listen to (and buy) equipment in other cities. Still, it's not the same as an in-home demo, and I do sometimes miss having the professional, in-person attention that I'm supposed to be getting during setup.

That's really where I look to the manufacturer/distributor to do something, as they'll be losing out too. I love Naim, but I've recently been looking at ATC, Dynaudio, REL and other non-Naim options because I don't feel that I have proper local support from Naim.

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Graham,

For most part, whether Naim or non Naim dealer, I rarely depend on dealers for a 'set up'. I normaly have a gear shipped directly to my house for a demo from few out of town dealers I am familiar with or accommodating producers who don't mind sending a product if there are no local dealers available. I am no expert, but my systems are simple enough, almost anyone can connect an equipment without blowing up a system to pieces.

Except Naim is bit different.
Since they can sound mediocre to great in a flash depending on a set up, I think a lack of knowlegeable dealer set up assistance is problematic.

I wonder about not only how many sales are lost but listners came away with a wrong impression of Naim.( when I first plugged in a borrowed bare CDX2 in a non-Naim system, it sure was not 'pretty'. )

I've stopped considering certain brands, simply because logistics of arranging a home demo was too difficult. And Naim was one point on my endangered species list.

Cannot speak too highly of Audio Excellence in Cardiff and particularly Andy Wardlaw the Manager whom seems to make a habit of driving to deliver and set up gear for me on wet Friday nights.