naim audio in tott. ct. rd, london

Posted by: ken c on 23 January 2004

while on my way to foyles, i detoured into hifi experience, in tott. ct. rd, london. this shop is in a real prime location -- i believe if i owned it, i would leverage seriously on its location (parking? dunno?)

anyway, whenever i am around that area, i always like to wander into the shop so i can listen to whatever system they have in their reception area.

the system today was based on Pass Labs pre and power amps and Wadia something-or-other CD player. speakers were Meadowlak(sp?) Heron's. never heard of the amps nor the speakers, which were all reduced to something like half price.

what was the sound like? immediately apparent was the very obvious stereo image -- and ehhhh, good stereo image, and ehhhhh... the system was playing some heavy rock number -- i really didnt care what it was exactly.

then i wandered on to their display area with all sorts of equipment on display.

i became aware of very good sounds coming from their dem room near there. record playing was dire straits. hmmm, that sounds like a naim system, i thought to myself. went round and peeped through the glass doors and yep, it was naim -- and that demo room appears to be dedicated to naim. system playing was CDX2/xps2, 282,and alleas -- on quadraspires. they had verious pre-amps in there --- i bet one of them was the mightly 552.

i asked the rep whether i could go in and have a brief listen -- looking very ignorant about naim. grudgingly, very grudgingly, he said, oh, alright then, only for a short while !!!!

boy, how i wish i owned that shop...

the naim system sounded very good indeed though. so naim can make even the likes of hifi experience sound good too...

enjoy

ken
Posted on: 24 January 2004 by Maxi Me
They do have a dedicated Naim room, and very good it is too!

Shame about the rest of the service which was so bad I took my money elsewhere.

Seth
Posted on: 24 January 2004 by Mick P
I guess that Hifi Experience must suffer from a lot of people walking in without any intention to buy.

They are WC1 so must of us possibly pop in for a dem during the working week and them go straight back to out local dealer.

Regards

Mick
Posted on: 24 January 2004 by HTK
I used to. Bit naughty but it resulted in a few memorable lunch hours. One of the disadvantages of living in Somerset and being home based - no walk-in opportunities. So I lower the tone in here instead.

Cheers

Harry
Posted on: 24 January 2004 by ken c
quote:
Originally posted by Mick Parry:
I guess that Hifi Experience must suffer from a lot of people walking in without any intention to buy.

They are WC1 so must of us possibly pop in for a dem during the working week and them go straight back to out local dealer.

Regards

Mick


in this kind of business you have to factor that into your dealings with customers and think of more imaginative ways of capitalising on it. if i had such a shop, i would really value the opportunity to interact with a potential customer (=potential sale), if no other dem was booked and i wasnt doing anything else more urgent at the time. in my view, a dealer can easily find out whether a customer is asking for a "curiosity dem" or "i want to buy dem". in my case, quite a lot of those curiosity dems have led to purchases.

of course, if i was busy, i would politely offer to arrange the dem at another mutually convenient time. i would offer to take details of the customers current system, etc etc. this alone will put off a lot of casual dem-aholics.

an example, a long time ago, i wandered into sonet lumiere on my way home to pick up a tape lead. at that time my dealer was grahams. i had a lot of vinyl records with me that i had just bought from sterns. colin welford said to me "a lot of nice records there -- have you got a minute -- i just want to hear one or two of your records??" two hours later i was still there. thats the first time i heard the phonosophie turntable. such enthusiasm!! at that time i was in the mkt for a tuner, so i bought a nat03, which i later upgraded to nat02 again with sonet.

i agree "time wasters" are an issue -- but if you are a true businessman, you can turn that to your advantage. naim users are ridiculously easy to lure into upgrades.

enjoy

ken
Posted on: 24 January 2004 by HTK
quote:
Originally posted by ken c:
naim users are ridiculously easy to lure into upgrades.
ken


...which is one of the advantages of living in Somerset....
Posted on: 24 January 2004 by ken c
quote:
Originally posted by HTK:
quote:
Originally posted by ken c:
naim users are ridiculously easy to lure into upgrades.
ken


...which is one of the advantages of living in Somerset....


lucky you !!!! Big Grin Big Grin

enjoy

ken
Posted on: 24 January 2004 by Don Atkinson
You could easily have strolled 50 yards into Cornflake

50 yards....yes

into Cornflake.....never.....the door is always locked......you get interrogated on the inter-com.....you get interrogated in the lobby........you certainly can't "browse".......

It would be easier to get into Colditz

Cheers

Don
Posted on: 24 January 2004 by Derek Wright
The dealer interrogation of ones credentials - I quite enjoy it now as their view of me changes from a troublesome old fart that probably has a Leak Stereo 30 and a pair of Wharefedale Bookskshelf speakers that might be asking what is a CD to ....

Derek

<< >>
Posted on: 24 January 2004 by ken c
quote:
Originally posted by alexgerrard:
Don

...I am amazed that Naim allow HFE to remain a dealer.

ag


i suspect naim allow dealers some leeway in the way they do business, which is after all up to them what "style" they adopt.

but i would guess that this leeway stops when they dont comply with set stds for naim dealership - no discount, installation, customer care, etc...

i know for sure that people pay money for a mere mailing list. therefore i would find it very strange to make it difficult for customers to come into my shop, unless i was concerned about security.

enjoy

ken