Hifi Trickery
Shopping for High End Audio? Choosing the right components can be a daunting task at the best of times. So many conflicting theories and ideas about what sounds good, and what sounds less than good. Salesmen spewing out well rehearsed phrases and using sales techniques that are designed to sell you expensive product which will ultimately do nothing to enhance your enjoyment of music! The purpose of this web site is to expose some of the tactics used by the Hi Fi industry to rook you into a cycle of diminishing returns where good money chases bad money right down the drain!
“Sales Tactics” deals with the ways in which stereo salesmen confuse you into buying things that may not be right for your system in your room at home. Some of these you will recognize, some will have you scratching your head and saying “So that’s why they do/say that!”. The second section “BS Buzzwords” is reserved for confusing jargon. These are the buzzwords and catch phrases that are often used in Hi Fi ads to get you interested in certain products. These words when you really analyze them, are often misleading or meaningless.
We’re not trying to ruin what can be a fun and rewarding hobby. However, once you put all the BS aside you can concentrate on what will really and truthfully help you enjoy your music.
Sales Tactics
Tell em’ what they’re gonna hear!
Let’s see if you find this familiar. You’re in a stereo shop sitting in front of a stereo system. Before he puts the music on, the salesman describes for you what you’re going to hear. He then puts on a selection of music, and before you can really even begin to enjoy it, he then describes what you’re hearing. The salesman then turns the music off and proceeds to tell you what heard! This is a very old trick that uses the power of suggestion to lead you to the foregone conclusion that you should buy whatever the salesman is trying to sell you. This may even be a subtle form of hypnosis! Once the music has started to play, if the salesperson begins to talk simply turn to them, look them right in the eye and say “would it be alright if I just listen to the music”?
“Audiophile” Recordings
You ever notice that most “Audiophile” recordings are very sparse arrangements featuring very few instruments? When I think back to my days working in a stereo shop and remember the music the owner used to love to use to sell equipment. It was always, a single vocal, and a single guitar or a Holly Cole song featuring her voice, a standup bass and some sparse piano. Another shop in town used to use a recording of Japanese Taiko drummers, nothing but drums. There is a very good reason for this. The more you have going on in a recording the harder it is to accurately reproduce. So the thing to do is bring your own demo music with you and make sure to bring some more complex layered music with you and use that as part of your comparison. Always bring a good selection of music that you listen to when you’re out shopping and auditioning audio. Ask yourself, why would you ever evaluate a stereo system with music you’ve never heard before? You see I know from experience that the sales staff in Hi Fi shops will tweak the systems to sound great playing their chosen demonstration music. So if you use their music to evaluate a system the whole presentation has been staged, it’s a foregone conclusion and you will be misled.
Fatal Comparison
When you walk into a High End Audio shop for the first time, the staff checks out your shoes, your watch, your clothing in order to “qualify” you. This process determines what is likely to be in your wallet! Then the fun begins! If a salesman decides that you can afford the best stereo in the shop, he’ll let you have a listen to that system first. Nothing else you hear that visit will compare. Every other system you do listen to during that visit to the shop is reinforcing the idea that you should buy the highest priced system in the shop. If you have so much money that you don’t care that’s fine. If not, you may want to shop around or at the very least leave the shop and come back on another day with fresh ears and simply refuse to listen to any system or component that is out of the range of what you’d like to spend. Another good practice is to ask what things are selling for before you listen If the price is out of line with what you’d like to spend, ask to move on to something more affordable. If the salesman refuses, they are wasting your time and it is time to leave.
“Bad Recordings”
The function of a stereo system is to playback music whether it be a Vinyl Record, a CD or whatever. So then assuming that you’re listening to music that you enjoy, if the sound of the playback is Bad, bright, dark, or in any way less than ideal, it’s the fault of the stereo system NOT the recording itself. Whenever this happens during a stereo demonstration the salesman will attempt to blame the recording and then insist that he play you a “better recording”. If you are in fact buying a stereo system for your personal enjoyment, shouldn’t it sound good playing the music that you actually listen to? If the salesperson insists on using their demonstration music simply say “ I have a better idea, let’s try to find a system that sounds good playing this music, because this is what I listen to”!
“Sales Tactics” deals with the ways in which stereo salesmen confuse you into buying things that may not be right for your system in your room at home. Some of these you will recognize, some will have you scratching your head and saying “So that’s why they do/say that!”. The second section “BS Buzzwords” is reserved for confusing jargon. These are the buzzwords and catch phrases that are often used in Hi Fi ads to get you interested in certain products. These words when you really analyze them, are often misleading or meaningless.
We’re not trying to ruin what can be a fun and rewarding hobby. However, once you put all the BS aside you can concentrate on what will really and truthfully help you enjoy your music.
Sales Tactics
Tell em’ what they’re gonna hear!
Let’s see if you find this familiar. You’re in a stereo shop sitting in front of a stereo system. Before he puts the music on, the salesman describes for you what you’re going to hear. He then puts on a selection of music, and before you can really even begin to enjoy it, he then describes what you’re hearing. The salesman then turns the music off and proceeds to tell you what heard! This is a very old trick that uses the power of suggestion to lead you to the foregone conclusion that you should buy whatever the salesman is trying to sell you. This may even be a subtle form of hypnosis! Once the music has started to play, if the salesperson begins to talk simply turn to them, look them right in the eye and say “would it be alright if I just listen to the music”?
“Audiophile” Recordings
You ever notice that most “Audiophile” recordings are very sparse arrangements featuring very few instruments? When I think back to my days working in a stereo shop and remember the music the owner used to love to use to sell equipment. It was always, a single vocal, and a single guitar or a Holly Cole song featuring her voice, a standup bass and some sparse piano. Another shop in town used to use a recording of Japanese Taiko drummers, nothing but drums. There is a very good reason for this. The more you have going on in a recording the harder it is to accurately reproduce. So the thing to do is bring your own demo music with you and make sure to bring some more complex layered music with you and use that as part of your comparison. Always bring a good selection of music that you listen to when you’re out shopping and auditioning audio. Ask yourself, why would you ever evaluate a stereo system with music you’ve never heard before? You see I know from experience that the sales staff in Hi Fi shops will tweak the systems to sound great playing their chosen demonstration music. So if you use their music to evaluate a system the whole presentation has been staged, it’s a foregone conclusion and you will be misled.
Fatal Comparison
When you walk into a High End Audio shop for the first time, the staff checks out your shoes, your watch, your clothing in order to “qualify” you. This process determines what is likely to be in your wallet! Then the fun begins! If a salesman decides that you can afford the best stereo in the shop, he’ll let you have a listen to that system first. Nothing else you hear that visit will compare. Every other system you do listen to during that visit to the shop is reinforcing the idea that you should buy the highest priced system in the shop. If you have so much money that you don’t care that’s fine. If not, you may want to shop around or at the very least leave the shop and come back on another day with fresh ears and simply refuse to listen to any system or component that is out of the range of what you’d like to spend. Another good practice is to ask what things are selling for before you listen If the price is out of line with what you’d like to spend, ask to move on to something more affordable. If the salesman refuses, they are wasting your time and it is time to leave.
“Bad Recordings”
The function of a stereo system is to playback music whether it be a Vinyl Record, a CD or whatever. So then assuming that you’re listening to music that you enjoy, if the sound of the playback is Bad, bright, dark, or in any way less than ideal, it’s the fault of the stereo system NOT the recording itself. Whenever this happens during a stereo demonstration the salesman will attempt to blame the recording and then insist that he play you a “better recording”. If you are in fact buying a stereo system for your personal enjoyment, shouldn’t it sound good playing the music that you actually listen to? If the salesperson insists on using their demonstration music simply say “ I have a better idea, let’s try to find a system that sounds good playing this music, because this is what I listen to”!
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