Went to a higher end audio shop

PWRRYD

My family and I are visiting my Sister and her family up in the Detroit burbs.  Didn't have anything to do this morning so I googled and found a shop called Clearview Audio & Video Specialists.  Nice little shop.  They had KEF, Revel, and Focal speakers and Mark Levinson, Evotiva, Parasound, and PrimaLuna tube amps.  The gentleman, Mike, was very nice and let my wife and I listen to a pair of Revel towers (forgot the model) and a pair of Focal Aria 936 towers.  Both were powered by a Mark Levison 300 wpc power amp and a fully digital front end.  The room was about 15' wide and 20' deep and was nicely treated.  The Focal towers sounded very nice.  Great sound stage, very dynamic, good extension, and the inverted dome tweeters sounded very natural.  Not that cost means anything but he said they were $4000 for the pair.  Based on how they sounded and how nice they looked I'd say that was a fair price.  It was nice to hear them in a proper room (not a hotel room like Axpona) and we were under no pressure what so ever.  Mike seemed very pleased to demo whatever we wanted to listen to.  My not so distant future project is to build some DIY acoustic panels for my family room.

jhollander

Sounds like a nice place.  I'd like to be able to A-B demo some diy designs next to some good factory speakers.  

PWRRYD

It was nice John.  We were just wearing Levi jeans and winter coats but Jim didn't seem to notice or care how we were dressed.  A long time ago Rockford had a high end audio shop.  If you weren't dressed for success they wouldn't give you the time of day.  They went out of business - HA!

jhollander

Times change. I just met a few 30 something guys dressed jeans, sweat pants, and tee shirts, and based on the financial statements they submitted for leasing property these guys are millionaires.

ani_101

Must be all the Bitcoin millionaires floating around...

Tom_S

Sounds like a cool place! Good to see some high-end dealers that are not snobs. Our long-time local audio store, The Audio Room, closed a few years ago. They carried a pretty wide range - car audio for a while too. 

jr@mac

There are a couple "invite-only" shops here, otherwise what we have are basically the equivalent of Best Buy Magnolia. Most speakers top out around $2k/or with majority solidly in the lower end Polk, Boston, and the like for quality.

The one invite I finagled exposed me to some pretty nice speakers, and some serious high end garbage. I was invited to leave after that audition. Oh well.

dynamo

A couple times when we visited my sister in law in the twin cities area I have stopped in at Audio Perfection. Nice people. They sell Wilson and the likes, with several pair on display. I was in jeans and T-shirt each time and it was pretty clear I was just looking around and didn’t have five or six figures to blow on a pair of speakers. Nonetheless they gave me an open invite to hang out unescorted and play any disc I wanted on whatever I wanted. I thought that was decent of them. I’ve been in shops selling a lot more common brand stuff where they turn their noses up or act like I was gonna break or steal something.

Tom_S

My brother lives in the Twin Cities and we stopped in at Audio Perfection many years ago. I agree - very nice folks. We listened to some big OTL tube amps and floor-standing Spendors. I remember being quite impressed by the Spendors they had on hand, but they were above of my pay grade at the time.

PWRRYD

I'm glad to hear that my recent experience is not unique.  I wrongly assumed the high end shops were all snooty based on my old experience here in town and the general feeling I got at Axpona.

kennyk

Had a great shop, friendly, knowledgeable, and demo top end gear........in the 70's. They moved to a location nearby and the attitude changed. 
They didn't last long.