I met a Klipsch snob......

[SickPuppy]

Was in Springfield, Mo to visit my sister, and dropped by a local stereo shop whom I know is a authoized heritage dealer. He had a set of K-horns in the front room and they-are-beautiful.......Turns out they are his personal ones,Made in Austrailian Lacewood, only 20 made supposedly and autographed by P.W.K! Since he didnt have any others, I asked if I could hear them and what was the asking price, thats when he told me they were his own and there is no "asking price", he wouldnt even consider it, which make sense... And as for hearing them...no. He only fires them up for personal listening ,after hours. But what if I wanna buy a set....sorry. ??!!?? He does however have many other Klipsch products I can listen to, at that point I was taken back by the snobbish attitude, and told him I'd let others know of his helpfulness and as for buying from him....I would't even consider it...... THis jerk was looking at me like I was some kind of white trash. But I realized it wasnt me. It's him, he's a Audiophile snob. Klipsch doesnt breed snobbery, It breeds sharing and hours of " hey check this out and ohh, I love this passage, let me warm up the tubes here, and....you know what I mean. Heck , my father bought his klipsch and Denon at that store!

I still get P.O.'d thinking about him,LOL. Up until now I thought the snotty snob crap was reserved for other high end stuff! Not Klipsch!! Bad Apple, Bad Dealer....

[Al Klappenberger]

Puppy,

You should have asked they guy if he lives in the sore! May he is homeless and has on other place to keep his personal equipment!

Al K.

[tpg]

Ya... my local Klipsch dealer (well, closing out now...) treated me kind of bad a few years back. I was only 16 or 17... and didn't appear to be looking to buy, so they didin't give me a listening demo and said it was not wired up... after he had just told me how good certain speakers sounded in there. Little did he know I had a large sum of cash in my wallet ready to buy... and he turned me away. So... I bought off of eBay.

Went in there a couple weeks ago with the intentions to buy whatever i liked most... because I was sad and needed an upper in the form of buying something. So... I looked and listened... wanted RF-3's and told him I'd be back in 2 hours with the cash. And I was. So... I hold grudges, yes... bt they are my only link. And... I like the salesman I bought from last time, and intend to buy from him again.

[TheEAR]

This is a rare encounter,a KLIPSCH snob!You have many snobs in audio but Klipschers share the Klipsch sound experience with fellow audiophiles.Strange person,me I like to demo my systems when people ask to hear them,with pleasure as long as they touch NOTHING(like sticking dirty fingers in Esotec soft domes or pushing the grill in the RF7 tweeter)

[IndyKlipschFan]

"as long as they touch NOTHING(like sticking dirty fingers in Esotec soft domes or pushing the grill in the RF7 tweeter)"

Man your talking death by flogging here!!

[SickPuppy]

And see, Ear, That's what I have come to expect from Klipsch owners, Love of music and the pride to show off their equipment. That's why it threw me off when he acted like such a twit. Hell, truth be known I could have wrote him a check for a surrround sound system in K-horns. But I sure as hell wont from his shop, and wouldn't anyway since if I did I wouldnt have a wife to listen to them with anymore,LOL. I'm going to get a set, not until we move though. The house were in isnt right for K-horns. Walls arent right.It may be a few years...

Tell you what though, that wood they were covered with was truly beautiful..

[ShapeShifter]

I try to never let people like that get to me. As the saying goes - He was born an a$$ hole, and just grew bigger.

[krustyoldsarge]

This is tragic! Even the Koreans who run the "audio boutiques" in Seoul are friendlier than this! And I hate to give Koreans credit for anything!

[m00n]

What the hell? Wow. I think I'd have turned to a different salesmen and purchased something, anything, right in front of his face just to show him his poor attitude lost him money.

What a jerk!

[D-MAN]

That goes way beyond just being a "snob"...

Why is it that Hi-Fi salespeople think that being snotty and rude helps them close a sale? Where did that come from?!

It's the RETURN CUSTOMER that really counts...

DM

[seti]

I come across this pretty often I get all the info I need to make purchases from this forum, audio asylum, and then purchase off of AG. I won't even walk into our aleged audio store for this very reason. It must be some kind of sales psycosis : )

[chuckears]

SickPuppy,

I have heard the K-Horns to which you are referring about six months ago; in fact, it was the last time I heard K-Horns. Was the guy you talked to a medium - larger build guy in his fifties? He is the one I seem to remember in that shop (a couple of years ago) who said they were his (yes, they are beautiful).

The salesperson who let me give them a listen more recently was a smaller-build guy, possibly in his mid-thirties, who has been more helpful to me in the past (no sign of the other guy on that day). I brought in 5 or 6 discs, wanting to refresh my memory on the Klipschorn sound, and he was very obliging, saying he loved to hear some of the stuff that people brought in, and especially on the Mighty -Horns. It was being fed by an Aragon amp; slightly warm-sounding to my ears, and the soundstage lacked depth, probably because the back wall was a glass partition. It was still some of the most accurately reproduced music (in particular the French Horns) I have had the pleasure to hear.

I'm sorry you were left with a bad impression of the local shop; truth be told, as much as they brag about how much Heritage business they get from their huge sales radius, I think it's pretty sad that they don't have a better selection on display. If I'm not mistaken, the K-Horns they wouldn't let you hear, along with a pair of Heresy's (cane grills) are the extent of their Heritage collection.

I bought my RS-3's from them a couple of years ago, but do not foresee any future transactions (unless I get filthy rich, and order my 6 LaScala HT package ).

BTW, did you enjoy any local restaurants while you were here? I know they're hard to find, especially the Chinese buffets ... I'm in the business, and am curious as to out-of-town impressions of the local cuisine; I would hope the service exceeded your experience at H*****'s Stereo...

[InventiveAudio.com]

I took my wife to the local HI-FI shop for a demo of several high-end displays. The guy actually said to her that what he was saying was probably being interperted by her as wah, wah, wah (like in Charlie Brown), She has a 150 IQ and is quite capable of understading what he was saying. My wife was totally turned off by this so he lost a sale that day. This guy was a real snob. He had an attitude you could cut with a knife. I brushed it off as his problem but my wife was quite offended. Little did this little man understand that the wife usually has the final say. If the little women is totally opposed to a purchase it's not happening 9 out of 10 times. IMHO

[SickPuppy]

Chuckears, I've added about 2 inches to my waist because of Springfeild resteraunts!LOL My sister has lived there since 72 and my mom and dad lived there for 5 yrs before they passed so I've eaten there alot. I dont no if it's the number of restaurants or if no one there cooks at home but it seems like every place is always packed. Been to the chinese place just south of James river xway and national 2x and went to Bumsteads this weekend, Zios the weekend before. Sis lives in battlefield/brookline area and mom lived by Cox south so we eat down that way more often. The parents were both sick for the last few years so no too much time to get out and about, but will be venturing around more now when I get down there. AS far as the salesman goes, you pegged it, store and the salesman. By the way ,they have the new THX system right by the front end and it is beautiful too, sounded good from the short time I was there. Next visit I'll peek in the window to see who's on the floor before I go in,LOL.

And if your in the KC area, you need to go to Audio Port, It's full of MArk Levinson, Wilson Audio, Tule, Revel,Proceed, Rel Subs, Lower end stuff ya know, but fun to drool on! I've asked them about carrying Heritage stuff, but they dont wanna sell the whole line just to get those..pity

[chuckears]

----------------

On 9/7/2004 10:46:27 PM SickPuppy wrote:

I dont no if it's the number of restaurants or if no one there cooks at home but it seems like every place is always packed.

----------------

There just isn't that much to do, beyond shopping and going to the movies... culturally, we have Branson 45 minutes to the south

; not this person's idea of Culture, but to each his or her own.

As for my family, we do both; since I cook for a living, I find myself doing it at home as well, but sometimes enough is enough, and we just have to go out. We usually go out for the things that would take about a half-day to make, or that I generally would not want to deal with (Mexican, because it's too time-consuming to make all the fillings and sauces; chicken wings, because my fryer isn't big enough; Chinese, because it's unavoidable...)

Certainly, we have a lot of the Chains in place (Cheddars, Applebee's, Olive Garden, Red Lobster), but our favorites are the more family or locally-owned establishments, with fresh ingredients and personal recipes. It's good to know someone from here, so you can take advantage of their experience... we seem to have

50\50 luck when it comes to dining in places like St. Louis; I use restaurant guides on the internet extensively.

BTW, part of my introduction to Klipsch was from a place I worked at for 13 years... the owner had Cornwalls at the in the corners of the ceiling in the main dining area

...

[maxg]

I dont know what it is with Salesmen. I guess they automatically assess a potential customer as they walk in through the door and once you are pegged into a given hole - that's it - you have had it.

I rarely have problems with salespeople - I have been a salesman myself and generally push the right buttons to get what I want, but even I, on ocasion come up against such rank stupidity it beggars belief.

Sometimes I let it go and just leave the shop. Other times I let the salesman have it, in the nicest possible way of course.

Case in point:

Over the road from my office is an audio place - and I mean over the road - lean as you exit the door and you are in the shop. Very high end - very high brow - but he does sell a sellection of 2nd hand stuff at reasonable prices and so it is of some interest.

Whilst visiting for the first time he asks me about my system. I tell him the details. When I get to the amp (which was brand new at the time and obviously something I was rather proud of) he wastes no time in telling me it is total crap and that any of the amps in his shop are better. So many of his clients had that very amp and switched after a home demo from him.

Strangely he was not able to name any of them - but ah well. Obviously he ignored the fact I was not looking for an amp and was totally satisfied with mine.

All well and fine - but whatever he thinks of my amp telling me it is crap is calling me an idiot for buying it.

Then starts the hard sell to show me how good his amps are. Leads me into the demo room - and fires up his system running some very large speakers - cant remember the make now - woofers top and bottom and about 5 foot high with a very nice digital front end and one of his 50 wpc tube amps. Those amps, mind you, are 5 times the price of mine.

After 10 minutes of listening I cant resist any longer. I ask him to put the volume down and then explain to him exactly what is wrong with the sound he just subjected me to. I cant remember the whole thing but it boiled down to minimal depth, muddy bass, unstable image, inaccurate voicing, undersized imaging and sibilance on the highs.

A flood of excuses follow. I think he was a little shocked at the demolition of what I was listening to. He blames the under-powered amps, the digital front end and the room. Same amps he was so keen to show me however, in the room he chose to show off the capabilities with similar arguments for speakers and source aplpying of course.

Suddenly he is real keen to come over to my place to listen to my system so he can advise me on what I should do.

So I am left wondering:

1. Would this be an unbiased assessment?

2. If the guy cant put his demo room together properly to sound decent how is he going to help me?

3. A guy that cannot assess the buyer properly (AKA me) - how is he going to assess my sound requirements?

I decided to let him have an inkling of what I was thinking by saying that whilst he obviously has some very good equipment I am a person who believes synergy between components is THE key to good sound.

Cost of an individual component is irrelevent as far as I am concerned in indicating the potential sonic quality without recourse to the rest of the system, the room, the music listened to and the expectations of the listener.

In as much as I am happy to have him come around to listen to my system that would not be with a view to him selling me anything. I am the sole judge of what I want and what I buy. Any item I might be interested in I would want to demo at home, on my system, and without his help.

Such items would not include an amp for the foreseeable future as I am perfectly happy with what I have, correctly, it appears, judging by the quality of what I have just heard.

Kinda enjoyed the process in a slightly masochistic way, but sadly I will never be able to go in there again.

The really good part of the whole story is that his brother owns a local vinyl shop and he has been to my house and totally flipped over the sound. I know that he broke the news to the shop owner as it came up in conversation later on.

[PhilMays]

Ya know, it's not just some high end stereo sales people, it's sales people who think they are high end.

I'm always amazed at how a saleperson can ruin a sale in essence taking food out of their own mouth.

These folks are only as good as their last sale. Perhaps they forget that or live on some great past deed/sale.

I'm pretty d*&^ good at my business. What keeps me grounded is knowing in reality I'm only as good as what I'm doing now. I've learned that the hard way years ago

[Underhanded Penguin]

People love to touch esotec and esotar tweeters. I also love punching them in the face when they try.

[Frank Speaker]

Thanks for that story max.

I always enjoy reading your interesting posts.

[IndyKlipschFan]

"Cost of an individual component is irrelevent as far as I am concerned in indicating the potential sonic quality without recourse to the rest of the system, the room, the music listened to and the expectations of the listener.

In as much as I am happy to have him come around to listen to my system that would not be with a view to him selling me anything. I am the sole judge of what I want and what I buy. Any item I might be interested in I would want to demo at home, on my system, and without his help."

Volumes was said and implied in those very smart dead on remarks Max.. What YOU like in the end is what matters!!