JArcher:
You must have one helluva Norman Rockwell painting on your
wall depicting the heyday of audio salesmanship......the old
geezer puffin on a pipe waitin for the next retail payin customer
to walk through the door so he can impart his widom on them
and then SUPPORT them until they die....
The reality is that I live in a city with over 1 million people. My city
has an NBA basketball team, but has not a single legitimate high end
audio retail shop. My closest Magnepan dealer is 230 miles away
and they are pompous jerks. The only dealer that would talk to me
in phone or in person was 600 miles away and then ended up to be
nothing more than a home theatre integrator who just happened
to end up with Magnepan because they were the last choice Magnepan
had in that city. FWIW, that city has 3 MILLION people......and that retailer
just went out of business, meaning now Magnepan has NO OPTIONS.....
This is the story of audio in America. You live in NYC, SF, CHICAGO, LA?
Fine, you've got stores, you've got support (maybe)......but if you live
in the majority of the rest of the country, you have about as much chance
as finding a Maggie dealer nearby as you do winning the sweepstakes....
Add to that that most dealers are not the "service excellence and more"
picture you've painted and you end up with very little value from choosing
or being made to buy from a dealer.....even though you don't have one.....
The dealer I bought from were veritable morons when it came to advice
They did NOT go to bat for me with UPS when my speakers were damaged
They did NOT go to bat for me with Magnepan because Magnepan packs
them like lightbulbs....
They did NOT do anything, except take my money and ship my goods.....
and after that I was on my own.....
They DID close their doors three months later......
I find it strange that you reference 100 pairs per month at Magnepan's peak
but then talk about the advantage a dealer has because of his "GREATER VOLUME"...
How could he have that much volume when the whole company only sells
100 pairs a month....
As to your tale of people getting what they pay for because they "go around" manufacturers,
that doesn't hold an ounce of water......Magnepan has price fixed their speakers since
the early days and continues to do so.....Going around Magnepan's dealer network would
be completely without benefit, no matter what........Why do people go around Magnepan's dealer
network??? Uh, maybe because there's not one???
I stand by my statement that under current market conditions, dealers carrying Magnepan products
are of virtually ZERO VALUE TO ME and they are of ZERO VALUE TO MOST OF AMERICA WHO
HAVE NO DEALER.
Be that the case, I simply state that Magnepan should take the role of those nonexistent dealers
in your description, put a toll free 24 hour tech line in place with all the setup advice you can eat
and add 200 bucks to their speakers to PACK THEM WELL ........because they DONT.....
As to the dealers in SF, LA, CHI etc etc.........let em keep Magnepan.....and if their loyal
customers see value in what they provide then let them pay those dealers instead of Magnepan
the same price and let those dealers get the same markup as they do now.....I'm not saying
Magnepan should drop their prices and undercut them......I'm just saying a direct model
for a country that has very few dealers even in large cities and "getting smaller by the week"
would not be a bad compromise......
Maybe if they did, they could sell 200 a month
To close, I really don't have any issue with the premise of your post. The way you've described
an optimal transaction is really what we should all aspire to.......My only problem with your post
is that with VERY FEW exceptions, that dealer no longer exists......and if that is the case,
we as customers and the manufacturers who provide us with product need to face that fact
instead of continuing to operate as if we were still in the mid 70s.....
Feel obliged to offer some perspective / alternative on this.
We have to remember that even at peak of sales I doubt Magnepan sells more than a 100 speaker pairs a month. No manufacturer of that kind of volume is going to have very widespread dealership network, nor should it be expected. They obviously cover the major metropolitan areas well, which makes sense.
I don't agree that dealers offer no value or support to customers. There is a substantial investment in both time and money in a dealership to provide a proper environment with good associated gear for demos as well as all the time that goes into evaluating and doing all the set up so they sound there best. And then there's all the time and experience to assist you with it's set up and recommendations for either how to maximize it's matching with your current equipment or alternative equipment. If something should go wrong with that piece of equipment, it's the dealer who mostly likely is going to handle the shipment and follow up with the manufacturer on your behalf. They will have more influence on that process that an individual customer with just one pair of speakers than a dealer whose buying in far greater volume.
Not to say that there aren't bad dealers who don't deserve the business, but failing to support dealers in general is the sure fire way to accelerate and guarantee their demise. In other words, the buying public in it's pursuit of saving a few pennies and either trying to buy direct or calling around to manufacturers or dealers to get them to undercut each other and sell into each others territory, has as much affect on the decline of dealerships as any other factor. Under those circumstances lets not bemoan the lack of dealers or the lack of informed or responsive sales and support people at big box stores or online retailers. You get what you pay for!
I should also mention that for MMG products and even for the 1.7 if there is not a dealer within a reasonable distance, they will let you do a 60 day home demo w/ 100% money back guarantee. I don't blame them for not doing so with 3.7's and beyond - these are far to pricey to expect happy results without having a dealer involved. How often is something thats worth over $5K direct shipped to someone without there being a dealer involved?
As far as the shipping container : I've not had a shipping issue with any of the MMG products (MMG, MMG-W, MMG-C) nor 1.7's or even CC5. It actually makes more sense to pay for insurance than expending +$100 on crates etc that you later have to store or find a way to dispose. Or as you found in your case, pay for a crate if you're really concerned. But don't make dealers and the general public eat that expense if not necessary.
As for custom finishes : I'm thinking they'd do it if you asked and were willing to pay the cost. But having those kinds of options ready at hand for requests probably doesn't make business sense.
