Bad Demo Experiences?

[Holmz]

Does anyone else have experiences where they demoed their system to a fellow enthusiast that has ended badly?

(It must be a “guy thing”, where it turns into a competition, and results in loosing all the joy of listening.)

[ctsooner]

Never badly I'm glad to say. Not always as good as I want.  One of the best was to Gardener Bob when he came ot buy the Treo's. I wouldn't let him buy until he heard them.

[Holmz]

6 hours ago, ctsooner said:

Never badly I'm glad to say. Not always as good as I want.  One of the best was to Gardener Bob when he came ot buy the Treo's. I wouldn't let him buy until he heard them.

Well Pete - here is how it went down…

 

About 15 years ago a coworker (Scott) was talking about records, and I said, “FCS… Does anyone even listen to records anymore?”

He started waxing poetic and I said, “yeah, yeah, yeah… relax… I got a TT too.”

Scott asked what I had and I told him… he laughed and said, ”Man that is ‘old school’, I have heard of that stuff… But let’s have a listen to each other’s systems, and I’ll show what a modern system can do.”

(I forgot what he said he had…) But I said, “OK, that sounds like fun.”

 

So a week later Scott rocks up… with an LP in hand.

We listen for a couple of hours to a variety of stuff. 

(He was pulling LP after LP out of my stack.)

 

Then I say, “when should I come over?”

Scott says, “You’re not…  I spent 5x what you did, and my system is about 1/2 way there.”

I said, “Dude, it is not a competition, it is supposed to be fun.”

Scott said, “it was fun… before I heard your system.”

I said, “I am sure it is pretty good.”

He said, “It’s not.”

 

I saw Scott a few months ago, after he had been away for many years.
He asked if I still had the system, and told him yeah… but rebuilding the TT with belts and bearings.
He still won’t let me hear his set up and lives just around the corner.

Somehow it turned into some competition.
 

On the other hand… My good friend Mike from SD is now in Bend. He said, “We can listen to some records on my Dad’s old TT, but it is not like the Maggies sitting in storage. But there is a trader Joes here though.” 
I said, “So it sounds better with a glass of wine?”, He said, “yep exactly”.
(His dad got some 1Bs a while ago (maybe ~2000). He asked Mike what to get, and he said ~Holmz has had those damned Vandersteens for forever and they are a lot less fussy than the Maggies. We should get you a pair of them.)
Mike has had the Mod-Squad, some 50 Class-A job, VTLs, some Rowland, the PrimaLuna, now some amp from Colorado. A vacuum SOTA, which visited Wisconsin last year... It has always sounded great.
And we have always been into the wine, music and skiing... etc.
Never any of the ego driven stuff. 

[Moose]

I was going to have a friend over to do some listening.  I was warming everything up when a bright white glow came from my amp - a power tube decided to blow.    I'm glad I was sitting there when it happened.  I've never left tube amps on and unattended since then.  

It IS fun when someone comes over and starts helping themselves to the collection.  "Here, put this on," and on and on into the evening.  And, when everything is working.

[Bill]

Yes. I have had that happen.  I find it is usually a difference in preferences or expectations.  I guess that's why there is more than one audio company.

[Stringreen]

On 2/6/2022 at 10:50 PM, Holmz said:

 

What I do remember very clearly is that  at the time I had Acoustat speakers one of which caught fire when I was home.   I  was in the kitchen, smelled smoke, and was able to put out the fire before it took the house.  If I wouldn't have been home disaster.

[Holmz]

5 hours ago, Stringreen said:

What I do remember very clearly is that  at the time I had Acoustat speakers one of which caught fire when I was home.   I  was in the kitchen, smelled smoke, and was able to put out the fire before it took the house.  If I wouldn't have been home disaster.

I thought those stories of the spouse running from the kitchen yelling about the change in the sound, were mostly hyperbole. 😀

[ctsooner]

On 2/17/2022 at 5:59 PM, Stringreen said:

What I do remember very clearly is that  at the time I had Acoustat speakers one of which caught fire when I was home.   I  was in the kitchen, smelled smoke, and was able to put out the fire before it took the house.  If I wouldn't have been home disaster.

The lengths people go through to get new Vandersteen;s.. sure, burn up the older speakers.  ha