I wouldn’t say the following brands have no respect but rather are underrated relative to the attention they receive here in the U.S.:
Tidal- It perplexes me that some in the market for Wilson or Magico don’t consider these outstanding speakers despite nothing but rave consumer and professional reviews. Their amps and preamps are also top-notch.
Simaudio- All they do is make excellent products.
Joseph- As has been mentioned several times already, simply great speakers.
(Special Mention)
Cary- I wouldn’t necessarily call them underrated, but it does seem that they get left out of the discussion more often than they should be.
Parasound- Some audiophiles just don’t know how good their Halo products are.
Well said. I mention the JC-1’s to people and get the big poo-poo.
WRT Tidal, it’s just that they need dealers. Poor Doug can’t do it all. He is NOT the distributor. He is one dealer. Pretty much the only one. Great guy, but they need 12-15 dealers across the country, minimum. The problem is that as a dealer for us to invest ~$50-100k of our money, we have to have a reasonable level of confidence of ROI. I’ve had my fill of brands like Vandy, Verity, Vivid that are all great, but just didn’t move.
NOT related to any of the brands mentioned, keep in mind that they may not have great representation for other reasons. Dealers have to not only like your product, but like your team and get support. I’ve had a few brands where this was not the case and I no longer represent them and others I wouldn’t represent for those reasons mentioned. Dealers talk you know. [emoji6]. It’s a marriage.
We also have a mixture of manufacturer direct to dealer, distributors to dealers and the new flavor of the month “rep firms” to dealers. Rep firms are happy to sell SMART Thermostats, rock speakers, lighting products and oh yeah, some high end audio stuff. There are a couple of great distributors, but my favorite model is manufacturer direct to dealer. Much happier, much more efficient model and your mutual interests are aligned.
It’s complicated. This is a people business at the end of the day.
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