Purchase Soulution gear with no demo?

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Kippyy

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I'm interested in upgrading my DAC from the Linn Klimax-DSM, and will be hearing the MSB Select in my home soon. I contacted the distributor for Soulution,Axis Audio, about hearing the 760 DAC and received the following reply: "None of our Soulution dealers have the 760 DAC on demo and we do not have one to loan out to dealers. It is a specialized unit that dealers order as they have an order from a customer for it."

Is it reasonable/customary to expect a customer to make a 70K purchase based on reputation alone, without a demo? I'm a lot more inclined to buy a brand from a local dealer where I can be confident of receiving excellent customer service. This response really makes me less inclined to consider this brand. Am I wrong? Have you purchased DACs with no demo?
 
Yeah, what Jim said. I'd certainly scratch it from, my, list. They could have at least offered a return option if you weren't happy. They must not be very confident in the product or care to sell the "specialty" product.

Kippyy said:
I'm interested in upgrading my DAC from the Linn Klimax-DSM, and will be hearing the MSB Select in my home soon. I contacted the distributor for Soulution,Axis Audio, about hearing the 760 DAC and received the following reply: "None of our Soulution dealers have the 760 DAC on demo and we do not have one to loan out to dealers. It is a specialized unit that dealers order as they have an order from a customer for it."

Is it reasonable/customary to expect a customer to make a 70K purchase based on reputation alone, without a demo? I'm a lot more inclined to buy a brand from a local dealer where I can be confident of receiving excellent customer service. This response really makes me less inclined to consider this brand. Am I wrong? Have you purchased DACs with no demo?
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In reality how many dealers “loan” out 5 figure DACs unless you have a well established history with them?
 
I can’t speak for others, but we have three showrooms for demos. People can come and listen until their hearts content.

No problem loaning stuff out to local folks either.

Now, on the flip side, shipping demos has been a nightmare where the pieces have either come back damaged by the customer, damaged by the shipping company or at a minimum, the box looking like a dogs breakfast. Never again.


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Could you require full price deposit and double boxing, at the potential buyers expense, to help offset non local potential buyers? If they are serious I cannot see why this would be an issue.


Mike said:
I can’t speak for others, but we have three showrooms for demos. People can come and listen until their hearts content.

No problem loaning stuff out to local folks either.

Now, on the flip side, shipping demos has been a nightmare where the pieces have either come back damaged by the customer, damaged by the shipping company or at a minimum, the box looking like a dogs breakfast. Never again.


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nc42acc said:
Could you require full price deposit and double boxing, at the potential buyers expense, to help offset non local potential buyers? If they are serious I cannot see why this would be an issue.
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Yes, we’ve done that most recently. Sure weeds out the tire kickers.


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Much of the equipment I've bought I've bought without hearing (I don't mind experimenting, I look for deals where I can sell again with minimal loss, and I'm a really good researcher). I've been very lucky and have yet to get a dog. That said the most expensive equipment I've bought only cost around 20k, and that piece was something I'd heard, so there's a limit (in my head probably around 10k). Now sure, 70k to you may well be roughly equivalent to 10k to me; there's some relativity here.

Not a chance I'd buy something for 70k I'd no way of hearing in advance, in a system similar to mine. No. Way. (I also wouldn't expect a demo unit/loaner of something with that price tag unless I knew the dealer very very well. But a showroom, or an invite to another owner's room, for sure).

To me that's just a signal they're not really serious about selling something like that. Sort of unprofessional, but understandable in some ways also - I don't know how high end audio dealers keep even as much inventory/demo as they seem to on all the brands they carry, with prices on some of this stuff.
 
I'm sure Mike could tell stories about loaning out gear to a potential "customer" only to find out they were using him for the demo and they had no intentions of buying the gear from him.
 
Mark he has told me some of those stories.

So if the OP is interested in a DAC he should reach out to Mike and see what they can work out.

mep said:
I'm sure Mike could tell stories about loaning out gear to a potential "customer" only to find out they were using him for the demo and they had no intentions of buying the gear from him.
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In my opinion it is not worth spending that much money on a big uncertainty. Stick with a company that manufactures DAC’s as their primary business like MSB. You will be buying something with better support with proven results from many end users.
 
mep said:
I'm sure Mike could tell stories about loaning out gear to a potential "customer" only to find out they were using him for the demo and they had no intentions of buying the gear from him.
Click to expand...

It would be multiple chapters.


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Audio 1 said:
In my opinion it is not worth spending that much money on a big uncertainty. Stick with a company that manufactures DAC’s as their primary business like MSB. You will be buying something with better support with proven results from many end users.
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Truth!


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Amen! I bought MSB without a demo and has been the most transformational audio purchases I have made.

Audio 1 said:
In my opinion it is not worth spending that much money on a big uncertainty. Stick with a company that manufactures DAC’s as their primary business like MSB. You will be buying something with better support with proven results from many end users.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks everyone for validating my thoughts and concerns.
Hearing the MSB Select tomorrow at my local dealer...Excited!
In addition, his customer service has been impeccable...Another reason I'm inclined to purchase.
 
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