ftp.pasteur.org/FAQ//ftp-pasteur-org-FAQ.zip/FAQ/AudioFAQ/part10

Internet Message Format | 2004-04-18 | 10.7 KB

Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail
Message-ID: <AudioFAQ/[e-mail]>
Supersedes: <AudioFAQ/[e-mail]>
Expires: 31 May 2004 11:22:46 GMT
References: <AudioFAQ/[e-mail]>
X-Last-Updated: 2002/11/30
Newsgroups: rec.audio.tech,rec.audio.opinion,rec.audio.misc,rec.audio.marketplace,rec.answers,news.answers
Subject: FAQ: rec.audio.* Mail Order 2/99 (part 10 of 13)
Followup-To: poster
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Approved: [e-mail]
From: [e-mail]
Organization: Texas Instruments Corp.
Summary: Answers to common questions about audio equipment, selecting,
  buying, set-up, tuning, use, repair, developments, and philosophy.
Originator: [e-mail]
Date: 17 Apr 2004 11:27:34 GMT
Lines: 206
NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu
X-Trace: 1082201254 senator-bedfellow.mit.edu 576 18.181.0.29
Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.audio.tech:181983 rec.audio.opinion:656784 rec.audio.misc:88795 rec.audio.marketplace:487247 rec.answers:86583 news.answers:269876

Archive-name: AudioFAQ/part10
Last-modified: 2002/11/30
Version: 2.16

17.0 Mail Order
    Mail order is appealing. The general hope is that by using mail
    order, you avoid pushy sales people, you pay fixed, discounted
    prices, and you have written catalog descriptions to help you
    select your purchase. In practice, most mail order today is
    "phone order", in that the company completes the deal with a
    phone call. Many of the "mail order" companies don't even have
    price lists or catalogs. They are just retailers that are
    willing to sell over the phone and ship the merchandise to
    you. In some cases, retail store sales are better deals than
    mail order. Don't expect the lowest price from the first place
    you call. Also, don't expect excellent service from everyone,
    and especially not from the company with the lowest price.

17.1 Who sells brand XXX equipment mail-order?
    Consult the rec.audio.marketplace mail-order survey published by
    [e-mail] (William R. Nau) or contact William Nau directly.
    This survey is also available via FTP in the pub/rec.audio
    directory of SSESCO.com. If you have any mail order
    experiences to share, please send them directly to William Nau.

17.2 Is the stuff sold by DAK really awesome? Damark?
    DAK is out of business. It is believed that DAK went out of
    business because they invested too heavily in 80286 PCs as
    the price and demand dropped. Dave Platt joked that the closing
    of DAK resulted in the great superlative shortage of 1995,
    because DAK used many wild claims in their advertisements.

|    Regarding Damark, their products seem to be as described, but
|    not necessarily bargains.  In addition, there have been a
|    number of consumer complaints against Damark for charging
|    for products not ordered.

    Doug Purl reports that DAK was named after and owned by Drew
    A. Kaplan and that Damark is named after and owned by Drew And
    MARy Kaplan, so these two companies may share more than style.

    Richard Bollar did some research and came up with a different
    origin for the name Damark: "The firm's moniker is a
    combination of the first names of the founders, David Russ and
    Mark Cohn, who had both worked at COMB, a discount mail-order
    house. They became vendors to COMB, but when that company
    refused to pick up some of their merchandise, they started
    their own catalog business. At first they continued to sell to
    their former employer, but when it forced them to decide
    whether to be suppliers or competitors, Cohn and Russ decided:
    they started DAMARK in 1986."

    Whichever is true, be cautious when buying any product without
    an audition. Ignore any wild claims or comparisons to products
    costing many times more.  There are many examples of excellent,
    expensive products that are worth every penny, but don't sound
    great.  Someone could honestly claim that their product sounds
    better than products costing ten times as much, yet they could
    still be selling an inferior product with poor sound.

17.3 Is the stuff sold by Cambridge Sound Works really awesome?  What
    about the other brands of tiny satelites and subwoofers?

    Many experienced listeners report that the systems sold by
    Cambridge Sound Works which consist of two small satelites and
    one medium sized subwoofer are a poor value if your goal is
    best sound quality for the money. However, the convenience of
    tiny satelites is important to some people.

    Perhaps someday, someone will develop a great tiny satelite
    plus subwoofer system, but all examples so far seem to suffer
    from lumpy frequency response and poor reconstruction of the
    stereo image. The same complaint applies to similar systems
    from other makers. Some believe that it is essential to have
    all of the left channel sound coming from the exact same
    location for best stereo image and smooth frequency response.
    This premise implies that tiny satelite plus subwoofer systems
    will always be inferior.

    Cambridge Sound Works also sells more conventional tower and
    bookshelf systems. These, like many other speakers on the
    market, are worth a listen.

    However, the authors of this FAQ strongly recommend that you
    ignore all recommendations and make your decision based on
    your own personal listening tests.

17.4 What should I watch out for when buying mail order?
    Many of the cautions mentioned in warranties (20.1) apply.
    Look for a store which has been around a long time. Look for
    friends which have dealt with the store and been satisfied.
    Look for a store which does not lie or stretch the truth.

17.5 What is gray market?
    See warranties (20.1), below.

17.6 Are there any good mail-order sources for recordings?
    Alas, Noteworthy is out of business as of November 1996.

    BMG and Columbia also sell CDs mail-order, but have a smaller
    list of offerings and higher prices. However, BMG and Columbia
    have interesting deals to entice new customers. Read the fine
    print before you sign to be sure that they are right for you.
    BMG and Columbia both have promotional offerings to "members"
    which allow you to buy two or three discs for the price
    of one. These can be very good deals, if you want what they
    have. Look at their advertisements in common magazines and
    Sunday newspapers for a better idea of what they carry. They
    list much of their line in their ad. Don't expect much more.
    For more information on BMG and Columbia, see section 10.13,
    10.14, 10.15, and 10.16 of this FAQ.

    Tower Records has a mail order department which also sells CDs.
    Tower is a large retail chain. Many have bought from their
    retail outlets happily. They do not have a catalog of their own,
    but will sell you a Schwann or similar catalog and offer to get
    virtually any disc out of those catalogs. Contact:
        Tower Records Mail Order Department
        692 Broadway
        New York City, NY 10012 USA
        800-648-4844 or 800-522-5445

    Another source is Music New Hampshire; 800-234-8458. They sell
    many $3.79 post-paid sampler CDs and also many independent label
    single-artist discs. Most single artist discs are $15.00 each.
    Shipping is $3 for 1-3 discs and $5 for 4-up. Their stuff is
    mostly obscure artists. They have Rock, Jazz, Classical, Folk,
    Country, and Children's offerings. Affiliated with CD Review.
        Music New Hampshire - Wayne Green Inc
        70 Route 202N
        Peterborough NH 03458-1107 USA

    If you like the idea of buying CDs by Modem, consider
        The Compact Disc Connection
        1016 East El Camino #322
        Sunnyvale CA 94087 USA
        Voice    408-733-0801
        Modem    212-532-4045 New York City NY
            312-477-3518 Chicago IL
            408-730-9015 Sunnyvale CA
            617-639-0238 Boston MA
        Telnet    cdconnection.com
    They have a collection of over 120,000 CD titles. People have
    said that their service is excellent. Prices are fairly good.
    Shipping is $3.50 for orders under $100.00 and free for larger
    orders. They do not stock anything, but deliver from the
    warehouses of their suppliers. This means that some items may
    be back ordered or completely discontinued while remaining in
    their on-line data base. They advertise 94.2% of orders in
    1992 shipped, though not necessarily immediately. You can also
    get their catalog from ftp.cdconnection.com

    There have been a couple of music (cd/lp) mail-order lists
    compiled on the net - one older list can be found via anonymous
    ftp to ftp.uwp.edu in the file: /pub/music/misc.mailorder.rmm
    Someone is revising this file and it should be updated or found
    in a new file name there in the future.

    Another list contains vendors that specialize in progressive
    rock, electronic and experimental music, is maintained by
    Malcolm Humes and posted sporadically to alt.music.progressive,
    rec.music.misc, & rec.music.info. This also can be ftp'd from
    ft.uwp.edu, in the file: /pub/music/misc/mailorder.progressive

    Federal Music and Video markets "Discount Coupon Books"
    featuring two-for-one CDs and Tape deals. They require payment
    with the order, which many consider risky. One company that
    distributes these coupon books for Federal Music is Reed Music.
    The price from Federal or Reed Music with the two-for-one deal
    is comparable to the price from Noteworthy. So far, no net
    user has yet related any positive or negative experience with
    Reed Music or Federal Music and Video. Federal Music and Video
    has been in business since 1985, so is probably legit. However,
    in that they require payment in advance it is probably safer
    to avoid them completely and use a discounter like Noteworthy.
    Occasionally, a new dealer will pop up offering free CDs
    and/or a great coupon book. They may be a dealer for Federal.
    Save your money.

    There is a list of mail-order music companies on the web:
        http://www.razorsedge.net
    Most seem to be specialized smaller dealers.

    When considering mail purchases of CDs, consider shipping costs.
    It is common for people to charge between $1 and $3 per disk for
    "shipping and handling". This makes mail order less attractive,
    but may be equally balanced by a lack of sales tax.

    Get archive "mailorder.txt" from "/pub/cd" on "jammin.nosc.mil"
    for a complete list of mail order music sellers.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE
The information contained here is collectively copyrighted by the
authors. The right to reproduce this is hereby given, provided it is
copied intact, with the text of sections 1 through 8, inclusive.
However, the authors explicitly prohibit selling this document, any
of its parts, or any document which contains parts of this document.

--
Bob Neidorff; Texas Instruments     |  Internet: [e-mail]
50 Phillippe Cote St.               |  Voice   : (US) 603-222-8541
Manchester, NH  03101 USA

Note: Texas Instruments has openings for Analog and Mixed
Signal Design Engineers in Manchester, New Hampshire.  If
interested, please send resume in confidence to address above.