Funny stereo store story

[smokey]

As fans of Ascend speakers, we probably all share a couple of traits, one is valuing performance over looks, and another is looking for “bang for the buck” products. I haven’t really shopped for home theater equipment for a while as my system was pretty well set (at least once I got the CMT 340 center). Nevertheless, we recently moved into a new house and I want to get decent music into the kitchen and possibly outdoors as well. So I find myself shopping for HT gear again. Since I’m pretty cheap (as alluded to above ), I’m likely to get most of it through ebay/audiogon/craigslist, but still I wanted to do some window shopping at the local stereo stores.

I was at one, enjoying the experience, while listening to the salesman’s spiel, as he was describing some high end electronics. I was liking the sound, and kind of found myself falling for some of the guy’s rap. He was a nice guy and really wasn’t pushing hard or anything, but I was beginning to forget all the things I should have remembered: that the volume was way louder than I ever play things, that the room was treated for sound, that the listening position was perfect, etc., etc. All the reasons true auditioning should actually take place in the home! Anyway, the spell came to a crashing halt, as soon as the sales guy starting talk about some expensive video equipment, a DVD player in fact. He starting saying how it was so good, that it would make DVD’s look like High Def. Oh, it upconverts on HD enabled TV’s, right? No, no, the guy says, it doesn’t upconvert, it’s still standard 480p, but it just looks so good you won’t be able to tell the difference.

Now, I am assuredly not an experienced audiophile. I would never claim to be one. But my profession is video and consumer electronics, so now, he was playing on my turf. And playing very badly! It immediately shook me out of my reverie and brought me back to earth.

I’ve got nothing against the guy, he was actually doing his job well, but, man, you gotta be careful where you’re tossing the BS! Anyway, I’ve been chuckling about it since.

[cyberbri]

Which DVD player was it?
I know there are some very nice 480p DVD players that look great, although nowadays the mainstream and nicer players seem to mainly be upconverting.

[smokey]

It was an NAD dvd player, and I have nothing against it, it seems like a fine player, but the salesman was trying to convince me it could almost magically increase the resolution beyond what was physically on the disk. Upconverting is one thing, but 480p is 480p, no matter what processing is done to the image.

[curtis]

smokey lives!!

Congrats on the new house.....great story!

[smokey]

Yeah, I'm still alive. Although after the NCAA tournament, I'm barely holding on.