Best Buy, Why do they have a Audio Room?

[Mark4583]

Went to Best buy to listen to the Athena FS-2 and JBL -90's.
Athena's only had one hooked up and the other cut in and out and the JBL's I had to stand right next to them to hear becuse the Volume control didnt work and only one worker came through with a girl and thats the last I seen of him and no one else in sight!
Why do they even Bother to sell audio equiptment there?
I could have very well purchased a set there if only they were set up.

[Woochifer]

I don't think audio equipment is a huge money maker for them, and it often shows with the condition of their demo units (open the grille and look at how many of the dustcaps on the drivers are pushed in) and how they are hooked up. Best Buy has actually been upgrading the demo areas in a lot of their stores, with complete home theater systems now setup in the middle of the floor. Some of them have also added Magnolia Home Theater boutique sections within the store. Magnolia is a west coast specialty chain that stocks a lot of higher end equipment like Vienna Acoustics and Martin Logan, and has very good service. Best Buy has set up these Magnolia demo rooms in a few of their California stores, not sure about elsewhere. If you want fast service, just venture over to where the big screen HDTVs are located! Those are the profit machines for retailers right now, and you'll get plenty of attention if you go there first.

In actuality, you should consider yourself lucky that you didn't just walk in and buy the first pair of speakers that you liked. There are plenty of options out there, and you should try looking up a local specialty audio/video retailer. Most of them will carry models in your price range, but also stock a lot of specialty brands like B&W, Paradigm, PSB, or Definitive Technology that do not distribute through big box superstores like Best Buy. Another advantage is that the demo rooms in these stores are typically better setup than BB with the demo units in better condition, so you can more clearly hear what the speaker is doing.

[PAT.P]

Went to Best buy to listen to the Athena FS-2 and JBL -90's.
Athena's only had one hooked up and the other cut in and out and the JBL's I had to stand right next to them to hear becuse the Volume control didnt work and only one worker came through with a girl and thats the last I seen of him and no one else in sight!
Why do they even Bother to sell audio equiptment there?
I could have very well purchased a set there if only they were set up.
BestBuy in Ottawa Ont Cnd dont even have a room (like shopping at grocery store)Future Shop is beside it (BestBuy bought this Canadian chain) they have a room but cant even sit down the accoustic sucks also .Most time nothing hookup and staff are no where to be found.These store have lots of square ft and have to sell volume and staff are to meet their quota or get their walking papers.Pat.P

[Lafferman]

yeah bb big money maker is there cables and accessories. i have a lot of friends that work there and i have them buy me cables and stuff. there discount is like 5% over cost and i end up paying my friend like only 50% of the price of the cables it's a huge markup.

[eisforelectronic]

unfortunately HTIB has taken over a lot of big chain audio business. Funny thing is, TV markups can be as low as 5-10%, while speakers generally have markups closer to 40-50%. But, the greater population sees a TV as a neccessity and an audio system as a luxury.

[cpq1c1mo]

do you really think there are quailty speakers there ? ,,,,just junk so there is no need for a nice demo room

[Dharris]

Actually BB or any other big chain store would benefit from having an audio room.
Marketing at its best. If the normal Joe who knows nothing or little about audio, will automatically think they are buying some high-end stuff. They will see the speaker presentation and dedicated room as, WOW, look at this.

BB makes their real money by selling you insurance for the products they sell.

[kcramer]

I use to work for Best Buy. I was in computers, but I helped out in home audio a lot. I've never been impressed by their speaker selection. Now they finally have Klipsch but they plug them into the cheapest crap they sell... The sound rooms are for looks. nothing more.. I know for a fact that there wasn't much thought put into the "accoustics" of their listening rooms. If there were, they wouldn't stack boxes of speakers sky high in the listening rooms at most of their stores.

[Mark4583]

Worse thing is I realy wanted to listen to the Athena FS-2's , they get great reviews and at a good price, and I also wanted to hear the JBL's to campare with Klipsch RF-35's and Polk Monitor 70's. Listened to the Energy C-5's but I dont think the dealer had them hooked up right either, they realy sounded bad and I wouldnt think they would get the reviews I have seen sounding like that.
Still need to listen to the Paradigm's down the road a bit, so hopefully those will sound nice and have another choice to choose from.
Wish I knew more about Audio, Id consider using my GI bill and start my own Audio dealer!

[Woochifer]

Worse thing is I realy wanted to listen to the Athena FS-2's , they get great reviews and at a good price, and I also wanted to hear the JBL's to campare with Klipsch RF-35's and Polk Monitor 70's. Listened to the Energy C-5's but I dont think the dealer had them hooked up right either, they realy sounded bad and I wouldnt think they would get the reviews I have seen sounding like that.
Still need to listen to the Paradigm's down the road a bit, so hopefully those will sound nice and have another choice to choose from.
Wish I knew more about Audio, Id consider using my GI bill and start my own Audio dealer!

Others will tell you this as well, don't buy a speaker based on reviews. And just because speakers are well reviewed does not mean that you'll like them.

I can tell you that I auditioned the Paradigm Monitor series based on the reviews on this site, and it was disappointing (as were most of the sub-$1,000 floorstanding speakers that I've tried out). Fortunately, I also took a listen to their Studio series, and that was much more along the lines of what I was looking for.

If you can't get a good demo at Best Buy, then you should shop at a local store that can give you a decent demo. The advantage of independent audio stores is that they typically provide a much better environment for comparisons. (better room acoustics, equipment in better condition, equipment actually hooked up rather than patched through a switch panel, etc.) You can also arrange to borrow the demo units for home trial from most independent stores. And that's actually the best thing to do anyway, since whatever you hear in a demo room doesn't necessarily translate to what you hear at home due to acoustical differences.

[magictooth]

If you can't get a good demo at Best Buy, then you should shop at a local store that can give you a decent demo.
BB and Future Shop have very liberal return policies. You can buy a set of speakers and set them up at your place. If you don't like them, simply return them. This is probably a lot better than a good demo in an audio store where the acoustics aren't going to be same as the the room you have at home.

[SpankingVanillaice]

I do like that Best Buy has a demo room so I can hear how the speakers sound like but I do know that they will sound different in my room since my amp is different from theres and how the room is build is different too. I wish there was a headphone demo room.