C1100 vs Reference 6 vs No 326s

[gadawg]

Originally Posted by Charles

George, I'm not meaning to insult you. I'm not upset with you. I'm sorry you have taken my criticism this way (personally as an insult).

Just using it as an example, a C-1100 costs 11,000.00, it's a very expensive piece. Top of the line Mac pre. As soon as it entered your home it became a demo and a used piece, if it wasn't a demo already.

So let's assume it was a demo. It takes an amazing dealer(s) to allow his valuable demos to be away from his store for a week or a month or longer? That's a lot of time off the display away from the store, especially since you heard it at the store repeatedly and didn't particularly like it and had less than a 50% chance (it certainly seems) of buying it. It is a fact you did not buy it.

It's a very complicated thing to get even a piece like a C-1100 safely home and into your rack. I'm very impressed with the way you buy equipment and with your dealer(s).
Hypothetically, buying a C-1100 and a Ref 6SE and a ML 526 and selling off two of them down the road would be pretty impressive.

If I'm the dealer and I think you (using "you" in the generic sense) just want to audition for the sake of it, how many potential sales would I lose while I'm waiting patiently for "you" to finish your in home audition, especially if I have given "you" two other of my demo preamps? All my display systems would be without preamps.

I live in a fairly large city (about a million). There is one maybe two serious high end dealers in my region. It takes a large investment to have demos on display. Unless he has changed my dealer displays Mark Levinson and McIntosh exclusively.

Now I'm not insulting you, criticizing you, or questioning your veracity. Or criticizing how you make your buying decisions in any way. Actually, I'm very impressed by your methods and logic. I'm glad you can provide me your listening impressions and what you have said has enlightened me greatly.

Sounds good! Just to be clear ... the C1100 didn’t stay at my house very long as it was a demo so no dealer was harmed. :-) I did purchase the Mark Levinson Pre and then bought the BAT RexII as well and lived with them for months before deciding and sold the Mark Levinson. During that time I borrowed a few other pieces that ended up not being contenders as well. Doing that with used equipment when I can find a great deal seems to not cost much more than shipping in most cases and even make a buck once in a while. I tend to be fairly patient waiting for a good enough deal.

BTW ... I still own Mac gear for my home theater and it’s not going anywhere. :-)

George