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- Sep 5, 2010
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There seems to be a great difference of how "shops" operate here in the States and elsewhere. I cannot think of a single store I could go to in the US to trial a Mojo in person. Almost all the audio stores are gone, even for 2-channel. There's the odd place like Stereo Exchange in NYC, but they only carry certain brands, and Chord is not one of them. Living here in Philadelphia, the fifth largest city and the 7th largest metropolitan area in the whole country, there's not a single head-fi shop. Everything here is done over the internet. I'd love to have a shop where I could go and listen, but the only place we can do so is at shows like CanJam. Just a different business model. So when you hear people from the States saying "just order it and try it" you'll understand that's usually our only option. Cheers
EDIT - Looking more closely it seems that Stereo Exchange might actually carry Chord, but they don't list the Mojo.
You're absolutely right there. Things are very different in different parts of the world. In Singapore, we have an excess of at least 9 dedicated head Fi stores littered across the country, and considering that Singapore is just over 50km Long, that's an incredibly dense collection of shops. We have just about any head Fi product that you might be interested in for demo, and as such, many of us would very much rather wait to demo a product. There are exceptions of course.
Do also take into account the different cultures in the different countries. I understand that in the bigger western countries, people have been used to buying things from catalogues, but such a sales model would never have worked in my country.
It is crazy to think I live in a rural location in the UK. I live on Dartmoor a National Park which is 328 square miles of mostly moor land. This is the description of my village -
"PRINCETOWN is in the parish of Lydford, a grim little town some 1,400 ft. above sea level, with an abominable climate of fog, snow, wind, and more than 80 in. of cold rain over 100. It stands on a cot between the two Hessary Tors, exposed to the bitter N. and E. winds, the least suitable place that could ever have been chosen for a town."
Now here's the irony - I have an audio shop, really lovely place called Tavistock Audio around 10 miles away. I am also bang in the middle of 2 Apple Stores (Exeter, Plymouth) which are 60 mins to 45 mins away respectively. I am also bang in the middle or 2 Richer Sounds stores, and in Exeter there is an audio shop Guildford Hi-Fi.
And because of my rural location, the internet is used a lot. So I trust the views and opinions of many people on here. So far , I have not got it wrong..