It may sound strange but for me going in the shop and ask for demo triggers anxiety attack. When I was younger I was not able to shop on my own in shops where you have to ask something. I got past that but still very uncomfortable. So I am left with buy and try on my own and waste some money.
2 Likes
I am sorry to hear this and im sure, unfortunately, its not limited to tech stores.
Any place that doesnt take their time with me to explain something immediately does not get my money. Many places will talk down or say âdont worry about xxâ and it makes me so mad! I want to know what you are doing and why my money is being spent on it. This happened so much when i tried to get a sub put in my car, I just wanted a molded prebought piece put in but they were trying to tell me why I needed to block off my whole trunk and have them put in full enclosures.
1 Like
Agree so much! The silliest thing of it is that they lose my custom and put me off trying other stores. I do find that if I deal with smaller online stores in the EU and communicate by email then I often get excellent service.
1 Like
Rega has a long time Belgian distributor in Mechelen, theyâre pretty established so you see stuff regularly popping up used on the Benelux market. I just checked and thereâs one, already reserved, for 559. A dealers demo with the foil still on so consider that a top price for a top used model. Some think they have gold and ask 500-550 for a regular used, I think 400 is fair, 300 youâre a bit lowballing maybe but 350 is a great deal.
EU without UK is indeed desert land for good hi-fi deals so please put phrases like âregularlyâ properly into context 
Patience is a virtue here. I sometimes also look for French stuff on French sites or German stuff on German sites, they tend to be quite chauvinistic and buy home made. Only problem is some are that chauvinistic they distrust foreigners and donât want to sell or even reply to a friendly neighbor.
1 Like
About the loaning, its indeed a bit of trust thing and he needs to think there is a chance of a sale or he really needs to like you. Donât go in asking just for a loaner. They all had some bad experiences as well, probably insured I guess but its always a pita if people donât return an expensive demo piece. They might ask a deposit and make you sign some paper. Also, loaners are usually things the store has on display, a lot is on order, keep that in mind.
A few pointers on how to handle this:
- Find a nice store that sells some nice gear: A small one with respectable brands where thereâs maybe the owner and 2 , 3 people, not ones with 5 shop assistants to âadviseâ you with your sale.
- Take some time for a chat: Go in there, look around till someone asks if they can help you, donât pull out the model number but express an interest in a DAC. Give the man a chance to do his job, thereâs a good chance he likes to talk audio as much as you do and I always find it nice to talk with someone who shares the passion. If you feel its one of those pushy salesmen or another bad vibe, back off, find someone else or even a different store.
- Be honest(ish): Tell them you donât know what to expect and if itâs worth the money. Also tell them youâre not sure youâre already going to buy and that youâre also going to look at other options. Make sure you have some options in mind, if its an audiophile heâll be interested and a proper hi-hi store will understand that attitude.
- Try to be calm and assertive: Youâre the customer talking about audio products in the 1 to 1.5k range. Nevermind all the high end stuff your read about here, most audio shops realize that is still a nice amount and will respect that you take some time to consider.
- Make the shop do the offer: Ask âwhat if I donât like it?â before you ask a loaner: If you had a nice chat with the guy there is a chance heâll offer it himself.
- Donât hate the salesman: donât forget youâre in a shop, their job is to sell and any good salesman will try to sell before you walk out. Again, let him do his job, expect an attempt at some point, donât hate him for that but be prepared and dodge that bullet (if you want).
- Where to go: If youâre looking for good hi-fi stores, check the distributor site or contact him if he doesnât have proper listing. Iâve had cases where I came visiting the store on introduction of the distributor after contacting him. For some reason those were always rewarding visits in terms of the experience I acquired there.
- Donât forget to buy sometimes: Donât feel pressured to buy something because they let you try it out and think careful about what you buy new. But also keep in mind that if you maybe want to build some relationship to maybe try some things out more regularly or maybe even ask the shop to contact you when they have a nice deal on something. In that case you sometimes also need to buy something. Thatâs just how it works, it helps if youâre already a trusted customerâŚ
I understand some people feeling uncomfortable for a demo or something. When I was in my 20âs I also felt uncomfortable going into stores out my comfort zone (audio, cars, photography, anything expensive actually as I did not have actual money then) and asking things. It felt like I was asking a huge favor and that alone prevented a good interaction to actually get the info or hands on experience I was looking for. The older I get, the less I care for what other people think and I understand now how things work so I just go in and ask. If I get a no, no problem, other, better. Its their job, they get asked this regularly, its not a favor, its a service and youâre potentially going to pay for it. I politely ask for a coffee when I go demo now 
3 Likes
Hah! I always forget about 2dehands. Flanders does like to go in for its own weird small versions of international things lol. I tend to buy second hand things mostly from Germany, France and Netherlands as they use ebay. For some things it is good, there are a lot of boutique makers in the EU that never sell outside their language region. It can be very hard to find out if they are any good though. Interesting what you say on the replies. I find that it does make a massive difference living on the mainland. I think a lot of people - especially now - donât want to deal with the hassle of posting outside the EU.
That was very kind of you to write out such detailed advice. I appreciate the effort you put in, thank you 
1 Like
yes well, I thought it might be worth something for the community since I felt some discomfort in this area.
2 Likes
outside EU is big pita nowadays with import duties and administration fees
and for the really good deals you need to go on the local sitesâŚ
1 Like
So not really relating to the main question of this topic, but donât know where else to post it (and doesnât really deserve a dedicated thread)âŚ
I hear people say some dacs sound best when playing redbook 16/44.1 files vs hi-res files. Iâve never actually tried it myself, but Iâm curious on anybodyâs experience with this. I donât really understand how a dac would sound best only when playing 16/44.1 and how a dac would sound best playing hi-res files.
1 Like
All depends on the dac at hand. Sometimes the internal digital processing (or lack thereof) will favor higher sample rates and other times it wonât, sometimes itâs a dac chip thing too. All really depends. I noticed that a lot of my NOS dacs ended up preferring redbook (specifically using older chips as well) where high res ended up being favored more on my OS dacs running more modern solutions. But there are exceptions of course and it really depended on the dac, havenât done enough testing to really generalize anything
2 Likes
Generally when I have compared them, and I know they are at least the same recording, I almost always prefer the higher resolution file, though I find 24 bit vs 16bit has more of an impact than sample rates.
The problem with all of these comparisons is, unless the low res file is directly derived from the hires one, itâs impossible to know youâre listening to the same thing.
There is just no way to know what was done in the final mastering process, my guess is when they create 16 bit recordings from 24 or higher bit depth masters that they probably donât just scale and throw the bits away.
4 Likes
Yep. I mainly did some testing with my own files which I ran some high res music from the same dac back into an adc, one running at 24/96, other 16/44.1 (I could have just converted down but I didnât want to dither), and compared that way. But thatâs not something that happens with actual listening, so it typically doesnât matter. All depends on the mastering
I still think that on a select few dacs they really did not take well to high res assuming the track was the same master, but it wasnât all that common, I also typically favor high res when I can get ahold of it (assuming itâs not a worse master), not something I think about with the current dacs in my house
4 Likes
I had one. Took it on jogs with me. 
6 Likes