I was at Ultimate Electronics searching for a cheap $200 home theater receiver for my dad. I *hunted* down a sales guy and he did not look very enthused to help me. In fact, he showed absolutely no emotion at all.
Anyway, I told him it was a Christmas present for my dad and that I only had $200 to spend. Since I did not know about the quality of the cheaper receivers (no Denon, Yamaha, or Onkyo, in this price range), he said they are all about the same. Then I asked if it was up to him, what one he would pick in that range of receivers. Knowing how much I had to spend, he told me that he doesn't disclose his personal opinions because people never take his advice and end up buying the cheap stuff anyway. Obviously, I was looking for the cheap stuff! I said I understood that these receivers were not what I would choose for myself, but it was for my 72 year old dad who just wanted something to use to enjoy his DVD's.
Well, without his help, I narrowed it down to a JVC and a Pioneer. I asked whether or not the Pioneer had a digital coax input since that would be the only way it would work with my dad's DVD player. He looked in the back of the receiver and said it did not. He said that most of the time, that option only comes with higher priced receivers. For some reason, I didn't believe him. So, when he left the room to see if the receivers were in stock, I picked up the Pioneer myself to have a look. Lo and behold, there was a digital coax input! When he came back, I told him about it. I showed him where it was and then he said that he didn't look in that spot because the are normally located at the bottom.
The audition of the receivers was interesting as well they sounded entirely different. It was clear that the Pioneer had more bass, but I couldn't figure out why the two receivers could sound sooo different. So, we wasted a lot of time swithching back and forth between the two when it occured to me that the receivers where probably set to different DSP's. Of course that was the case...the JVC was on direct mode and the Pioneer was on stereo mode with the loudness button turned on! So, when I put the JVC in stereo mode and turned the loudness off on the Pioneer, there was a definite difference. I should have thought about that earlier, but if the sales guy was doing his job, he should have known.
Basically, I decided on the JVC without his help. Sometimes, some of these sales guys (not all) treat me like I'm a stupid female (granted, not a lot of females I know are into audio) and then get easily intimidated when I start to display some actual knowledge of the products. On the other hand, some of them have actually been impressed. Most of the time, I research the products myself before I buy so the sales guy doesn't have to teach me things I already know. It makes it nice for both of us...no BS from the sales guy and a quick & easy sale for him!
