Went to Best Buy Today! (1 Viewer)

[Mike Up]

It's been about 1-1/2 years since I've been in a best buy and that was only to buy a TV they had in stock. So it was in and out. Before that, maybe 5 years. So I haven't been looking at Audio in a Best Buy for years. So all the years back I heard B&W speakers and thought they sounded good, very good.

Today I went and Listen to the KEF, Martin Logan, Definitive Tech, and B&W speakers they had. Mostly towers and large bookshelf speakers as their subs were all different levels and sounded like garbage from improper setup. In fact, not one person came in to help me. I stumbled through their stupid tablet like controller that picked the equipment to listen to but only 3 lousy songs to choose, I hated them all but they were sound.

The B&Ws and even their $5K/pair towers sounded TERRIBLE to me. Very screechy, bright, and artificial sounding. I llisten to every tower speaker they had, and they all were awful. I just couldn't believe that as I remember B&W sounding good to me before. Then I listened to their Definitive Tech speakers, which sounded better tonally but was muddy sounding. Again listened to all their tower speakers and they all sounded muddy to me.

They only had 6-1/2" woofer bookshelf speakers from Martin Logan on demo, but those sounded much better than the B&W and DT speakers. The ML speakers were cheaper by thousands at $249/each! They were brighter but not in an irritating way like Klipsch and the B&W speakers.

The best speakers to my ears, that they had were the KEFs, by FAR! The q350 bookshelf sounded great while the tower speaker with several 8" woofers added more low bass than any of the other towers including the DTs with their built in powered subs. The KEFs weren't as powerful in the midbass but sounded so good with tight articulate bass that wasn't boomy but went lower.

They had their electrostatic ML Towers hooked to a TV but it's best buy so what do you expect.

Seems speaker prices which can go very high and very low, don't mean anything if they don't sound good to you. Of course, this my opinion so others could disagree with me.

Also setups weren't good so speakers didn't image and soundstage very good. You'd have to do a home demo for that.

 

[Malcolm R]

I drove past a Best Buy today and almost stopped in. But then thought, why bother?

 

[Mike Up]

I drove past a Best Buy today and almost stopped in. But then thought, why bother?

For sure, very disappointing on the lack of speaker models and the poor setup, and no help. I miss the days of Circuit City, Highland Super Store, MusiCraft, and even Service Merchandise where I usually got a decent demo.

Even back in the day, Best Buy's Demo room have always been pretty sad compared to other stores.

I stopped mainly to re-live those days where I could audition speakers in a store. While I got a good hold of how these speakers sounded tonally, better placement and a bigger room may have helped to see how imaging and soundstaging could have been.

Back in the day, you had so many brands of speakers in those demo rooms, you were sure to find something you liked and could afford.

Best Buy had all the Klipsch and Lowest end Polk speakers just setup on metal shelves in the isles.

 

[jbirdp]

They’re discontinuing their DVD and blu ray sales (after fading out their selection of stock), but the good news is: Netflix is going to have brick and mortar rental stores!

 

[James Luckard]

They’re discontinuing their DVD and blu ray sales (after fading out their selection of stock), but the good news is: Netflix is going to have brick and mortar rental stores!

I'm really curious to see what the Netflix stores have.

I wouldn't be surprised it they just have merch tied into their programs. They did a popup like that at The Grove here in LA last year:

https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-unveils-netflix-at-the-grove-its-first-ever-multi-title-immersive

I'd be shocked (pleasantly shocked, but still shocked) if they offer discs for sale there.

 

[jayembee]

I'm really curious to see what the Netflix stores have.
[...]
I'd be shocked (pleasantly shocked, but still shocked) if they offer discs for sale there.

Dare we hope that they offer discs for the rest of the Stranger Things seasons?