I was going with my good friend and audio nut Brian to Sunshine Stereo in Miami for a day of listening to high fi equipment. Sunshine had a number of speakers that I wanted to listen to (Von Schweikert, Near, Gallo, NHT, Energy...etc) What started out as a good day turned into the audio experience from hell. Of course after driving from Tallahassee to Miami and finding Sunshine Stereo, it was closed. Bummer, I must have lost the stores hours, but all was not lost: Brian knew another shop that carried the Von Schweikert speaker line. Making good time we arrived at Audio By Caruso at about 3pm.
Pre-warnings of Kookdom
Brian had mentioned that the owner: Don Caruso was a bit quirky, and that the first thing that he would do is take my name and write down what I currently own in terms of stereo equipment. No problem, many of the audio types get a bit "In to it." So I was prepared for a bit of a fanatic. With this in mind and our CD's in hand we went in to listen to the VR3's and VR4's.
A Nice Shop
Audio By Caruso carried Genesis, PSB, and VSR speakers and was well stocked. This made me happy as I had wanted to listed to the PSB speakers as they came highly rated by friends (Note, I never did get to hear the PSB's). There was one other customer in the shop, and two guys working so it took about 25 minutes to get any help (No problem, we weren't in a hurry and I understand that good shops take care of their customers.)
Enter Don
Finally, Don Caruso came over and the odyssey began. After taking down my current system and frowning ( I have a Denon AVR 3600 and Def Tech BP2000's...BTW: I love the sound that I get from this combo), Don assured me that I wanted the VR3's rather than the VR4's, since I said that I was happy with my Denon and was only thinking about possibly upgrading my speakers if I liked the VSR's more. I think that his quote at this point was "With the electronics you have, you won't get anything more out of the VR4's over the VR3's." Ok so he was a touch hard to take, but hey, I really wanted to hear these speakers so I quietly listened to his perturbations about my system.
The Hookup
Don had a variety of amps to choose from and began wiring up the VR3's to a NAD receiver as preamp and a Rotel power amp. Another famous Caruso quote: "Well you won't be able to hear what these speakers can really do with this setup, but it will be like the system that you'd get at home." A bit rude, but I thought that we were just seconds from hearing the VR3's and I was pumped. Don finished wiring up the VR3's and came over to Brian and I. He then hit me with a question that floored me. "If I demo these speakers for you, will you buy them from me at full list price ?? I want you to know that I not interested in selling these for less than list." At this I was shocked. I told him that I'd definitely consider his shop for a purchase, but that I hadn't even heard the speakers yet!
Don Mid Frenzy
While leaning on the VR3's, Don continued on his semi-demented chatter. "I don't want to take the time to demo these, then have you shop around to other stores, that's just not high-end." My jaw must have been a bit slack at this point, but I stood there and listened to his continuing spiel. What follows are some excerpts from about 30 minutes of horrifying banter that could be summed up by the underlying tone in his voice: GET OUT!
"I don't want to take the time to demo these speakers and then have you go somewhere else to shop around and buy them for less."
"The US Government is killing high-end by not allowing the speaker manufacturers to price fix to the merchants."
"I don't deal at less than MSRP, that's just not the spirit of high-end."
For about the third time Don asked:
"Will you buy the VR3's at $1850? I'm not interested in selling them for less."
To which I replied:
"If I like them, I don't have a problem paying $1850 if I think that they are worth it, but I haven't heard them yet."
To which he replied:
"Yes, but will you buy them from me?"
Now he went into a riff on trust and lying, saying that the way that most speakers are sold constitutes lying, with the price of a speaker not really being the price, and the customer talking the merchant down, which again he noted, is not the spirit of high-end. In other words, shopping around to save money was beneath the high-end attitude. This guy would have a serious hard time in hispanic countries. More blather about dealer/customer trust ensued with his beady eyes boring into me.
The entire time he went on this tirade, he was looking down his nose at Brian and I, like we were street trash just coming into his store to waste his time and then go shopping for better prices. (Note, there was no one else in the store at that time.) I was being made to feel most unwelcome in no uncertain terms. When Don turned around, Brian looked at me and mouthed "Sorry about this...." I shrugged, it wasn't Brian's fault that this guy was a maniac.
Brian had come in two weeks before and demo'd the VR4's, then referred his friend to the shop who purchased a ~$700 cd-player. Don knew this and still was being extraordinarily rude. I was serious about looking at the VSR line, and if they were all that they were cracked up to be, I would consider selling my BP2000's and getting a pair. None of my purchasing was going to happen today, as there were a variety of speakers that I still wanted to listen to in this price range. After telling Don this, he seemed even less enthused about actually putting the CD in the player and hitting play.
At this point Don went back to his "Will you buy them " rant and I mouthed lip service to his dementia.
Mass, Reality and the Desire to hear the VSR's.
As Don continued to blast Brian and I like we were ignorant school children set upon ruining his business, I had to restrain a few urges.
It occurred to me that the spirit of high-end notwithstanding, that this tremendous prick was about 130lbs soaking wet, and that crushing his head might sooth my hurt feelings about the treatment that I was receiving. It was the holiday season so I mentally searched for another option.
Tell Don where he could stick his VSR's and leave. I repeatedly had this one flash through my head but a few things kept me from doing this:
Ok so we sucked it up and finally after about 30 minutes of his pontificating, he put a disk in and hit play.
VR3 Opinions and More Fun.
So I popped in Seal's "Kiss from a Rose" The imaging and definition of the music was great, but the VR3's lacked bass. I put in a few more tracks, one being an imaging test, and while the soundstaging was excellent, the imaging wasn't as nice as a pair of B&W CDM1's ( I have a track from "The Best of Eric Kunsell" that has a cowboy run a horse in a circle, and it was much better defined on the B&W's. For some reason, I just wasn't satisfied with the sound from the VR3's. Great soundstaging and definition, but there was something that just didn't grab me (May have been having Dick-overload, which soured my judgment).
After about 15 minutes of listening to the VR3's, it was clear that I liked the sound from my Def Tech's better, and told Don as much. (Maybe it's sick, but I really enjoyed telling Don that I didn't like his speakers....)
Don replied with: "Well I have these running through similar electronics to what you have at home, you aren't hearing the potential of these speakers." (He neglected to note that I love the sound I get from my home system.) He continued: "The room that the VR3's were in sucks bass energy." Ok the room was huge, but now I wanted to hear the VR4's.
Don didn't look like he wanted to show me to 4's (Which were already setup in another room.) I made it clear that the VR3's lack of bass would prevent me from even considering them. Don agreed to move the VR3's into the other room, where the VR4's were setup, and I could A/B them.
As Don was setting up the VR3's into the new room, I noticed that he had the demo chair which could be raised and lowered to put the listeners ears directly at tweeter level, and there was a yardstick mounted on the wall with a black dot where the listeners head went. Wow, talk about anal retentive. It appeard that Don really cared, but to quote Rodney Dangerfield from "Back to School" when describing Sam Kinison "He Cares, about what I have no idea..."
Still Unimpressed with the VR3's
Now the VR3's were being played through about $10,000 worth of amplification (Some exotic tube stuff), and I still didn't find the sound satisfying (Actually I couldn't hear much of a difference). Putting the VR3's in a different room and butting them next to the VR4's improved the bass, but I still couldn't get involved in the music.
Now the Big Boys
We then shifted to the VR4's. They were VERY NICE!! Sweet, and crystal clear with a satisfying low-end. With my rock CD's they were nice (Seal, Sting, Tori Amos), but when Don put in Ricky Lee Jones "Pop pop" on track 1, I was staggered. It was as if they where there in front of me. Switching to the VR3's on this track provided some of the "Wow" of the VR4's, but it was in a different league.
In the end, Don seemed to loosen up and wasn't as abrasive. I was still plenty pissed at the treatment that I'd received upon entering the shop.
At the heart of Don't ranting and raving he had a few solid points for which I want to give credit:
A few points that I'd like to make to Don:
To sum up.