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I am curious about different equipment dealers you guys have found on the net that have good prices on a variety of things. I have found a couple that I think are excellent and wanted to pass them on to you guys/gals. I don't have any stock in these folks so don't blast me for promoting people! I stay the hell away from GC and other "super stores" except for very basic things as I have not found them to give inaccurate information at times, and their return policy is lacking on some things like mics...

riksmusic.com (based out of Knoxville, TN) The have a lot of basic stuff, and are very competitively priced. You have to call or e-mail them for price as they can't advertise below what the manufacturer posts as a retail price.

soundpure.com (durham, NC) I ordered my Nuendo Audiolink 96 Digiset from them as well as the Studio Projects T3 and they gave me a better price than anywhere else I could find. I discovered them on ebay.

macmidimusic.com (Nashville) A little more pricey than the previously mentioned two, and I have never ordered from them, but they are very knowledgable and have a lot of items.

What have you guys found out there?

Comments

AudioGaff Sun, 10/12/2003 - 10:17

I got to give Fletcher at [url=(dead link removed)[/url] high praise not for the lowest price, but for the best 1st class service I've ever gotten from a dealer. They also do something no other dealer I have ever known does, they double the manufacture's warranty on just about everything they sell.

Here is one of many examples of the experience I have had with them. When I bought my first Manley Vari-Mu from Fletcher they did not have one in stock and when he called back to tell me it would take 2-3 weeks for Manley to get one shipped to him due to a supplier not getting parts to Manley, he told me that his personal Vari-Mu was already on it's way to me via FedEx 2-day for me to use. I didn't ask for this, he paid for the shipping, he told me to keep it until my new Vari-Mu was built. If I decided I didn't want to buy the Manley, just ship back his unit when I was done with it. This was my first purchase with Mercenary and my first time dealing with Fletcher. I didn't even give him any deposit or credit card info. Just my name, number and address after a short 10-min phone call. Now that is what I describe as some AWESOME KICK ASS SERVICE! I'm now a loyal customer for life as I know that he and Mercenary will always take care of me and my needs and that is worth more to me than the piddly savings I would get from dicking around with G-Center or an internet/mail-order place with their 2nd-rate wankers and uninformed geeks.

Nate Tschetter Sun, 10/12/2003 - 11:25

Howdy

GC experience: bought a Logic Control off the floor and they lost the power supply. I made them order a new one and sell me the unit at cost. Had to haggle and it took weeks to get the new PSU.

Mercenary experience: bought a mic pre. A month later it stopped working. Sent an email. The _NEXT DAY_ a new unit arrived and the old one taken back. No questions, no bs.

Whether one likes Fletcher and his "outspoken manner" is personal. In my experience, he is one of the few merchants that values his customers.

You can also try Marquette Audio Labs and Atlas Pro Audio.

anonymous Sun, 10/12/2003 - 17:50

Service is a point that I overlooked (and so very important). Glad you guys chimed in with that fact. Yes, price isn't everything - you definately have to balance the way the dealer handles problems. Sounds like Fletcher is a winner in that regard!

For the record, I had trouble with the Digiset that I ordered from Soundpure.com (not the dealers fault), but the thing stalled everytime upon booting the computer up. It was something to do with the circuitry that Nuendo/Steinberg finally upgraded. When I called soundpure and told them about the problem, he immediately told me what was wrong and that he would send me the upgrade as soon as he got some - which he did. So... Steinberg's customer service on the otherhand is non-existent as far as I can tell. Hope they get their shit together, because they have a good product. It would suck for them to not become an industry standard based on poor customer service.