|
FAQ:
rec.audio.* Mail Order 2/99 (part 10 of 13)
17.0 Mail Order
Mail order is appealing. The general hope
is that by using mail order, you avoid pushy sales people, you pay
fixed, discounted prices, and you have written catalog descriptions to
help you select your purchase. In practice, most mail order today is
"phone order", in that the company completes the deal with a
phone call. Many of the "mail order" companies don't even have
price lists or catalogs. They are just retailers that are willing to
sell over the phone and ship the merchandise to you. In some cases,
retail store sales are better deals than mail order. Don't expect the
lowest price from the first place you call. Also, don't expect excellent
service from everyone, and especially not from the company with the
lowest price.
17.1 Who sells brand XXX equipment
mail-order?
Consult the rec.audio.marketplace
mail-order survey published by nau@SSESCO.com (William R. Nau) or contact
William Nau directly. This survey is also available via FTP in the pub/rec.audio
directory of SSESCO.com. If you have any mail order experiences to share,
please send them directly to William Nau.
17.2 Is the stuff sold by DAK really
awesome? Damark?
DAK is out of business. It is believed that
DAK went out of business because they invested too heavily in 80286 PCs as
the price and demand dropped. Dave Platt joked that the closing of DAK
resulted in the great superlative shortage of 1995, because DAK used
many wild claims in their advertisements.
Regarding Damark, the products are as
described, they deliver what they say they will, and take back/replace
unsatisfactory merchandise. I have not heard any unsatisfied Damark
customers.
Doug Purl reports that DAK was named after
and owned by Drew A. Kaplan and that Damark is named after and owned by
Drew And MARy Kaplan, so these two companies may share more than
style.
Richard Bollar did some research and came
up with a different origin for the name Damark: "The firm's moniker
is a combination of the first names of the founders, David Russ and Mark
Cohn, who had both worked at COMB, a discount mail-order house. They
became vendors to COMB, but when that company refused to pick up some of
their merchandise, they started their own catalog business. At first
they continued to sell to their former employer, but when it forced them
to decide whether to be suppliers or competitors, Cohn and Russ decided:
they started DAMARK in 1986."
Whichever is true, be cautious when
buying any product without an audition. Ignore any wild claims or
comparisons to products costing many times more. There are many examples
of excellent, expensive products that are worth every penny, but don't
sound great. Someone could honestly claim that their product sounds
better than products costing ten times as much, yet they could still be
selling an inferior product with poor sound.
17.3 Is the stuff sold by Cambridge
Sound Works really awesome? What
about the other brands of tiny satelites
and subwoofers?
Many experienced listeners report that the
systems sold by Cambridge Sound Works which consist of two small satelites
and one medium sized subwoofer are a poor value if your goal is best sound
quality for the money. However, the convenience of tiny satelites is
important to some people.
Perhaps someday, someone will develop a
great tiny satelite plus subwoofer system, but all examples so far seem to
suffer from lumpy frequency response and poor reconstruction of the stereo
image. The same complaint applies to similar systems from other makers.
Some believe that it is essential to have all of the left channel sound
coming from the exact same location for best stereo image and smooth
frequency response. This premise implies that tiny satelite plus subwoofer
systems will always be inferior.
Cambridge Sound Works also sells more
conventional tower and bookshelf systems. These, like many other speakers
on the market, are worth a listen.
However, the authors of this FAQ strongly
recommend that you ignore all recommendations and make your decision based
on your own personal listening tests.
17.4 What should I watch out for when
buying mail order?
Many of the cautions mentioned in
warranties (20.1) apply. Look for a store which has been around a long
time. Look for friends which have dealt with the store and been satisfied.
Look for a store which does not lie or stretch the truth.
17.5 What is gray market?
See warranties (20.1), below.
17.6 Are there any good mail-order
sources for recordings?
Alas, Noteworthy is out of business as of
November 1996.
BMG and Columbia also sell CDs mail-order,
but have a smaller list of offerings and higher prices. However, BMG and
Columbia have interesting deals to entice new customers. Read the fine
print before you sign to be sure that they are right for you. BMG and
Columbia both have promotional offerings to "members" which
allow you to buy two or three discs for the price of one. These can be
very good deals, if you want what they have. Look at their advertisements
in common magazines and Sunday newspapers for a better idea of what they
carry. They list much of their line in their ad. Don't expect much more.
For more information on BMG and Columbia, see section 10.13, 10.14, 10.15,
and 10.16 of this FAQ.
Tower Records has a mail order department
which also sells CDs. Tower is a large retail chain. Many have bought from
their retail outlets happily. They do not have a catalog of their own, but
will sell you a Schwann or similar catalog and offer to get virtually any
disc out of those catalogs. Contact:
Tower Records Mail Order Department
692 Broadway
New York City, NY 10012 USA
800-648-4844 or 800-522-5445
Another source is Music New Hampshire;
800-234-8458. They sell many $3.79 post-paid sampler CDs and also many
independent label single-artist discs. Most single artist discs are $15.00
each. Shipping is $3 for 1-3 discs and $5 for 4-up. Their stuff is mostly
obscure artists. They have Rock, Jazz, Classical, Folk, Country, and
Children's offerings. Affiliated with CD Review.
Music New Hampshire - Wayne Green Inc
70 Route 202N
Peterborough NH 03458-1107 USA
If you like the idea of buying CDs by
Modem, consider
The Compact Disc Connection
1016 East El Camino #322
Sunnyvale CA 94087 USA
Voice 408-733-0801
Modem:
212-532-4045 New York City NY
312-477-3518 Chicago IL
408-730-9015 Sunnyvale CA
617-639-0238 Boston MA
Telnet:
cdconnection.com
They have a collection of over 120,000 CD
titles. People have said that their service is excellent. Prices are
fairly good. Shipping is $3.50 for orders under $100.00 and free for
larger orders. They do not stock anything, but deliver from the warehouses
of their suppliers. This means that some items may be back ordered or
completely discontinued while remaining in their on-line data base. They
advertise 94.2% of orders in 1992 shipped, though not necessarily
immediately. You can also get their catalog from ftp.cdconnection.com
There have been a couple of music (cd/lp)
mail-order lists compiled on the net - one older list can be found via
anonymous ftp to ftp.uwp.edu in the file: /pub/music/misc.mailorder.rmm
Someone is revising this file and it should be updated or found in a new
file name there in the future.
Another list contains vendors that
specialize in progressive rock, electronic and experimental music, is
maintained by Malcolm Humes and posted sporadically to alt.music.progressive,
rec.music.misc,
& rec.music.info.
This also can be ftp'd from ft.uwp.edu, in
the file: /pub/music/misc/mailorder.progressive
Federal Music and Video markets
"Discount Coupon Books" featuring two-for-one CDs and Tape
deals. They require payment with the order, which many consider risky. One
company that distributes these coupon books for Federal Music is Reed
Music. The price from Federal or Reed Music with the two-for-one deal is
comparable to the price from Noteworthy. So far, no net user has yet
related any positive or negative experience with Reed Music or Federal
Music and Video. Federal Music and Video has been in business since 1985,
so is probably legit. However, in that they require payment in advance it
is probably safer to avoid them completely and use a discounter like
Noteworthy. Occasionally, a new dealer will pop up offering free CDs
and/or a great coupon book. They may be a dealer for Federal. Save your
money.
There is a list of mail-order music
companies on the web: http://www.razorsedge.net
. Most seem to be specialized smaller dealers.
When considering mail purchases of CDs,
consider shipping costs. It is common for people to charge between $1 and
$3 per disk for "shipping and handling". This makes mail order
less attractive, but may be equally balanced by a lack of sales tax.
Get archive "mailorder.txt" from
"/pub/cd" on "jammin.nosc.mil"
for a complete list of mail order music sellers. |
