Howard Popeck writes: One of the emerging trends I’m seeing is customer desire to have people like me build their systems for them so they don’t have to do the work. Possibly the era of the pre-made system is coming back into vogue? If so, then good!
A few of the many emails to me suggest that a customer ‘abrogating this responsibility’ is the height of laziness and just goes to prove that the audiophile world is crumbling. Well yes it is crumbling but not for that reason’. Or put different, I don’t agree.
Rosanne and I eat out a lot and we expect a highly trained chef to assemble to ingredients to create a meal that despite me being a competent cook I can’t achieve for us at home. Why? Because he/she spent a significant part of their working life studying the art of Indian food. Consequently my far from unreasonable expectation is that the chef is significantly better than me.
It’s acceptable for me to suggest I want slightly more chilli in my Lamb Tikka Masala and/or slightly less yoghurt and the chef isn’t phased by this – but even so I still his/her expertise to assemble the ingredients in a way that I’m incapable of accomplishing.
Similarly I’ll bet I could put together a better system – at a given price – than most of my customers. Is that bragging? I don’t think so. I think it’s merely a realistic reflection of 38 years of sleeves rolled up practical experience.
If you can assemble a state of the art high-end system on your own, good for you. As a dealer that provides that service to my customers, good for me.
Epilogue: Just because you can’t boil and egg doesn’t mean you’re lazy if you order a world class meal from a proven gourmet chef.
