Right on Art! The only decent Onkyo, and Yammie are their flagships. For the price of those good seperates can be had. E.Ramsey
Too Much Research
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Thanks for the replies. I will look into the suggested units. Hopefully they will have a similiar pricepoint. Any particular models you would suggest?
Regarding the 2nd question...would you buy from an online retailer, or from a walk up retail store? I would think that if you have problems with the unit, the shipping charges will eat up any savings from an online dealer.
I'd stay away from most online retailers. I know quite a few people who have gotten burned from them. There are exceptions though. Crutchfield and J&R are very good online retialers. They have been at it since the internet started. I've ordered a lot of car stereo gear from them (I don't like their home audio stuff) and have never had a single problem. A lot of the home audio manufacturers don't cover the warantee if their gear was bought online. Some allow a handful of online dealers to sell their re-furbished stuff online. Northamptonaudio.com and DMC-electronics.com sell NAD re-furbished gear, and I've seen them both listed as authorized retailers on the NAD website, if this helps any.
Online retailers are fine if you choose carefully. Search engines like pricegrabber.com usually will give you each dealer's average consumer rating and the total number of rating. You can also check out a dealer at reselleratings.com which is an excellent resource.
jandr.com is one of my favorites, very competitive pricing (often the lowest!) and excellent service, good return policy.
crutchfield.com has great 1-800 operators who can help you but their selection isn't that great and their prices are high relative to other online retailers. Very reputable though.
other good ones off the top of my head:
Onecall.com vanns.com
As for return shipping, it's not as bad as you think. I paid just $30 to return a 30lb. Onkyo receiver...most audio shops except for the big box chains (which have crappy selection and inflated prices usually) will charge a 10-20% restocking fee which is far more than return shipping.
Of course if you're shipping back a CRT projection TV it's a different story...lol