We have been trying to implement the same policy regarding lines available to the trunk slammers. We are currently carrying:

Yamaha - It's a demand line and establishes the fact that our prices are the same as The Good Guys on same product.

Pioneer Elite - Good alternative, and matches with their Video Product. - Exclusive to us in our area.

Integra - Also Great stuff and not available locally OR ON THE NET !!

Rotel - Also Great Stuff with a marketing tie-in with B&W Speakers.

We also chose these lines because they offer top-down selling, unlike many other lines where it's either separates or nothing, or mid level but nothing better without having to change to a different brand.

Here are some brands that we no longer carry and why:

Anthem - nice stuff, but no top down selling. (Too bad they don't make a Receiver.)

B&K - Sounds good when it works. We have had about a 50% failure rate with their stuff. The response from the factory - "Hey, you buy a Ferrari for performance, not reliability" - Our answer to that - " Hey, I pay $4000.00 for a receiver, it should work. - See ya!"

Denon - Nice Stuff - Too bad everyone can get it. Now that Yamaha will upconvert video and does 7.1 - Bye Bye.

Soverign - This one's on the bubble. We only keep it around because they have DVD management. This will probably change when Escient releases their new DVD manager in November. Nice people to do business with, but the line is almost 3 years old with no model changes ever.

My advice - find brands that have some depth and breadth in their line, and keep the number of brands to a minimum. Better to give greater support and develop deeper relationships with fewer vendors than to carry a whole bunch of stuff and not commit to any of them.