Tapes break down and get destroyed. Anyone with a clue suggests they digitize their important memories.

Technology evolves and it is our job to show a client the evolution. The biggest thing I hear about CD players for instance is their x-mas music. When told Pandora plays various holiday music and you never have to change a disc something usually clicks.

Not showing a client Sonos or the like is being a poor integrator and sales person. We are in the wrong industry to be a Luddite.

Ka-powwww!

I agree that showing them SONOS is the right thing to do. I have converted plenty of technically challenged 65+ clients to SONOS from CD changers and AM/FM Tuners. Most of them use a computer to control it because they know how to use a computer well enough....and they are not smarter than their smartphones.

I cannot count how many times in the last 10+ years, I go into a system with a CD changer in the DA system, only to fire it up and hear Christmas music.

I have mentioned this elsewhere on the forums, but I have no problem hooking up a CD player, VCR, or cassette deck for clients. I like those analog devices. They are much easier to set up and deal with from a control standpoint, that is for sure. :)

+1

I’ve seen this play out both ways. I’ve seen sales people ignore what customers want, and push their own wants on the customer until the customer is totally turned off. But probably more times I’ve seen listening to all of the customers wants then politely leading them through a newer better solution and they love it.

Some may remember a photo I posted at the beginning of the summer, where I put in an Elan DA system but had to include his dual cassette deck, reel to reel, 300 disc cd changer that required a paper catalog to navigate, and an FM modulator for his laptop. Then I hooked up a Sonos connect and showed him how to use it to get radio stations, free unlimited music from pandora, and the crappy MP3’s stored on his laptop. I then got my 12y/o daughter $200 for ripping his CD’s to a NAS drive

Go old-school, Russound.

I had a CEO, fortune 500, been on the nightly news, come in and tell me what he wanted done. There was also a prissy designer on the project. I gently told the customer why his version was not a great idea and suggested another approach. CEO was a bit stunned and left. Two days later he came back and we proceeded with my version. He was really great to work with and the project was a success. He was not used to push back, but he recognized good advice when he encountered it. As one would expect he was a bit macho and we had to use some rather large speakers to generate the levels, particularly the bass, that he wanted. Of course this generated some push back from the designer, but I assured everyone that the speakers would not be a visual problem. At one point the designer came in grumbling about the project deadline, demanding "when are you installing the speakers" ... er ... I installed them two days ago. (Speakers were hidden in plain sight)

lol LOVE that!

You're kidding, right?
I haven't walked into a single dealership where the puke pushing cars knew more about it than I did.

Hell, half the time they're telling me they haven't been trained on any of the infotainment crap that's only been out for 2-3 years! Not used car lots where you get a million different cars each month. Chevy, Nissan, Acura dealerships. The only ones that knew their stuff to a point were the Benz and Audi dealers. Even then, they sorta knew about stuff under the hood, but not the dashboard.

Me: Can this thing link contacts from my phone?
Sales puke: I don't know. Let me ask.
Me: What engine does it have? How many wheels does it come with?
Whatever question you ask...
SP: I dunkow...

+2

But you forgot to mention you were there in July and that's what was in the CD changer. Always.

This has little to do with the thread but we just bought an '18 Compass (think mini grand cherokee). The manager at the small, rural dealer is in my BNI group, so I figured we wouldn't get taken. The sales guy was no more than 25-30. I was surprised by his pitch - there really wasn't much of one. It must be tough, a millennial selling to a 40-something, but he did alright, knew some of the tech, syncing phones etc. He knew what came with extra tires as well, vs just a patch kit.

Back to the thread, we are technology people, bottom line (that hopefully take care of customers). No one really wants to watch a VCR or load CDs. What they do want is easy access to memories or a better time etc. The vehicle to get there doesn't matter, just make simple and make it work. (I really can't wait until I can open my own Recall franchise...easier on the back.)

Really? This is the best you can do?

Why I don't own a Cadillac any longer, is due to that sort of mentality on a stupid sales puke. A little too much push, had pushed me out the door.

Went to a Ford dealer with my wants, and got what I wanted.



Sorry, but that's BS. Just because we can stream, doesn't equate to "everyone".

I dont see me getting rid of a bluray players anytime soon. NOTHING compares to a disk. When you want the best picture possible, you have to have bluray.


4k disc are outpacing all bluray sales (well, per the samsung rep in Austin last week anyway).

I agree about the disc & players going away. Look what happen to CDs.
It was only a matter of time; when content is available and bandwidth from our ISP made possible, video disc will go the same way as the audio CD.

The majority rules and the majority of people will be happy to have everything in the cloud. Not having to load anything or store media anywhere.

The only problem and my frown upon all this, is the quality sucks. I still buy CDs and burn to my NAS in lossless. Because there are only a few streaming services that do CD quality sound and they are much more than the usual $10 per month.
Video is worse. You can easily find 4K and 1080p streaming these days, but you can not choose (or even know) what quality of video you are getting. I think VUDU does the best job of this but still....
I probably will still be using disc players for video for a least a few more years. But I doubt many (if any) of my customers feel the same way. Most of my systems these days are service provider box (cable or satellite) and a streaming box (Roku, Amazon, Apple). And the lines are blurring on that now, as service provider boxes now offer Netflix, Pandora, and a few other services already built in.

+1 Brad.

All you have to do is look at your disc player sales (CD, BDP) and your streaming player sales. It's OK to have your own preferences for quality, and even educate your clients in that regard, but it's moving in the streaming direction.

I used to stock 6 different Integra CD players. Now just one is available, and they don't sell often.

Look at UHD blu-ray players. Where is the Yamaha, the Denon, the Onkyo/Integra... apparently they don't see enough sales on the horizon to even spend the engineering money on it. Maybe they will rebrand something out of China, maybe not. So we get a Sony or a Samsung...

Compare this to the early blu-ray days. The brand I sell was a little late to the party with their blu-ray players, and I had a long waiting list of people that said, "As soon as you get one, set it up!" That has not happened with UHD players, at least for me.

So we get to sell much cheaper, lower profit streamers instead of disc players.

At the same time, networking becomes more critical. That's the hat you will wear more and more...