Great places to buy high end gear

[Revelation]

I contacted every store I knew in NYC about high end gear and guess what... no one had a Great River, Cranesong, or certain Avalon gear I was looking for. I won't throw stones at any store or company, so I won't mention names.

However I have to say Mercenary Audio is really a great place to buy gear. Not only do they have a lot of gear that most stores (and a bigger company that sell on line) don't have; they also know the gear first hand. I ordered something from them, and guess what, I got the gear the next day. It was packaged very well, had a clean receipt inside an evelope in the box. They also sent me an email with a tracking number with UPS. I was very very impressed with them. They may not have the rock bottom prices on everything, but I feel for what service they give, they are one of the best out there and should be considered when needing gear. I know others have said good things about Atlas Pro Audio too, and Nathan is a smart lad too.

Just wanted to throw Mercenary some praise for their great service. They take numerous phone calls every day asking so many questions from people who don't buy anything. and each time they are polite, professional and helpful.

[zboy2854]

Mercenary is always great.

Vintage King also rocks.

[Fletcher]

Glad to hear you had a pleasant experience... it is one of our main goals.

Peace.

[elambo]

Mercenary
Vintage King

[ethan_c]

Vintage King thumbsup

dfegad Sonic Circus

[Flora]

I had an unpleasant experience at Vintage King. Though the first time I bought there was fine. Mercenary charges a little more than most but gives good service. Sweetwater is actually respectable, too......

[Madkour]

Mercenary is great , Sound Pure also is very good .

[claudemorrow]

Calistro Music

[chriscoleman]

Originally Posted by claudemorrow

Calistro Music

+1

[TornadoTed]

In the UK no-one touches KMR.

[landshark]

Music Center Kenosha WI
Ask for Tom Merritt
800-697-9393
His prices have not ever been beaten yet. Don't know how he does it.
For example. New TLM 49 around $1080, New Vintech x81 around $1850.
I heard about him 4 years ago from many studio owners here in Nashville and I've been buying from him ever since.

[CorkyTart]

Get to know a guy at GC and if he likes you he can take about %30 off of their 'sale price' Example, I got a Eventide H8000fw for $4344 and a Massive Passive for $2950. All brand new and special ordered.

[allencollins]

G's Up HO's Down

Mercenary UP!
Vintage King UP!
Pro Audio Design UP!

Sonic Circus Down!!!
Sweetwater WAY Down!

[Tone Obsessed]

Originally Posted by CorkyTart

Get to know a guy at GC and if he likes you he can take about %30 off of their 'sale price'

That is 100% true... Want to save even more? Go there at the end of the month, quarter or year...

Also, look into incentives the OEM's are offering their dealers = even more savings for you, especially if your sales guy is "close" to the incentive.

Example: Apogee DA or AD 16X: $2,299 - out the door - from banjo mart...

[Kiwiburger]

I'm just at the start of my sluty spending phase, but so far Mercenary are the the clear winners for international orders. I'm from New Zealand, and it's extremely hard to get pro audio guys to take my cash!!

There seems to be a strong "if you ain't American, piss off" vibe from many pro audio dealers. I don't understand this, and it's extremely frustrating. I speak english, I have a Visa card, and Fedex and UPS deliver here every day. I'm prepared to pay excessive freight charges and duties and taxes - I just want *good* shit.

I have lost count of the number of times I have decided to purchase something good, and I have scoured the net for a website that could take y order. Often you get right to the shopping cart checkout before you get the ""if you ain't American, piss off" message.

Anway, Mercenary rock, and I basically have to limit my purchasing decisions to Mercenary approved gear. Which is no great hardship. But it certainly has prevented/is preventing me buying a lot of gear.

[lpkyer]

I had a too-good-to-be-true service on a recent order from Front End Audio and Redco for cables !!! I recommend them to everyone if you want to save big bucks!

[jumpnyc]

Alto music - first and best for pricing and service
Mercenary - Awesome
Vintage King - Great for vintage gear too.

[warhead]

Originally Posted by CorkyTart

...guy at GC ...%30 off of their 'sale price' ...Massive Passive for $2950...

GC sells Manley??

LPyker, you rock too man!

Kiwi, as long as any merchant (audio or not) can verify your ship address there is never an issue with shipping overseas. It does take some phone calls on the part of the merchant. I would be curious to know if your bank won't verify info over the phone, some overseas banks are very protective. I know a lot of the big American retailers won't touch overseas sales period though.

War

[Kiwiburger]

+1 Redco for cables.

[Kiwiburger]

Thanks Warren. I'm checking out Front End Audio now.

[taturana]

yeah... it's a problem buying gear from abroad... but if the credit card company aproves it and the merchant is correctly paid where's the problem? i tend to buy a lot of stuff in evilbay because of that... and even that takes a lot of patience, find what you want and then sending a message to the seller attempting to convince him to open an exception as you are not a scammer and just want to buy and pay for the stuff... thankfully my ebay feedback is 100% positive so that helps most of the times...

but i'd rather pay a proper audio merchant to do it. and even suggest something better maybe (not like GC salesmen though)

right now i am trying to buy a sterling audio st31 mic and they are only sold thru GC.. so i will probably have to ask a friend of mine in the U.S. to buy it for me and mail it to me here since GC does not sell internationally. as if paying for shipping and ludicrous import taxes weren't hard enough... and all that for a 100 dollar mic... imagine if i was buying an SSL..... In the next few months i was thinking of getting a few api pres but i am about to settle for a brazilian handmade API clone (canil pro audio) just to prevent the hassle and save on imports.

[warhead]

Originally Posted by taturana

yeah... it's a problem buying gear from abroad... but if the credit card company aproves it and the merchant is correctly paid where's the problem?

I'm not trying to steer this topic off course I swear, but since it has come up again I just want to clarify to some who are outside of the USA and what a dealer / merchant must do to service you.

It's not easy to verify info sometimes, but 99% of the time it is. Then once it's on file with that address, you should be able to buy with no questions asked from that point on. Done correctly both sides (you and the merchant) are protected. Our company for instance experienced (successful) fraud in 2006 exactly ZERO times. I probably saw 3 dozen serious attempts to cheat us though! It's always somebody with stolen cc info trying to get it shipped to another address instead of the billing address (which gets matched / verified).

If a merchant is a victim of credit card fraud, then he / she gets charged BACK by their credit card processing bank. It's not quite as simple as stating "if it's approved then no big deal" though. It costs the merchant in the end in cases of fraud, the money and the goods are gone, it's the credit card company who doesn't lose (or the real card holder) by taking the money BACK.

The safest transaction is bank wire transfer, and costs less for the merchant which could be negotiated as a discount as well (credit cards cost about 2% to the merchant).

Carry on.

War

[delcosmos]

I only trust in Vintage King and Mercenary, great guys and top notch service, I tried to buy from Sonic Circus 2 times, (Pultec EQP1a and Altec Compressor) and they never reply my emails.

BTW, MERCENARY, thanks a lot for the christmas present, I love it!!

Best regards and keep the good work.

Armando Avila
www.cosmosproducciones.com

[taturana]

war, thanks for your answer... but wire tranfers are pretty complicated things here.. while credit card, even if extra taxes are paid is much much simpler... on ebay i tend to pay the cc charges for the seller sometimes... but thanks for the help

[gm5k]

Atlas Pro Audio...friendly, accomodating, knowledgable, and trustworthy. what more could you ask for?

[jamroom]

Since Theve become my neighbor I've been buying all of my gear from Front End. I see them work everyday and they go way out of their way to keep customers happy and well informed.They will wheel and deal!

For Lines that they don't carry I use Ozark Pro AV.

[drastic]

Another thumbsup here for Atlas. Nathan has been great to deal with and knows his stuff.

The few times I've dealt w/ Sweetwater, they've done a fine job too.

[True North]

I have had great experiences with; Alto Music (Bobby) , Calistro (Craig) Vintage King (Mike Nehra), High Profile (Tony)

I haven't really tried anywhere else because between these fpur I have always been looked after. I haven't had any bad experiences yet to speak of when dealing with a reputable retailer

[RichS]

Add one more for Atlas Pro Audio. I ordered two matched Schoeps sets last month. Nathan was really great to deal with and got the mic's to me in a day. It's so nice to deal with someone who actually delivers "service with a smile" over the phone!!

I'll be calling again (soon) to order a few more.

[DannyBoy]

Just bought a bunch of gear from Tony Belmont (High Profile Audio) - first of all, the guy is a class act & really knows his stuff. Spent a bunch of time on the phone with me, answered all my questions & made some absolutely killer suggestions. The gear arrived in record time (I mentioned that time was a factor, but was FLOORED at how quick everything showed up).

Give him a call, you'll be glad u did!!!