Soundaround's Gone Belly Up

[GreatWhiteEbola]

2008 is correct,

Originally Posted by Wiki

On November 7, 2008, A&B Sound officially announced that it had gone out of business

[blankall]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

most online reviews are bollocks to be frank, if you want to know how good a stereo is there is no alternative to sitting down and listening to it for a while with several different types of music, the absence of hi fi stores you can go in and listen means you will happily buy a piece of crap and will have no idea what a rubbish sounding turd it is as you will have nothing to compare it to but your clock radio.

Don't necessarily disagree, however, a store like Soundsaround is not the place to do that. They'll tweak with the settings to make certaing models better than others and there's a big diffference between the sound you'll get in the showroom and the sound you'll get at home.

[Draug]

Originally Posted by blankall

Not suprising. Online retailers are killing the electronics stores. Makes pefect sense though. We dont really need to buy things like electronics in person. Things like clothes, shoes, etc, your are going to want to try on. You're much better off relying on online reviews than a salesperson for advice on electronics though.

Well, not exactly. Online reviews are quite often too generalized and vague to have much value. Plus, reviewers often "tow the company line". The best bet is to find a good electronics forum, and see what other owners have to say about the given equipment. I recommend AVS for that. But, keep in mind that any company can place a schill poster in any forum.

Before I spend thousands on audio equipment, or even visual equipment, I demand to hear and see it in person, in a properly calibrated environment. I recommend K&W or General Audio as places for such things. There are also others in Calgary, but I have no experience with any of them. My favorite is General Audio; about 8 years ago now, they let my brother and I take home three different demo setups, so we could hear them in the environment we'd be using once we purchased. It was probably $25,000 worth of equipment they lent us.

[Hack&Lube]

The owner of Soundsurround used to live behind me growing up. With all your money from crappy stereos he bought a Ferrari and Lambo which he never drove and stored in his multi garage. He moved out about a year or two ago and probably put all the money from Soundsurround into his personal bank account and wound the place down.

[Ozy_Flame]

Although maybe not a fair comparison since I haven't been there in a while, I mostly equated Visions to be a sleazy Soundsaround second. Something about the place just strikes me as pawn shop quality and questionable sales tactics.

[Ducay]

Soundsaround is to electronics, what The Brick is to furniture.

Same sales setup, same upsells, same clientele

[Nammer403]

I used to like soundsarounds big 4 sale.
I didn't like their no return policy on items

[ranchlandsselling]

I wouldn't be surprised if part of their failure was car manufacturers greatly improving their audio/video offerings in new cars.

[Doodlebug]

I feel bad for all the suckers that got taken by them, selling crappy Nuance speakers as hi end audio.... what a scam. Boy it was a production though...made you sit down in a special room, close your eyes, then they proceeded to play Q sound cd's.

[DoNotCompute]

I generally use Future Shop for all my electronics needs (the one at Deerfoot Meadows is best).

Soundsaround was bad all around. Higher prices, Zero ability to deal with their screwups, No return policy, sleezy sales tactics... just all around bad.

Their biggest store was the one on Macleod Trail... then Future Shop reopened in their parking lot... was GG for them after that.

Earlier poster is correct in saying that the online push is where its at in electronics. Future shop and Bestbuy are going big into online, trying to compete with Amazon and all their online buddies. Still prefer to go in store for my big purchases (tvs, computers, etc...), and leave the small stuff for online.

Also a quick note, Best buy no longer does Car audio install... heard this from a buddy of mine a couple of weeks ago. Not sure what it is that they're gonna do with all the warranty work they're supposed to perform on installed products...

Visions just always felt sleazy to me, the sales guys there just feel... off.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Although maybe not a fair comparison since I haven't been there in a while, I mostly equated Visions to be a sleazy Soundsaround second. Something about the place just strikes me as pawn shop quality and questionable sales tactics.

I tend to look on the bright side and view any place that's kind of sleazy as a good place to haggle prices down. Typically a business that uses pushy salesmen working on comish leave a margin that you can negotiate on. I've bought many electronics from visions and haggled them down for any higher priced items. Typically I've recieved free accessories or just flat out price reductions.

[Locke]

I think that Feroz guy was a criminal.

[HELPNEEDED]

Originally Posted by Locke

I think that Feroz guy was a criminal.

I was 17, my parents had just bought me a brandnew mustang for getting in to all the Unis of my choice. I saved up enough cash to buy a full out stereo for my car (can't remember how, I jsut remember it was tough as ####). I went to surround sound and was approach by a "friendly" yet slimey hey bro its feroz.

Long story short, Feroz sold me a system that worked for all but three-weeks. Boy was a dissapointed as a 17 year old.

I'm now 27 and I still hold it against sound saround for doing didly squat about my issues.

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

The owner of Soundsurround used to live behind me growing up. With all your money from crappy stereos he bought a Ferrari and Lambo which he never drove and stored in his multi garage. He moved out about a year or two ago and probably put all the money from Soundsurround into his personal bank account and wound the place down.

ZR Auto has taken over the Soundsaround space on 32nd in the north east. I've heard there was a relationship between the owners of those two places so it's not surprising to hear about the SA guys owning Ferraris and Lambos.

[EverfresH15]

Originally Posted by HELPNEEDED

I was 17, my parents had just bought me a brandnew mustang for getting in to all the Unis of my choice. I saved up enough cash to buy a full out stereo for my car (can't remember how, I jsut remember it was tough as ####). I went to surround sound and was approach by a "friendly" yet slimey hey bro its feroz.

Long story short, Feroz sold me a system that worked for all but three-weeks. Boy was a dissapointed as a 17 year old.

I'm now 27 and I still hold it against sound saround for doing didly squat about my issues.

I never bought anything from him myself but i had a buddy that bought all of his subs and stuff, he never had any problems with it. The guy was a total idiot though and it was more fun to go in there and listen to him spew his crap. Loved that he used to park his sweet purple Accord at the wheelchair store beside SoundsAround in the handi cap stall.

Hey Brother!!!

[West Karma]

nm

[Locke]

Originally Posted by West Karma

Feroz was awesome!!

Feroz was a criminal.

[West Karma]

nm

[Locke]

Originally Posted by West Karma

At SA, or before/after?

I'm being sarcastic.

He personified the sleazeball policies of that establishment.

[FurnaceFace]

Anyone get sucked into sitting through one of their "3D sound" demos of the Nuance speakers? That was a fun ride.