Is Audiogon Representative of the Audiophile Market and Sentiment?

[thedudeabides]

Agon is a for profit company, you are not allowed to buy or sell or give an email address or phone number on the forums or in private messaging.

When sending a message to a potential buyer or seller, spell out telephone number. Stupid but it works.

 

[RnRmf]

For me, it seems like interest at Audiogon vs USAM is about 10-1 in Audiogon's favor.
Messages, offers to buy, and sales are almost entirely through Audiogon for me.

 

[CHenry]

I have bought on the site occasionally, and my experience was positive. I suspect it depends on what you are looking for. It worked for me. I agree that U.S. Audio Mart is probably a broader sales market and a better indicator of market pricing on used gear, as is eBay. A-gon seems to cater to the high end and dealers.

The discussion section seems like a mixed bag. Some of it is useful, some appears to be an online self-help service for people who have over-invested in high-priced gear and are looking for reassurance/validation. Some of the traffic is naked promotion by dealers or dealer proxies. A few are insiders who are open about their industry connection, although I suspect others are not so open. There are trollers, some of whom must be bored of listening and who like the action stirred up by bringing up Audio Science Review, their favorite piñata. ASR is their boogeyman for skewering favorite brands and for suggesting that some inexpensive Chinese-made component is as good or better than a site-popular component costing thousands. There are silly pompous posters who always seem to discuss components in terms of what the spend is rather than the actual function and performance. It is a circus, with occasional good items and lots of folly.

If you are looking for insightful discussions about gear mods, DIY audio, esoteric components, experiments, your time will be better spent elsewhere.

 

[treitz3]

Hi Tom,

What does GTG mean?

GTG is short for "Get Together".

Tom

 

[Mike Lavigne]

for years Audiogon was member centric and even system centric; even though it was a commercial site from the beginning. that was when system posts were integrated with all other posts in the site format when you logged on. a system post just made went to the top like here. therefore it got lots of eyeballs and comments and awareness. many members had lots of activity on their system threads. it was equally important to the other type threads. so there was more buy-in and horsepower and strength from the serious participants to keep the nonsense to a minimum.

now system posting is relegated to the bottom of the heap, so system comments never can get any momentum as they get zero attention. which drove many of the most serious members away from Audiogon as a hang out place.

member buy-in is the forum. any forum.

 

[bRnzBzh]

Audiogon forums have become increasingly tainted by participants who evidently enjoy conflict. This is not helped by what appears to be a highly inconsistent and at times, arbitrary moderation policy. Nevertheless, there are still long-time participants whose knowledge I value and whose civility I respect and appreciate.

 

[Apogeefanatic]

For me, it seems like interest at Audiogon vs USAM is about 10-1 in Audiogon's favor.
Messages, offers to buy, and sales are almost entirely through Audiogon for me.

Much prefer USAudioMart.... Much more civil place to buy and sell with a total absence of silly fees and site overlook. My vote for USAudioMart big time!

 

[zuesman]

Audiogon forums have become increasingly tainted by participants who evidently enjoy conflict. This is not helped by what appears to be a highly inconsistent and at times, arbitrary moderation policy. Nevertheless, there are still long-time participants whose knowledge I value and whose civility I respect and appreciate.

I stopped wasting my time with the audio gon forums, too many stupid people and crybabies on there, I don't need any more advice my system is worth $93,000 Canadian and it'll beat $200,000 systems according to a couple of high-end salespeople that have come over and listened.

 

[bRnzBzh]

I stopped wasting my time with the audio gon forums, too many stupid people and crybabies on there, I don't need any more advice my system is worth $93,000 Canadian and it'll beat $200,000 systems according to a couple of high-end salespeople that have come over and listened.

 

[bRnzBzh]

"The grass ain't greener; the wine ain't sweeter, neither side of the hill" Hunter/Garcia

 

[facten]

@bRnzBzh "I plan to upgrade my Sim transport to a Jays very soon, as I believe the Jays will pick up more musical information from the disc"

I have no experience with the Jay's and it may prove to be more musical . However, which output of the Sim are you using? I'm asking because per their direct response to a question I posed to them regarding the 260's outputs I learned that the AES/EBU is the one they optimized. Upon receiving their response I switched to the AES/EBU output versus continuing using the SPDIF, it offered a bump in overall SQ. Might be worth a try to see what you think before making the jump to Jay's.

 

[bRnzBzh]

Thanks for your comments, @facten

I think I put this (by now outdated) post in the wrong place on my first time on this site and now I don't know how to move/delete it ! But to answer your question, I was using the rca/coax , not the xlr. I did end up buying the Jay's as it, to my ears, in my system, offered noticeably better resolution.

BTW, I'm @stuartk on Audiogon

 

[facten]

Thanks for your comments, @facten

I think I put this (by now outdated) post in the wrong place on my first time on this site and now I don't know how to move/delete it ! But to answer your question, I was using the rca/coax , not the xlr. I did end up buying the Jay's as it, to my ears, in my system, offered noticeably better resolution.

BTW, I'm @stuartk on Audiogon

All good, glad you are enjoying the Jays.

 

[bRnzBzh]

All good, glad you are enjoying the Jays.

Yes ; I don't see any reason to spend more, unless I win the lottery.