OnSpeakers.com Editor's Review
MusicDirect.com
05/08/07
The Good
MusicDirect.com has a select inventory of high-end speaker models, headphones and accessories catering to discerning listeners. There is a lot of neat stuff for people whole dig quality in their listening experience.
The Bad
A highly specialized retailer, there are not many lower priced options. With an average cost around $7000, their speaker selection is not for everyone. It’s pretty limited in terms of gear – not a lot of choices.
The Verdict
This is a nice store to find only top quality gear and a good selection of media including SACD, LP, CD and DVD-A. It is very particular in its inventory, however, and unless you’re willing to lay down some serious cash, it might not be the place for you.
MusicDirect.com boasts the slogan It’s the music that matters and their inventory reflects that mantra by selling only high end gear. It’s definitely the place for those music lovers that require only the best possible listening situation for their music. The cheapest speakers that they carry are a $329 dollar pair of mini-speakers and prices range all the way to $65,000 for the space age Avantgarde Duo Primo Loudspeakers. If you happen to have $33,000 to drop and have always wanted a speaker with the tweeter incorporated into the subwoofer cabinet, they do carry Avantgarde’s Duo Grosso speakers. For most of us, however, this stuff is a bit pricey.
For what it is, MusicDirect.com has pretty fair prices for the gear that they are selling, but you can find most of it cheaper at Amazon. They accept Mastercard, Visa, Discover and American Express Cards and have a 100% 30-day money back guarantee on most equipment/accessories (excluding special orders and close-out items). There is a financing plan you can sign up for which offers no interest for 6 months on items $399 and up. They’re based in Chicago and encourage buyers to come to the store and try things out and will gladly custom configure systems to meet the customer’s needs.
Not only a gear dealer, MusicDirect.com also has a large selection of SACDs, LPS and DVD-As to sort through. It’s kind of a nice warehouse for the audiophile aficionado. They even have a lot of choice cables and accessories to optimize your system. If you’re interested in all the cool new products they get in, you can subscribe to their “SoundBytes” newsletter, or contact customer service via email or phone. Hacker safe, the site is easily navigated, but you do have to create an account to even look at your shopping cart so it is mildly cumbersome. Review-like descriptions and zoomable pictures are helpful and specification lists are available.
This is a cool little site for those committed to high fidelity and a good place to go for a sweet super tweeter that will extend the frequency response of normal hi-fi speakers to 100kHz, but you won’t find subwoofer here for less than $700.
