I recently went in to Barrett's to check on their selection of B&W loudspeakers, basically…read moreattempting to convince myself that I really did want to spend the money for a new stereo. I was pretty happy with my experience.
The specific speakers I was looking for were not on display in a listening room, but rather kind of on a display intended to showcase the entire line of B&W gear. Rather than make me stand awkwardly and listen to them, the sales person (Dave) moved them in to a listening room for me. Much better experience, and something he definitely wouldn't have had to do.
Even though I hadn't brought my music that day, Dave ran me through a couple of his recommended demo discs, things that highlighted capabilities, etc. Very enjoyable. When I came back, he basically left me alone for almost two hours while I listened to some of my own CDs. No qualms about just giving me the remotes, and letting me go to town. He checked in periodically to make sure I didn't have questions, but didn't hover and make me feel uncomfortable.
Dave was pretty upfront about being new to the store, having come from a different hi-fi retailer (I think Tweeter, may they rest in peace), so he wasn't bashful about saying "I don't know - let me get you an answer" when confronted with a question he couldn't answer. Much more satisfying that trying to BS me. And overall, he was very knowledgeable, and not snobbish audiophile about the specific music I listened to. No, not all of it is perfect...but it is what's gonna get played. So it's important that it at least sound decent. Additionally, I'm upgrading from a pretty Best Buy class stereo, and I told him I was just looking for speakers. He respected that, and made some recommendations as far as "here's what I would do as my next upgrade" but didn't insist that buying speakers was pointless without a couple thousand dollars worth of new amplifiers to go along with it, which was nice. I mean, maybe it is pointless, but he at least respected that I wasn't going to buy 500W monoblock amps that very instant.
And when it came time to finally plunk down that cash, he didn't try to up-sell me on stuff I didn't want. I'm on the fence about your expensive interconnect and speaker cables. So yes, I'll probably buy some, someday. What I have now is decent, and when I said, "For right now I'll just use what I have," he accepted that without trying to pressure me.
I did end up picking up a used amplifier that had been used as an in store demo piece - and that's where the star got lost. Another sales person tried to convince me to buy two identical amplifiers, and bi-amp/bi-wire my speakers. Yeah, that would have been super sweet, but I wasn't intending to spend the money on an amp that day anyway (only did it because of the amazing price) so I felt that might have been a bit of a money grab..."maybe we can get him to buy *two* amplifiers!!"
But, all in all, I would recommend this as a place to listen. Kind of a limited brand range - I saw B&W and Klipsch speakers only, Marantz, Rotel, Sony, and McIntosh source/amplifiers only. So great for me, since I was pretty limited to B&W and Rotel or Marantz as far as brands I was interested in, but if you're walking in with a blank slate, your options might be a bit limited. Maybe it'd be best to say, Barrett's carries only your popular premium brands, and not the less common boutique brands.
