Good Place to Buy Monitors that's NOT Musician's Friend

R

royalt213

New member
I was wondering if anyone knows of any good mailorder places from which I could buy some studio monitors. I'm most concerned about shipping practices, such as how well they pad their boxes and such. Other than that, I'm pretty flexible. I'm really eager to get some monitors. If it makes a difference, I live in Northern California (Chico). Surprisingly, there are two music stores in town and 1 pair of used monitors between them.

Thanks in advance.

A related side note:
I absolutely hate Musician's Friend. They are a bureaucratic nightmare and, amazingly, they don't even outsource for their customer service. Moreover, they have the most ridiculous shipping practices I could imagine for a musical instrument retailer.

I ordered an Ibanez acoustic bass from them about a year ago. When I received it, it was in a box with absolutely no padding...no styrofoam peanuts, no bubble wrap, nothing. Needless to say, the headstock was splintered into about 500 pieces (as I've recently discovered, this is by no means a rare occurrence). Naturally, I sent it back to them to get a new one. They were pretty prompt at sending me a new one. The only problem was that they didn't send me an acoustic bass, they sent me a Dean From Hell. I mean, it's an understandable mistake. It looks extremely similar to an Ibanez acoustic bass and has the same dimensions. Pff. So I had to return that one as well. Except that they had charged me an extra $130 for the hardshell case to the Dean From Hell, which I never even fucking ordered. So I had to get a refund from that. By the time they were going to attempt to send me the right instrument again, they were backordered for 6 months. And last but not least, they only finally refunded the $130 for the hardshell case about 2 months ago. I probably spent over 6 hours (collectively) on customer service with them, with absolutely no coordination within their departments. They didn't do anything to mollify my anger at this ridiculous situation. You'd think they'd at least offer me some kind of discount or give me a gift card for all this crap.

So, if you haven't guessed, Musician's Friend is out of the question (especially for anything sensitive [i.e. monitors] that I'm ordering). I didn't mean to go off on that tangent, but I'm still a bit irate. I guess this can serve as a disclaimer to potential customers on here, as well.
 
i always recommend Sweetwater whenever possible. The best customer service for mail order stuff. Free shipping, too.
 
Chili said:
i always recommend Sweetwater whenever possible. The best customer service for mail order stuff. Free shipping, too.
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I second the recommendation for Sweetwater. A majority chunk of my gear - including my monitors - came from there. Their custy and tech support were fabulous (my sales rep at the time was Nika Aldrich, who has since gone on to become famous as an author who wrote one of the more famous and popular books on digital audio.)

As far as packing, I have never had an issue with them in that regard. I don't recall a lot of details, but I never remember thinking at any time that I had any concern with the way they did it.

G.
 
I am overall happier with Sam Ash than Guitarget, but have not had a guitar shipped to me from SA.
 
royalt213 said:
Are they pretty good on shipping their stuff? Like, good padding and whatnot?
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I agree with Glen, nothing ever came that would make think they didn't pack it right. But, if there is a problem during shipping, they will take care of it promptly. That is why I will always go to Sweetwater.
 
Buying monitors

THE WAITING PAYED OFF....I LUCKED OUT AT GUITAR CENTER LAST YEAR. I WENT IN TO BUY $400 PAIR OF POWERED REFERENCE MONITORS...HA HA. I COULD ONLY BUY ONE FOR THAT MONEY. SO I LOOKED AROUND FOR A DISCOUNT RACK...AND BEHOLD A SINGLE DISCONTINUED KRK V6 SERIES 2 WITH A DENTED DUST COVER WAS LOOMING LARGE...LIST PRICE (which don't mean a thing) WAS $699. PER MONITOR, THEY SELL IT FOR $400 I THINK, AND IT WAS PRICED "AS IS" FOR $135. SO I BUDDIED UP TO THE DUDE AT THE COUNTER, KNOWING THESE THINGS COME IN PAIRS, AND ASKED HIM TO LOOK UP ON THE COMPUTER IF IT SHOWS A MATE IN STOCK. SHAZZAM! THEY HAD ONE BUT DIDN'T KNOW WHERE IT WAS....I SAID I'D SHOP FOR A WHILE WHILE HE LOOKED FOR IT AND LATER ON THAT DAY I WAS TAKING HOME A PAIR OF KRK ENTRY LEVEL ,POWERED, REFERENCE MONITORS BOTH WITH DENTED DUST COVERS IN PERFECT WORKING ORDER FOR $270 plus TN tax. MY ADVICE IS PATIENCE...I LEARNED THIS FROM MY TIGHTWAD WIFE, WHO WHEN SHE HEARD HOW MUCH I WAS SAVING HAD NO QUALMS ABOUT MY PURCHASE. GOOD LUCK....ps: buy powered not passive
 
zzounds.com has excellent customer service, imo. Fast shipping (I always get my stuff in 2 days even with regular ground), and good payment plan options.
 
sweetwater ftw

I will ditto Sweetwater. I've done Musicians Friend, and had an ok experience, no problems. Decided to do sweetwater, because of a discount I get through a contact at a College, they blew me away. Not only did my monitors come adequately shipped (styrofoam, and packin nuts), I also recieved a huge catalogue with enough eye candy to stimulate my economy, and some laughy taffy to boot. I believe I also recieved a phone call confirming my reception and happyness. Not to mention they actually use sales reps that know there stuff (MF doesnt even advertise reps). Its all very personal.
James
 
Surprise Sales ROCK!

gtrman423 said:
THE WAITING PAYED OFF....I LUCKED OUT AT GUITAR CENTER LAST YEAR. I WENT IN TO BUY $400 PAIR OF POWERED REFERENCE MONITORS...HA HA. I COULD ONLY BUY ONE FOR THAT MONEY. SO I LOOKED AROUND FOR A DISCOUNT RACK...AND BEHOLD A SINGLE DISCONTINUED KRK V6 SERIES 2 WITH A DENTED DUST COVER WAS LOOMING LARGE...LIST PRICE (which don't mean a thing) WAS $699. PER MONITOR, THEY SELL IT FOR $400 I THINK, AND IT WAS PRICED "AS IS" FOR $135.
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I landed a Blue Sky Sub i'd been drooling over for a year the same way, the packaging had been damaged, the sub was fine, they just threw it on the floor with the AS IS sticker on it as well for 1/4 of the price. Sometimes it helps to stalk a retail location, you can stumble across some amazing deals. :D
 
Sweetwater !!!!! I just love getting those big fat catalogs !!!!! I spend days drooling over all the stuff I need. Plus it helps they have the best customer service bar none.
 
I don't know if you're still on the hunt for monitors...or what kind you're looking for if you are, but I've got a pair of Alesis M1 620's that I'm getting rid of - $300 shipped in the lower 48, and I'll pack the crap out of 'em for ya.
 
Ironklad Audio said:
I don't know if you're still on the hunt for monitors...or what kind you're looking for if you are, but I've got a pair of Alesis M1 620's that I'm getting rid of - $300 shipped in the lower 48, and I'll pack the crap out of 'em for ya.
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Ahhh, I might have went with that, but I just ordered some Rokit 6 G2s this morning. I might hit you up if I have to return these for some reason.
 
I have had good dealings with Sweetwater, Vintage King, Sonic Circus, Front End Audio, and audiomidi. What I mean by good service is not just that things were timely and proper, but that the sales people I dealt with were knowledgable, seemed trustworthy, and were able to answer questions and most importantly, when they couldn't answer a question they didn't try to, but pointed me in the direction of someone who could. This is something that is very rare at Guitar Center and places like that. Why the Guitar Center guys seem to think that answering a question is getting on the same internet that I have and reading verbatim off of a pdf file is beyond me.
 
Just a quick story, even though I already put in my vote for Sweetwater. When I was orderming much of my project studio gear from there (this was back about '98 or '99) when we got to the cabling, I had included some inexpensive cables as part of my patch bay cable group. Nika (my rep) recommend some higher quality cables. So here's what he volunteered - with no prodding from me whatsoever; he sent me the cables I ordered, but he also sent me a set of the higher-quality, higher-priced cables and didn't charge me a dime extra for them. He just wanted me to try out both cable types for myself, confident that "the next time" I'd go with the better cables.

Granted, he was already making plenty of money off of me in the couple of thousands of dollars I was spending on everything else (though we did cut a quantity pricing deal that I was happy with already), and could easily afford a few bucks gratis on the deal, but the deal was already set and and he had no need to throw in any extra anything.

And now Sweetwater is getting paid back by this endorsement, which will probably make them a lot more money now than those cables cost them a decade ago. It's that kind of smart, win-win service that separates the men from the boys, IMHO.

G.
 
yeah sweetwater know their stuff, music/soundwise, and professional-wise. they aim to impress.

crouse kimsey @ www.proaudio.com are good too. they are my local dealer and they get me taken care of with lots of pro gear. they mostly deal with broadcast radio type customers.

soundproductions is good for new and used ultra pro gear. they mostly deal in road worthy type gear. they sell to a lot of rental houses.
 
Support your Local Music Stores

A great place to buy monitors is from your local music store. They can order factory direct normally and are usually willing to match or beat any price you get online. Then you'll have local support too if something goes wrong.
 
I personally have had great success with MF. To each their own. Some people hate ebay, others love it. I'll second sweetwater; I also have had good luck with american musical supply. I didn't read this whole thread so maybe they were mentioned before. I've also had good luck with Guitar Center, even though technically I think they own Musician's Friend if memory serves.
 
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