Best stereo store in Anaheim, California (CA) 2024

Just over ten years ago, I bought a pair of pretty awesome speakers from Scott Walker Audio. Scott coached me through making a pretty big financial decision, gave me time to listen and make decisions at my own pace and then gave me a extremely fair trade-in deal on my existing speakers. At the time Scott told me that while making the sale was important to him, it was more important to him to make me a satisfied customer, which would mean that I would continue to come back over the long haul. And guess what? I’ve kept coming back. Building the right system is an iterative process—you get a new set of speakers, that whets your appetite. How can I leverage that improvement to be even more: A new turntable? A different amp? Better cables? Intended or not, each successive acquisition acts as a kind of prerequisite for the next one. Scott has worked with me to make the best decisions in that 10-year journey. And I’ve never felt pressured or pushed to spend more money than I was comfortable with. Moreover, he provided guidance about finding the best combination for my relatively small space and optimizing my equipment with time spent setting it up and configuring it—sometimes in successive visits after installation. Here’s a good example of how Scott works: I got the itch to replace my (superb) turntable. I had my eye on one that wasn’t all that much better than the one I had. Scott told me I already had a great turntable and would get much more bang for my buck if I replaced my tonearm and upgraded my cartridge. He was right—the improvement in the quality was flat-out astounding. But here’s the thing: Scott made less money off those amazing “tweaks” than he would have by selling me a new turntable. Go figure! The audiophile world can be a jungle. The pressure to upsell is ever-present. And there’s often a kind of snobbery about “lesser” brands that pushes people to make decisions they may later regret—certainly financially, but also picking the wrong equipment for their actual needs or the space they live in. I have never felt that remorse with Scott. He was right 10 years ago: the relationship and trust you build is everything and I can’t recommend him highly enough. ~Alan