Not to forget the Audiobarn in Essex. If you don’t mind a bit of travel, it looks like we are well served for dealers not that far out of London.
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It is a whole lot better , Gareth and staff are very pleased. I am very pleased because of ease of parking
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There is also HiFi Cinema in Aldermaston, might be a bit easier to get to from Oxford than Swallowfield. They are Naim and Linn dealer.
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also The Audio Consultants , slightly “quirky” in many ways - but they sold me some good equipment like a Magnum Dynalab
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No, you’re definitely not.
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I think I wandered in there many years ago when I was on a 2 month placement in Oxford. There was definitely less of a buzz around the city when I returned there for a holiday a couple of years ago.
Every business has to start somewhere!
I popped in to Cultured yesterday to see how the new demo room is coming along. Upstairs, a customer was demoing Kudos T606’s & the new room had some ATC Active50se’s which Mike the owner gave me a little listen too. The new room is coming along nicely & I was impressed by the 50’s for sure. They are currently working on acoustic treatments to get the room 100%.
The record store was cool with lots of new & used vinyl & it is shaping up to be a real nice place to spend some time…
We really need to support these kind of places as it’s obviously a tough market out there 
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Very true sadly 
I wish John at Oxford Audio Consultants the very best with his move. Losing Audio T from Headington is a great loss too! I used to enjoy popping in there and to Westwood and Mason on George St (now long gone too) back in the early 80s when at college there.
Northampton, my home town went the same way many years ago. The town centre is just dead and devoid of any good shops. At least Oxford has lots of tourists! 
As for my current and final rural location just north of Leicester, having moved Cymbiosis out of the centre of Leicester (less than 100m from where they dug up Richard III actually) back in late 2014. I have to say it was the best business decision I could have made. No regrets and no looking back. No parking problems and no traffic wardens (the Bain of my life when in the City Centre) No groups of individuals looking to shoplift, Nobody running into the shop to hide from pub fights up the street! We had 6 or 7 pubs on Hotel St! No pavement Pizzas (or worse) to clear up first thing in the morning before opening for business… One other consideration, often missed, is that the quality of life (working time anyway) massively improved for me and my staff. Happy unstressed staff is just so important and just great for everyone!!
Most of our customers who remember out old city location loved it but commented that getting parked and getting to it was quite stressful on occasions for them and they much prefer the ease of visiting now.
Just my personal take on things. but me, my staff and customers have very much benefitted from the move and I would encourage any specialist retailer to consider doing the same.
KR, Peter
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I was sorry to see AudioT Oxford go, it was the excellent Jon Abson who first offered me a Naim (home) demo without in anyway overdoing the sales pitch, just the opportunity to listen.
Yes out of town does disadvantage non car owners but dealers, the good ones, will often offer to pick customers up from rail heads, and in fact one dealer in Leicestershire offers to pick up from East Midlands Airport. Next time I visit I’ll take my private jet rather than the Bentley and take him up on the offer!
I think you’d be unpleasantly surprised as to how many dealers absolutely don’t make such offers.
I visited Oxford Audio Consultants a few times, usually taking the train as it was only a short walk from the station and my nearest station only 5 minutes drive from home.
All very easy and the only time I made a purchase was my NDX2 which they delivered and installed, so parking to collect something wasn’t an issue for me.
Driving into Oxford could take as long as it took me to drive to Cymbiosis north of Leicester!
I wish them well in their new location, there is a lot to be said for an easy to park, out of time shop, as I believe most people on here will drive and have access to a car.
Not necessarily the case at all.
Always find it interesting how many want to see high end audio taken up my new generations but, when it comes down to it…
I did say “most” people on here, but of course there will be and indeed are exceptions.
Indeed, but lots of them. As a nation we’re more unhealthy, disabled, lacking on disposable income than we have been for years. Equally many are so conscious of climate change etc. they simply refuse to learn to drive (not that test slots are available ). That’s easily 25% of your potential customers.
Find it fascinating to read the praise for Audio T here. Have been to probably 5 shops over the years. All had steps to enter. I tripped on 2. Suggested they might consider making a ramp available. Not a chance. How about moving that stuff you’ve crammed in which isn’t actually only display so people can navigate without fear of hurting themselves or knocking stuff flying?
Not a chance.
When our lease in Windsor came to an end in 2022 we made the decision to move to a showroom in Ascot without a shopfront, just like we were when Chris Fuller established Hidden Systems in Hartley Wintney back in 2008.
Having a traditional “hi-fi shop” means employing staff to sit in the showroom all day. If a prospective punter wanders in off the street they might ask how much a few items are before saying they’ll “think about it” and then never come back once they are aware how much “proper hi-fi” costs.
Being open on an appointment only basis means that it is no longer viable for us to sell lower cost brands such as Rega and Sonos, but our core brands – Naim, Linn, Devialet and Kudos – continue to sell well.
We are doing a higher proportion of home demos now - if a customer is investing a decent amount of money on a piece of hi-fi equipment then it is unreasonable to expect them to make a decision based on a listening session in our showroom on one of our systems.
Based on our experience, Oxford Audio Consultants have made the right decision and we wish them all the best.
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