Apologies for recalling this incorrectly – apparently my coffee intake was too low this morning. 
Hi Vic,
Welcome to the forum. Interesting speakers and a shame that the dealers were unable to setup a system that presented them well. I think of Richer as very much box shifters, but then Q Acoustics pointed you at them!
I did toy with listening to a pair a few years ago, but decided that they would just be too large for my room; and of course this is another part of the rub in listening to equipment at a dealers, their rooms are usually less than stellar.
Thanks for the feedback.
M
Thank you for the welcome. As you point out the demo room is often poor, but then I have come across them where they are purpose built perfect acoustic spaces which flatter the speakers, making everything sound wonderful. Both are a problem.
However bad the room was in this case I was still very surprised at the sheer lack of bass from a speaker that reputedly produces large amounts of the stuff.
I dont have nearly the decades of experience that many here do, but one thing I’ve learned is that such a speaker audition often is totally useless. What they sound like outside of your room and its own geometry and acoustics, with different electronics, means close to nothing. It could have gone the other way – you could have liked them there, brought them home, and found them awful in your room. Then you’d be chasing the demons for weeks and weeks . . . when all it is is a bad match for your room and electronics.
Can be due to room/speaker acoustics. But a decent dealer should know what their products can do and whether there is an issue. That he tried to tell you all was good may indicate where his heart was.
This is why it is so difficult to buy speakers. Ideally you need to home demo many different pairs, but you can only demo the ones that your dealer has. Other dealers you haven’t traded with are unlikely to lend you anything. Even the dealer who knows you will not want to lend you 20 different pairs over 20 weekends. It’s a problem. This is where reviews come in to play helping to form a short list, but then the reviews can’t always be believed.
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I think Richersounds do a good job of serving their target market: low to mid hifi (by Naim standards), av stuff, recently discontinued models and so on and score well on customer satisfaction. But they are very definitely not the place I would go to for high end hifi and £4k speakers count as high end to me.
On the QAcoustics website they have a section devoted to elite dealers who, it appears, stock only the Concept 500 series. One of these, in Derby, posts here from time to time (I’m trying to avoid transgressing forum rules), so there are dealers around who might be able to put on a proper dem with Naim electronics but you might have to travel a little bit further. My apologies if you tried them.
Having said that, if you have a few £k wanting to be spent, I agree with those suggesting concentrating on upgrading the electronics first.
Roger
It sounds a bit like my experience a few years ago albeit at lower budget. I went to RS to hear the latest Cambridge floorstanders with a BMR. The magazines had all raved about them with similar ‘outperforms anything else’ type stuff. They wired them up to a good quality amp from either Cyrus or Roksan, can’t remember which. Anyway I listened for about 5 minutes and they were awful and I said so to the salesman. He agreed and said the staff at the shop couldn’t understand why they were so highly rated.
We swiftly moved on to other brands including Tannoy and Focal and I settled on the 726’s. The staff were also keen on Focal and I then took them home for a home demo so RS do (did) this.
To add a Naim dimension to the story the 726’s really woke up once I got my NAP160 
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I spoke to the Derby guy and his pair of 500s were on long term demo at someones house. I looked up several ‘elite’ dealers from the Q Acoustics website, one was closing down whilst others didn’t have them to demo anyway. They are a rare and difficult speaker to get to hear. RS’s told me it was because QA didn’t want them to start to be discounted, they wanted the price to remain high. The pair at RS had previously been on demo at another dealer in Nottingham and had only come to RS due to no sales of the 500s at all at the previous dealer.
Difficult one to diagnose, something cabled up wrongly?
Should have sounded great with ‘Tom Sawyer’ which is well produced, and (hard to believe!) 40 years old, recorded in 1980.
As an aside : this thread suggests otherwise re B&W 8 series and Naim 500 reference set-ups
Tom Sawyer is my phone ring tone. I never tire of hearing it. If I could only listen to one track for the rest of my life it would be Tom Sawyer. I have seen Rush every time they came to the UK since 1991. There is a superb Rush tribute band in these parts called Bravado. We go and see them every time they play. I have recently got into Porcupine Tree, as listened to and mentioned in his travel book by the late, great Neil Peart.
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Funny how you go back to records, I didn’t play Moving Pictures for years after buying it early 80s, Hemispheres and 2112 were the albums for me. Have since realised how good Tom Sawyer is again, some killer drumming by Peart as well.
The mystery seems to have been solved. I was in contact today with a very high end dealer, many miles away, who recently had some Concept 500s on demo. His appraisal of them was exactly the same as mine. He said they aren’t very good. He had one customer come in to hear them and they were mightily underwhelmed also. He then played them some similarly priced Spendors, which were miles ahead and the customer bought them instead. They ended offering the 500s at a good discount to move them on.
So to be fair and put the record straight, it was not any fault or failing of Richersounds that the 500s were bad. They were just working with a poor product. Although, they could have told me they weren’t that good and suggested I listen to an alternative.
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On the other hand, more than one person on this forum has happily used budget Q Acoustics speakers along with Naim in smaller systems .
Well yes, I believe the more budget offerings are very good. My nephew has some 3050i’s and they are very good. But just because one model is good doesn’t mean that they all will be good. The dealer I spoke to quite likes the Concept 300s, but says the 500s are not so good. We have to take each model as it comes and rate it on it’s own merits. There is a big difference between what I would expect at £200 a pair and what I would insist on at £4000 a pair.
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Just goes to prove what hi fi reviews aren’t worth the paper they are written on
Indeed, when I worked in the trade we’d have to constantly tell customers that. Punters would walk in with the month’s WFH rolled up under their arm and then just ask whether we had a list of 5 star items and get pissy when we didn’t. We’d have to calmly explain that matching is key and 5 stars means nothing. And on top of that WHF, Hi-Fi News, Hi-Fi Choice etc are not in the hi-fi trade. They are in the journalism trade so please trust your ears and dealer more than the mag and let us show you something in the dem room that sounds fantastic (made up of 3 star components by WHF standards).
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In my view what hi fi don’t really get it wrong. But you are free with disagree.
Could be a number of reasons but anyway speakers are very personal. You didn’t like them no big deal
Happens all the time
Some like me think Dynaudio best speakers
Others disagree. No big deal
System matching is really key !
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