deal

Buying or selling used hi-fi--before the Internet--was a huge hassle. Expensive classified ads in newspapers and magazines were the only option for individual sellers and buyers; that, or trade your gear in to a hi-fi dealer.

Nowadays you can buy or sell hi-fi and pretty much everything else on eBay, but I've never used it. I've always sold my old gear on AudiogoN, which specializes in high-end audio components, such as preamplifiers, power amps, speakers, CD players, turntables, cables, etc.

If you're looking for great sounding bargains, you'll find plenty on AudiogoN. I saw a vacuum-tube Dynaco FM-3 radio offered for $139; a mint-condition Marantz 2220 stereo receiver for $245; an NAD 7100 receiver for $175; and a Dual 1019 turntable for $250. AudiogoN averages around 11,000 listings at any given time.

High-end gear that originally sold for big bucks is rarely cheap, because good, quality gear, even when it's decades old, retains its value. But even so, AudiogoN is a way to get the good stuff that would otherwise be out of range. I saw a Conrad-Johnson 16 LS vacuum-tube preamplifier that sold new for $8,000 listed for $3,500.

AudiogoN was founded in 1998 and now claims 295,000 registered members. Rates for sellers are just $6 for a classified ad (which runs 30 days); or $6 for an auction, that runs between 3 and 14 days. There's also a one percent surcharge on the sale price. Buyers pay nothing for the service. Best of all, almost everyone reading the listings is an audiophile, which certainly isn't the case for eBay. Here's a link to a mock ad, so you can get an idea of what they look like.

Manufacturers and retailers also advertise and sell gear on AudiogoN, and there's a wide range of active forums for audiophiles of every type. … Read more

The U.S. Department of Justice has begun asking questions about Apple's role in the recent scaling back of special music discounts and promotions at Amazon, according to two high level music industry sources.

The sources said investigators have begun speaking to a number of digital music retailers and top record labels about Apple's response to the "MP3 Daily Deal," an Amazon promotion that involved slashing prices on specific titles and pushing them heavily the day they were released. Amazon sometimes negotiated with the labels to get exclusive access to the music for a day, and … Read more

One way to deal with all of those pesky competitors in the online daily-deals market is to buy them. And likewise, one way to expand overseas is to acquire the European version of yourself.

Both apparently made sense to Groupon, which announced Sunday that it has acquired European-based CityDeal, "the world's largest Groupon clone," as it was described in a press release.

"That means we're operating in 18 countries, 140 cities, and we have over 900 employees in about a dozen offices across two continents," Groupon founder and CEO Andrew Mason, said in a … Read more

"Good enough" audio is the order of the day, but here at The Audiophiliac it's all about great sounding gear, which can get really expensive. Usually, but not always, so here's a Top 10 list of great gear that won't break the bank. Prices run from $8 to $1,995, and seven of the ten are under $650. All are truly exceptional performers, affordably priced. (Just note that these are my personal picks; see CNET's list of best home audio products for the editors' official recommendations.)

Grado SR60i headphones ($79). Grado long ago set the standard for unbelievably great-sounding, full-size budget headphones with the original SR60. The SR60's sound had weight, detail and punch far beyond the capabilities of most under $100 'phones. Jim Austin, over at Stereophile magazine, recently reviewed the SR60i, and he thinks Grado's upgraded design surpasses the original SR60.

Ikea Lack hi-fi component stand ($7.99) It's made of particleboard and ABS plastic, and it comes in a variety of painted colors (and "birch effect"); it's 21.3 inches wide and deep, and 17.75 inches high. Ikea doesn't present the Lack as audio furniture; it's a side table, but audiophiles all over the world have used it to support their prized possessions. Build quality is surprisingly sturdy.

Sony XDR-F1HD HD Radio ($100). I guess most of you don't listen to radio anymore, but if you're lucky enough to still have a great NPR or college station nearby, you gotta hear this radio. Plug it into your computer or hi-fi and it'll sound better than Internet radio by a long shot.

Samsung HT-C6500 home theater in a box system ($649, pictured at top). I've probably reviewed more HTIBs than anybody, but this new Blu-ray Samsung HTIB really stood out from the crowd. First because it doesn't have the feeble, thin sound I associate with the petite speakers that come with most HTIBs. The sound is rich, full, and thanks to the HT-C6500's potent subwoofer, powerful.

Altec Lansing Expressionist Ultra MX6021 PC speaker-subwoofer system ($200). I checked out Altec's mighty PC sound system when David Carnoy was working on his CNET review. Wow, this thing rocks! It's remarkably clean-sounding, and the subwoofer goes really deep, without the boom and bloat so common to computer speaker systems. Face it, you're never going to get great sound out of pipsqueak speakers, the Altec system's subwoofer is 15.8 inches tall by 15.1 inches wide by 10.2 inches deep, and the satellites sport 3-inch midrange drivers and 1-inch neodymium tweeters. It's easily the best sounding $200 speaker/subwoofer package on the planet! … Read more

Every year, compact camera manufacturers announce their latest models in January and February. Many of them are refreshes or replacements of models released in the third quarter of the previous years. That leaves a whole lot of inventory for retailers to get rid of, which translates into potentially big discounts on cameras that are less than a year old.

I've collected up a dozen of these deals worth considering in the slideshow below. Several of them have had $100 knocked off their original prices; one is even marked down $150 (though that still might not be enough to get … Read more

A new arsenal of information technology tools is allowing dealers to welcome Internet-savvy used-car shoppers.

That hasn't always been the case.

Too often, dealers and their used-vehicle sales staffs have dreaded the Web-informed consumer.

Because they have focused their homework on a single vehicle or model, those shoppers can tell the dealers what their competitors are asking for similar vehicles. They know about quality ratings, warranties, and other information.

Dealer salespeople can be at a disadvantage, especially if it's a brand they are not used to selling. For example, a salesperson at a Chevrolet dealership probably knows all about Chevrolet or even General Motors used cars but may not know nearly as much about Chrysler or Honda vehicles.

That's where inventory management vendors such as vAuto, FirstLook, HomeNet Automotive, and DealerTrack come in. They continue to refine software products that put at the reach of a salesperson's fingertips the same or better information than what the Web-surfing buyer has--for as little as $500 per month per store.

VAuto's product lets a dealer pick a radius--say, 50 miles from the store--to see prices that competitors are asking for all similar makes and models of vehicles in their used-vehicle inventories. The dealer then can show the prospective customer that his car is priced at the lower end of the market range or defend a higher asking price than a competitor's on the basis of lower mileage or better condition.

Stephen Zehring, sales manager for the Saturn store at Ingersoll Automotive in Watertown, Conn., said those tools are crucial. He said he likes Web-savvy shoppers because they should be easier to sell to than the uninformed buyer of yesteryear. The new tools allow sales personnel to reassure the shopper that the dealership is offering a fair deal, he said. … Read more

An executive who helped oversee Amazon's music division the past three years is jumping to the company's Kindle unit, but he has a parting message for some in the music sector.

"A few of you have been a total pain in the ass," Scott Ambrose Reilly wrote in a farewell e-mail he sent to colleagues and business associates on Friday, a copy of which was obtained by CNET. "(You) should think about trying to make this business a better place once in awhile. Maybe listen to Elvis' 'If I Can Dream' on your way into … Read more

So let's say you've got an iPhone. And let's say that you don't like it. Let's say you're a person who wants to switch from the iPhone life to the Windows Phone 6.5 life. T-Mobile has a plan to make that happen.

We're not sure how popular this plan is going to be, but we do know that it's legit and it's aggressive: T-Mobile is offering up to a $350 trade-in on iPhones for those who want to get the carrier's own HTC HD2.

The T-Mobile phone regularly sells … Read more

Okay, I give up. I spent all morning digging and searching for a killer deal--then a decent deal-- and finally just a deal that wouldn't get me laughed out of the blogosphere. Know what? Got nothing.

I mean, sure, there's the Epson Stylus 1400 wide-format printer for $149.99, which is a good price--but how many people really need a wide-format printer? (Actually, they're great for cranking out giant photos, custom art, etc.)

And, yeah, I snagged a three-year subscription to Men's Health for $17.97 (with coupon code 3201). But that's hardly headline-worthy.

So … Read more