That was not the last time that I was treated badly in a high-end audio store. Now I just don bother to go in them much any more. I want the best gear, but I don want to be treated rudely and I don want to pay full price or sales tax. And I really don have time to spend in a store. I like to read the reviews in the magazines and online, decide what I want, find the best price for it, and order it. And what really important to me is that I get the gear I paid for, it in the condition the seller said it would be in, and if there are any problems with it that the seller takes responsibility and works to get them fixed.

About 6 years ago I began selling on Ebay. My wife made me do it. I would always buy new audio/video toys and just put the old ones in a closet. My wife said since I loved buying stuff on Ebay that I should sell my extra stuff too. It took a while, but eventually she got me to start a few auctions, and it was fun. I met other audiophiles, we talked about crazy gear and all the problems we had getting our gear past our wives, and I really had a blast.

At that time, I earned my living consulting for non-profit organizations and we had just had a baby. Over the next few years my life as a consultant (200 nights a year on the road) ran smack into my life as a dad. When my son was 3 and stood in the driveway crying as I left for another 2-week trip, something broke in me and I just could not keep going. I had to find a new way to earn my living. We live on an organic farm at the edge of a wilderness area 200 miles from the city, so there were not a ton of great jobs close to home.

The High End Zone was born out of this crucible and I thank my wife and son without whom it never would have happened. I am deeply grateful to spend my days in a beautiful place doing something I love and serving a terrific group of clients all over the world. I love it that my son walks over to the office and gets me for lunch. Over the years, Ie developed great contacts with some of the finest manufacturers, dealers and installers. All of them have gear they need to move outside of their normal sales channels and they value working with High End Zone. Sure, the manufacturers would really prefer it that every item they sell goes for full price in a store, but reality is more complicated, and if they need to liquidate something we are a great partner to do that with.

Most of all I am grateful for our customers. I live vicariously through your audio and theater systems. I have so much fun helping people put together their first theaters. My wife was never that big on my 4 audio systems. But when I got our first Runco projector about 5 years ago, everything changed. I came back from a business trip and heard she had 20 people over to watch movies. She was in love with the theater. Friends came up to me and told me how our theater rocked and what a lucky guy I was. Now I allowed to have lots more toys, my wife really appreciates the sound and our life together is enriched by the technology instead of it being something we fight over. I am still much more of an audiophile than a videophile myself. And there are still expensive pieces of gear I want that my wife says NO to, but I guess that is a part of being married and I sure rather have her than all the gear in the world!

Our intention at the High End Zone is to offer you service that is as good or better than you get in a store while saving you money. We can get virtually any piece of gear you might desire. When we started, this business existed only on Ebay. But today I actually spend very little of my time on Ebay. I still strive to answer your questions on Ebay listings within minutes, but most of my time is spent helping clients put together whole theater systems. From Australia to Brazil to Canada to Dubai and across all of Europe, Asia and the Americas we serve a select group of clients who value quality gear and service and know the value of a dollar. Most of our clients are self made men and women who want to save money, but they don want the hassle of dealing with 10 different sellers on Ebay and getting gear that is not exactly as it was described.

Ie found that Ebay is a tremendous market place for the audiophile with lots of toys looking to add more. But for the person who is trying to build a whole theater, especially his first, it very hard to get a great system on Ebay. A system bought piece by piece on Ebay is probably going to give you a lot of headaches and not necessarily work that well. You may save money, but at what cost in terms of hassles and headaches? What the best stores and custom installers do is to analyze your needs, your room, what you watch, what you listen to, and then they help you to put together a system that will meet your needs and your budget. Wee developed ways to do that and save you a lot of money.

I hope wel get the chance to eetyou and to earn your business! Please let us know if there is anything we can do to be of service to you, and thanks for visiting our tore.p> Kind regards, Stef Fuegi, owner of the High End Zone