$3,200 Grant Fidelity CD-1000 Impression II Tube CD Player

This listing is for a very gently used $3,200 Grant Fidelity CD-1000 Impression II with upgraded tubes that have only 100 hours on them (10,000 hours is the expected life!) This is one of the most beautiful components you can buy for your system and is very reasonably priced at $2,000. This player outperformed our reference $6,000 player in the testing we did here. It weighs 50 pounds so I had to have my strapping 14 year old move it around for me. The Grant CD 1000 is pictured here on a Synergistic Research Tranquility Base which is not included in the sale but our client does have extras and will be parting with them soon. It's hard to see the CD player's display at the angle in this photo but it's perfectly visible in person and some of the other pictures below show it a lot better. This one captures more of the cool "spaceship" look of the overall player.

The Grant Fidelity CD 1000 is a massively built tubed CD player / transport with a separate tube headphone amplifier using a unique design to isolate different parts of the unit in physically separate pods contained in the 4 legs. The way this product works is you can run it one of 4 ways: 1) you can use it as a transport and output digitally over coaxial S/PDIF with RCA type connector; optical with Toslink cable; or AES/EBU with XLR type connector. 2) you can use it as a CD player one of 3 ways: A) as a transistor output CD player it has both single ended RCA and balanced XLR connections to a preamp. B) As a tubed CD player. The right frontpod houses an RCA7335 output stage with single ended RCA connections and an incredibly sweet sound which again connects to a preamp. C) As a tubed headphone amp. The left front pod houses an EL84 tube headphone output with an independent volume control. When you plug in headphones, the headphone amp automatically comes on. The solid state outputs are always on. The main tubed outputs must be turned on from a button on the remote. So it doesn't waste tube life by burning tubes that you don't need for whatever you are doing in that moment, you only use the tubes when you want to actually listen to them and even then you only use those appropriate to that specific purpose. It's a superbly well thought out design.

This player has been very lightly used. My customer bought it because he felt like he should have a CD player and because he knows I like to play test CD's when I am there and he has friends come to demo the system who bring CD's to listen to. For himself he almost never plays CD's, his Walker turntable is his baby. He's friends with Mr. Walker and just loves that table. I can't say I blame him. This CD player is 3 years old but only has a couple of hundred hours of use on it TOTAL, the tubes for the headphone stage have less than 3 hours use for testing only, and the tubes in the main output are an upgraded set of Japanese tubes he put in which made it sound even quite a bit nicer. Those have about 100 hours on them so they are like new. They are a tube he got from Japan, I was not involved in that purchase and don't know the full story on them but I know he felt they made a big difference to the sound over what came in it stock.

Looking at this product and seeing the weight and beauty of it and then seeing the $3,200 retail price tag I know this has some people thinking "is this a typo?" because this seems to be too good to be true. And it's even more impressive in person, believe me. This thing is gorgeous and built like a tank. So how is it possible that you can get so many features, such build quality, such beauty and we'll talk more about the sound quality below, for this price? The answer, in a word, is China. Now I know China has gotten a bad rap among a lot of audiophiles. Even though parts of everything that we use are made there and even though most of us use Apple devices made there which are consistently rated among the highest build quality consumer devices. But we don't want to buy Chinese made audiophile gear. And there are lots of reasons for that, some good, and some bad. But the folks at Grant Fidelity, Ian and Rachel, built a much loved and respected brand by working with the best audio companies in China, utilizing the cost saving advantages they enjoy, to make products of a quality that customers and reviewers around the world love. Sadly, Ian passed away last year. Our hearts and prayers go out to his friends and family. His founding business partner Rachel is still carrying on and running the company and I understand that everything is going along well with products and service available as usual. So this product can still be supported but it's no longer being made.

The underlying player that it was based on, the Jungson Impression II, I believe is still a current product for Jungson in China. But the Grant CD 1000 is not just a rebadge, they use different parts and build to different tolerances for the market that Grant Fidelity serves. So just as you can buy an Oppo for $500 and then spend $4,000 having Modwright upgrade it, you could buy the Grant CD 1000 and it would be comparable in the sense that it's an upgraded player but the difference comes in with the value proposition because they get a better deal having the manufacturer upgrade them in bulk than what you can get buying a single Oppo and taking it to another company to mod 1 by 1. That's not to say the Oppo isn't a good player or that the Modwright mods aren't good, I've owned them and have respect for them. It's just a different approach.

I think China has gotten a bad rap and that it's often unfair. A lot of the time the Chinese go out of their way to buy "American" products that are actually made in China, they are just badged by an American company and in some cases actually shipped to the US then shipped back to China for sale. What a waste! I have owned and listened to high quality tubed audio gear from China for over a decade. You would not believe the compliments I get on some of this gear. People think I paid so much for it than I actually did too, because they are used to a standard of prices based on American or European costs. My Chinese gear stands out for its sonic and visual beauty and yet it costs a tiny fraction of what gear of the same quality would cost if made in the US, never mind if made in Germany or Switzerland. Now I was born in Germany of Swiss family so I really love products made in those countries. But I also do realize that this quality is coming with a price. Is it worth it? Well, it depends. For some things, like my car where I trust the safety of my family to it, yes, I think so. But do I really need to pay an extra 3 or 5 or 10 times as much to have an amplifier or CD player from there? Myself, I usually say no. For you, that is for you to decide. You might have a lot more money than I do and if you love music and the gear to reproduce it in the home maybe you want to buy a $30,000 Ypsilon phono stage like the owner of this Grant CD 1000 just dd. If so, then please call me today to order one! He is also contemplating buying a set of Ypsilon Ultimate Set 100 monoblocks, $125,000 for 2 100W amps. Those amps sound better than anything I ever heard before, they are just mind blowing. I will take them over any amp ever made at any price, the sweetness that they bring out is just absolutely without compare. But the price is also quite high. I can get 3-5 cars for that. Even BMW's if I stick to cheap ones. A lot of the gear from China is the best value for your audio dollar. But then a lot of it is really bad too. I have bought some stuff that sounded very bad, stuff the knobs broke off in my hand right away and other problems. So the trouble is how do you tell which is what? And that is why it is so helpful to have a company like Grant Fidelity, based in Alberta, Canada that serves like a bridge between the Chinese manufactures and the Western customers.

They have 10 years experience buying products direct from the factories in China, they closely inspect and monitor the factories they use, and they help you get the best gear for the best values. Most of the gear they can tell right away is not of the quality that we want. But they find the gems and they import them over here for very good values. Here is what they say on their site: "How does Grant Fidelity provide you value? - it's as simple as FACTORY DIRECT."

"Typical imported products go through factory, importer, distributor, retailer then to consumer's hands. Our products come directly from factory to your door to cut out all the middlemen cost."

So that's how this player is $3,200 retail and not the $10,000 retail that you'd expect if it carried the name of a well known US company or $15,000 retail for a top European outfit. There's no middlemen making a cut, and the labor costs to build in the first place are lower. Since these are not made anymore they have become a sought after rarity on sites like Audiogon. Especially ones in great shape like this. This one has been used very little. The owner really just listens to vinyl. He has a Lloyd Walker Black Diamond V turntable, a Clearaudio Goldfinger cartridge, the aforementioned Ypsilon phono stage, etc. The cables that his phono stage are hooked up with are the $6,600 each Stage III Analord Master Phono and there are 2 of them. So this CD player is really not a big cost center in his system. But he has tried a lot of gear and he really liked this player and I have spent a lot of time listening to this one and I agree. In fact, this is among my favorite CD players of all time. My only beef with it is that I usually prefer to use XLR cabling but the tubed output on this player sounds so sweet I really prefer it, and that the tubed output is single ended only. That's the only fault I have with this. Otherwise I would say it's just short of a DCS stack or a Meissner rig. I prefer it to Esoterics that cost more, although I do like those for what they are.

Now, I should say this this player is ESPECIALLY great for those like me who for one reason or another have to use solid state power amps but who crave more of the sweet musical love that tubes bring to their systems. This is a very easy way to inject that into your system. The only other issue is that the top loading nature forces you to put it on top. I prefer top loaders anyway because I feel they are kinder to my discs and because it has the magnapuck which I think adds to the sound quality vs. a slot loader. But if you have a turntable on top of a single rack I recognize a top loading CD player can force you into difficulties. So think if you have a good place to put this.

This player sounded great when I tried it with a Blacknote DAC30 tubed DAC hooked up using a Verastarr Silver Signature AES / EBU cable. That said, I doubt many people would buy this player then pair it with a $5,000 DAC like the Blacknote, though granted that will sell for a lot less I'm sure. The only reason I did is because I needed to fully test all the outputs of the CD player and I had this DAC here to sell and need to test it, it will be for sale in a separate listing shortly. Blacknote isn't a very well known company in the US though it is in Europe. It's a actually a sub brand of Gold Note. For some reason they brand their analog gear as Gold Note and the digital gear as Black Note or something like that. But I digress as usual... One of our customers who buys a lot of Synergistic Research gear from us bought himself one of the fantastic top of the line 3 piece MSB DAC's. That's a stellar piece of gear for the digital connoisseur. I owned an older MSB DAC and even that was top notch. So he no longer had any need of this Blacknote and sent it to us to sell and that caused me to hook it up to the Grant and start playing with it. And while the Grant's tube output stage sounds absolutely wonderful as I mentioned above, my one complaint with the Grant is that if I use the tube output stage I have to use single ended cables. It sounds wonderful that way, thats its strong suit, so I really shouldn't complain, but I come from a pro audio background doing sound for bands and I just can't get that happy about using RCA's for whatever reason. If I use the digital AES/EBU output from the Grant over to the Blacknote then I get the benefits of the DAC having the balanced outputs that I prefer. It's not a huge difference, but I guess that part of what makes us audiophiles is that we care about even small differences. If you'd like to know more info about this DAC, it will be up for sale soon, or feel free to call or email us for additional info right now. Back to the Grant CD 1000...

The bright blue lights are cool, but they can be turned off by a button on the remote or on the player if you listen in the dark and they become a distraction. Speaking of the remote, it's one of the most luscious remotes I've used. It fits my hand perfectly, it's heavy metal without being ridiculous. It's very easy to use. The buttons are not backlit so if you listen in the dark then it might challenge you for a few days til you learn where everything is but after that it's great and actually preferable I think not to have any distractive lights on it and just to work by feel. At least for me. It's funny, we are also selling a $13,000 Audio Research Reference 2 SE Phono Stage for this same client and at first I was confused and thought the remote from the Grant was for the AR. Why? Because the Grant remote is nicer and the AR costs more than 4 times as much so I was thinking it should have the nicer remote. Wrong! Actually the Grant one is nicer. The AR one is fine, and the AR phonostage is quite remarkable for giving you access to all their variable cartridge loading, selectable RIAA and so on right from the remote. So it's fine. But this one, this is one is luscious, it feels so good in your hand you don't want to put it down, like a talisman or a jewel or something.

This Grant Fidelity CD 1000 and all of this client's gear, has been carefully used in not only a dedicated room but actually a dedicated building that the owner had built to house his beautiful system. We're rating it 8 of 10 since it's used gear but there are no visible or known flaws of any kind. I know some people would rate this higher but we feel the Audiogon Grading Scale works best when it is used conservatively and that it's best to under promise and over deliver. He treats his gear with as much care as I have ever seen from any owner. It's not played loud for parties or anything like many people's systems are, this is just one audiophile's retreat from the world where he goes and carefully pulls out a record, cleans it with his Audio Desk record cleaner and plays it on his Lloyd Walker Black Diamond V turntable. Almost all of the cables in the system are Synergistic Research Element CTS grade with a few massive Stage III Leviathan's and some German HB PowerSlave Marble power strips thrown in for good measure.

The owner of this Grant CD 1000 just purchased a Ypsilon VPS100 phono stage from us. As a part of the changes he's making to his system, he now needs 2 less of the wonderful Synergistic Research Tranquility Bases in the system. These are an absolutely transformative component that pulls noise out of the air. I cannot begin to explain how they work, but they sure do. The Grant is pictured sitting on one and it has been used on one for years now but that does not come with it, that would be a separate item if you wanted it. So let us know if you want to grab one of those, even one Tranquility Base in your system will make a fantastic difference. Our client will have 2 available and of course we can always get you as many new ones as you want. We're also happy to get you any of the Ypsilon stuff. That stuff is just incredible. We just auditioned a full Ypsilon system with their $125,000 Ypsilon Set 100 Ultimate monoblocks and it was without question the best reference system I've ever heard anywhere at any price. I knew the Ypsilon was something special when I heard that they don't give any of their stuff to reviewers, reviewers have to pay for it, just a bit less than our customers pay. Of course reviewers can get a lot of gear for free or nearly free from other brands so when they pay tens of thousands of dollars of their own money for a piece like the Ypsilon VPS100 it really makes you stand up and take notice. Michael Fremer purchased one which he has raved about (which you can check out here) and one of the reviewers at Absolute Sound bought the whole set of Ypsilon electronics including those $125K SET Mono blocks for himself. But I digress as usual...

In the picture above you can see the system this came out of, in a previous incarnation. Since then we sold the Aesthetix Callisto Signature (thanks Mark) and the Aesthetix phono stage has also been sold. The Audio Research Reference 2 SE Phono Stage is also for sale in a separate Audiogon listing. So now he's using the Ypsilon VPS100 as mentioned above with his beloved Lloyd Walker Black Diamond V turntable. As you can see in the next photo he has a unique $165,000 pair of Scaena 1.2 loudspeakers driven by the Lamm Reference M 1.2 hybrid power amps. We sold him these speakers in late 2013 and ever since then we've been working with him to better match the incredibly revealing speakers and the ultimately musical Walker Black Diamond V table with the other pieces in the system. It keeps evolving and as it does High End Zone is proud to have the opportunity to offer other audiophiles the chance to pick up a piece of this glorious system for their own homes.

This particular pair of Scaena Master Reference speakers were in the late Harry Pearson's famous demo room on Long Island where they were his reference pair of speakers for 8 years through various upgrades and despite the fact that all the other manufacturers were trying to get Harry Pearson to take out the Scaenas and put in a pair of their best speakers. After the speakers left Harry's they were upgraded yet again and installed into our client's system in the Fall of 2013, just before Mr. Pearson passed away. I still can't believe that we sold his speakers right before he passed away. What a great man. He gave so much to all of us and to our hobby. Our prayers are with his family.

The Grant Fidelity CD-1000 was reviewed by Stereo Mojo's Clark Hertz.

The review is thorough and concludes by saying that: "The Grant Fidelity CD-1000 is an amazing package for the money. It looks like a statement product instead of a boring box and is well constructed and laid out. It pushes all of the audiophile's buttons in sound staging, clarity and most of all, tour de force dynamics and bass control. I have never heard a CD Player make such an incredible difference to a system by controlling the bottom end like this one does. If you are dissatisfied with the bass control of your system give the Grant Fidelity CD-1000 a try before changing out your speakers or amp. ...... As I said, faster and better processors plus the extreme attention to isolated circuits = better playback. For me, the most obvious example is the low end. It may be something else for you."

Jungson had the following to say about this CDT:

"JungSon has pulled together its cutting-edge audio technology and experience into the Impression II, a high-end, top loading, solid-state/valve hybrid CD player.

The Impression II can upgrade CD signal formats from 44.1 kHz/16 bit to192 kHz/24 bit. Therefore, users can select three sampling rates, the 44.1 kHz, 96 kHz and 194 kHz, according to their music taste. With multiple analog and digital audio outputs, the player can work with various amplifiers and other equipment for listening or recording.

To ensure the sound purity, the Impression II's circuit boards and power suppliers are located in five completely isolated aluminum alloy chambers to minimize the internal electronic interference.

The solid aluminum alloy body with a triple chromed stainless steel top panel not only provides an elegant look for the Impression II, but also efficiently diminishes internal vibrations.

For valve lovers, the Impression II provides two separated valve outputs, one for your amplifier and the other for your headphone."

Grant Fidelity provided the following information: "This item is manufactured by Jungson Audio in China - some similar players sold under Jungson brand uses different grade of parts. This one is branded as Grant Fidelity with our confirmed highest grade parts and not to be confused with grey market items.

Features:

Completely separated left and right channel with 2x BB PCM1794 D/A converting IC chip and 10x OPA2604 / OPA 604 for IV converting and low pass filtering.

Sanyo DA11VZ CD drive and Nikon high grade capacitors as key components

TOSHIBA-TA2125AF, TOSHIBA-2157F, TOSHIBA-TC94A14F as servo system

1 set of Vacuum tube (EH 6922) unbalanced output, 1 set of transistor unbalanced output, plus 1 set of transistor fully balanced output at your choice

Other outputs include: digital coaxial, optical, AES/EBU and tube (EL84) headphone output

Defeatable up-sampling with 3 optional frequencies: 44.1 kHz/16 bit, 96 kHz/24 bit and 192 kHz/24 bit

Anti-vibration isolated aluminum chassis for 5 key components

Manual top loading and remote control

Specifications:

Frequency Response: 2Hz to 20kHz

Dynamic Range: 100dB

Rated Output: 2V

S/N ratio: 95 dB

Size: 430mm(L) X350mm(W)X 178mm(H)

Net weight: 23kg"

As mentioned above, the owner of this Grant CD-1000 also has 2 extra Synergistic Research Tranquility Bases, so let us know through email at [email protected] or by phone at 575.535.2280 if you want to grab one of those from him. We can't list those on Audiogon since they are a current SR product. Even one Tranquility Base in your system will make a fantastic difference. He has 2 available and of course we can always get you as many new ones as you want.

We have disabled the "Buy it Now" button on Audiogon because we had a whole run of people 2 years ago who agreed to buy then didn't pay. We prefer to do business the old fashioned way where we exchange emails like gentlemen and conduct a smooth and safe transaction for all parties. Because we don't own this we cannot take much less than the asking price for it. If you make us a low offer there is no way I am going to go to this gentleman and tell him that I have a low offer, that so and so really wants it but his wife won't let him spend more than X amount for it. I'll just ignore the lowball offer and wait til a better one comes in. However, if you want to buy this together with some other items, as part of a package deal, then that would be something we can discuss. Just let me know what items you want.

If you are the one who decides to purchase this item, thank you and enjoy! Our full store policies are included below the pictures, but for now I would like to let you know about a few of them. For payment, we are happy to accept a cashier's check, a bank wire or PayPal. If PayPal is your preferred payment method then please add the following percentage of your purchase and shipping price to your total to cover the PayPal fees: 3% for domestic buyers or 4% for international buyers. Also, since this is a consignment sale where the equipment does not belong to us but to our customer, we need to ask that the buyer promptly inspect and test the item upon receipt and report any problems found so that if there is a problem found we could withhold funds from paying our customer to deal with the problem. We don't think there will be any problem, but once we have paid him we won't have any recourse if any problem is found. So, please take the time to unpack and test as soon after the equipment arrives as possible. Our policy states that we will hear from you within 10 days of receipt if any discrepancy is found. However, what we really want is to receive your email saying how much this enhances your listening experience right away, just as soon as possible so that we know you are satisfied. But if there is any problem at all then we want to hear about that right away as well, so that we can make it right for you and make this a successful transaction for all concerned!

Also, because we're selling this for a client and have to give him the cash for it, we're not going to take trades unless you make us some trade offer that we consider to be so far in our favor that we can't resist putting in our own money to buy your gear. An exception to this that we would be willing to consider would be that if you want to buy this AND some other items that we sell then we'll try and make you a package deal for all of it. Since this is not ours we cannot discount it much, but we can give you an extra discount on other items we sell to make you a package deal. So if you want some Lansche speakers or Ypsilon amps or any of the many other things we sell, which are listed below, then please email us about it.

We would be happy to sell your gear on consignment if that would help you to purchase this or other items from the High End Zone. In some cases we might sell your gear on consignment even if you don't want to buy more gear from us, if the gear is very nice. Our most successful customers are very busy folks and we understand that if they spend hours answering questions from Audiogoners, that is thousands of dollars that they lost in terms of what they could have earned with that time. We do have some restrictions as to what we can sell because of the manufacturer rules about online sales and so on, but we do our best to help. We can arrange to have the gear picked up from your home or office, or in some cases we can even have someone come in and pack it for you. Then we will handle all the testing, photography, sales of the item and follow up after the sale. Since many people prefer to buy from a dealer and because we have 12 years of perfect feedback on Audiogon and Ebay with no neutrals or negatives ever we can usually get more for your items than you could get yourself. Depending on the exact item, you may net as much or even slightly more having us sell it. And once you factor in the value of your time, it's a clear savings to let us sell the gear for you. So let us know if we can be of service to you in that area.

This Grant Fidelity CD-1000 is in excellent condition and has been well cared for. The finish is free from any noticeable scratches or flaws.

This listing includes the CD-1000, tubes installed, along with the original power cord, remote, CD puck, a printed manual, and will be shipped in the original boxes. The item as sold does NOT include the Synergistic Research Tranquility Base that is shown underneath it. Those are a $2,000 retail current model tweak and our customer is willing to sell the buyer of the CD player the one it has long sat on provided it's not been sold to someone else first.

Here you will see each side in general and close up.

And now, a picture and a little bit about the tubes:

The main amplifier tubes are the RCA 7335 tubes which the owner believes made a quality improvement over the stock 6922EH. The headphone tubes are the stock EL84EH tubes and were never used, except during our testing. The RCA 7335 tubes were used for approximately 100 hours. The Grant CD-1000 was run for a total of about 300 hours. The manual says that "The supplied tubes will last around 10,000 hours if operated in normal condition switching on and off a few times a day. There is no need to warm up the CD-1000 for long periods or always on. It will be ready for audiophile listening after 30 minutes of warm-up and sounds fine for background music after the 20 second pre-heat delay on power up."

The Grant Fidelity CD-1000 will not only ship in it's original double box with form fitted foam, but also in a third box for added protection.

Here is the shipping info for the
$3,200 Grant Fidelity CD-1000

1 box

24 inches long X 24 inches wide X 21 inches high

Total Weight: 53 lbs

Origin: We ship from Gila, NM 88038 / USA

Please email us at [email protected] if you are sincerely interested in purchasing this and have any questions. We may also be contacted by phone at 575.535.2280.

Thank you for your interest and good luck biding.

Welcome to the home of High End Zone!

Thanks for looking at our listing.

Please check our perfect feedback from years of trading on Audiogon and buy with confidence. We have sold gear all over the world, to every continent except Antarctica and hopefully one of those scientists there will order from us soon!

We offer professional packing, prompt shipping with tracking info sent to you and a high level of customer service and support. We provide guaranteed quality and service. We think we are the perfect service for the customer who wants great savings but does not have time for all the hassle of putting together a system with pieces obtained from many different sellers. We offer one stop shopping for all your high-end needs.

The High End Zone, is a full service audio and home theater dealer offering superb gear at substantial discounts. That's our demo theater above, loaded with the gear that I love and the same gear that we love to sell, Runco, Revel, JL Audio, McIntosh, Anthem, Lexicon and more.

The High End Zone is all about listening to good music, talking to clients around the world by email, and helping people get the most joy out of the time and money they invest in their high-end audio and theater hobbies. If you're a successful individual, you and your family should be able to enjoy beautiful music and video in your home affordably, and the buying process should be fun, not a chore. We're dedicated to that and I hope we get the chance to sell you something that you and your family can enjoy together for a long time in good health, just as my family and I enjoy our several high-end audio and video systems!

Thank you for your interest, please do not hesitate to email us with your questions at [email protected] or give us a call at 575.535.2280.

The Fine Print:

We accept payment by PayPal, wire transfers from anywhere in the world and cashier's checks drawn on US banks. We will also accept escrow if the buyer pays the fee.

If PayPal is your preferred payment method, then please add the following percentage of your purchase and shipping price to your total to cover the PayPal fees: 3% for domestic buyers and 4% for International buyers. If you pay by PayPal then your purchase must be shipped to the PayPal shipping address only, per PayPal's rules.

We may accept a personal check from long-standing Audiogon members, but it does delay shipping for clearance. Please ask before paying that way. If you desire to pay by some other means you do not see here then please email us, we will try to accommodate you if we can.

Our items are guaranteed to work properly and be in the condition we describe. If we make a mistake, if an item does not work properly, or if the item description is inaccurate, we'll offer you a full and prompt refund or exchange and issue return shipping labels at our expense.

Please check your purchases promptly upon arrival. In general, our policy is that any flaw, damage, missing item, incorrect item, etc. must be reported to High End Zone by email no later than 3 days (72 hours) after that item is delivered. If you are not able to check the item yourself in that time frame, please make the necessary arrangements to have someone else make such a check for you in your absence.

This listing is for a consignment item, please read the listing and be informed that this sale will be sealed and complete 30 days after you receive the item in the guaranteed condition, which means that we need to hear from you absolutely no later than 10 days of receipt if any discrepancy is found. We will do our best to remedy any situation that arises, while taking care of all parties involved, which includes you.

In rare cases we have allowed a return to happen for a 20% restocking fee but we will not be able to do this for our consignment items after 30 days. Any item that is returned to us due to any reason other than the item not working properly or not in the condition we describe, the buyer will be charged a 20% restocking fee. This includes sales where the buyer "changes his mind", where his wife beats him over the head for spending too much money, where some unforeseen crisis, financial or otherwise, strikes the buyer, his family, his friends/ business/ job/ pets/ favorite sports team/ etc. or any other reason that the buyer may seek to cancel the sale or return the item for some reason other than a mistake or discrepancy on the High End Zone's part. And this includes cases where the buyer changes his mind and wants to cancel the sale before he even receives the item, possibly before we even ship it. We are a small company and the moment a buyer commits to purchase one of our items we are redeploying our capital to get other items for our customers to buy. If you decide 2 hours after you buy something that you don't want it anymore, chances are we've already spent the money to restock. So the restocking fee absolutely applies in all cases of buyers changing their minds, wanting to cancel a sale after it is agreed or returning an item for any reason other than High End Zone providing a flawed or incorrect item.

We can sometimes make an exception if you change your mind in order to buy something else that we can sell you, generally a higher model. For example, if you make a deal to buy a JL f113 from us and then you decide that what you REALLY want is a Gotham g213, then we can probably work it out to make that switch for you without a restocking fee. That said, please don't buy if you're not sure that you want the item you are buying. If you need to check with your wife, your broker, your business partner, your kids, or the Supreme Court before you buy, please do that. The High End Zone cannot be held responsible for any case of wives beating their husbands for spending too much money on good gear.

Special Order merchandise cannot be returned or exchanged even if you change your mind or decide you would rather order something else. This means that there are no returns, refunds or exchanges on special order sales unless the item is received damaged or malfunctioning and the buyer promptly notifies seller of such damage or malfunction; in which case the seller will replace, repair, or refund the item at seller's expense and option. In the case of any merchandise defect or shipping damage, the buyer must report these to the seller as soon as detected and in any case within 3 days of receiving the items.

The High End Zone is a full service home theater dealer located in Southwest New Mexico. While we are well established as the premier dealer in our small town market, we also serve many clients who have multiple homes or live in far-flung places. The world is increasingly a small place and I delight in talking with and serving clients from all continents and many countries of the world. Depending on your needs we are happy to just sell you gear (note some manufacturers may prohibit us from sending gear to certain places) or we can provide a full service experience including system design, acoustic design and construction, installation, programming, and more. We've done work for very high profile clients with multiple homes and we are also proud to serve many hobbyists who enjoy this hobby on a modest budget. No matter your budget, we'll strive to provide the products you want at a price that is fair with top shelf service.

Some of the many lines we sell include, but are not limited to:

AB Amps

Acoustic Sciences Corporation ASC Tube Traps

AMX

Audio Desk

Axonix

B.M.C.

Capriccio Continuo (ATD)

Cineak

Crestron

Da-Lite screens

Daniel Hertz (ultimate audio creations of Mr. Mark Levinson)

Denon

Dragonfly screens

Einstein

Escient

Extreme Media Servers

Finite Elemente

Furman

Golden Acoustics

Hartvig

HB Cable Design

Ikeda

Isoclean

JBL

JBL Synthesis

Kaleidescape

Key Digital

Lansche

Lexicon

Lutron

Mark Levinson

Marantz

McIntosh

Middle Atlantic

Millenium

Mozaex

Paradigm

Parasound

PHC (Professional Home Cinema)

Polk Audio

Revel

Runco

Salamander

Scaena

Screen Excellence

Screen Innovations

SE2 Labs

Silverline Audio

Stage III

Stewart Film Screens

Tandem

Thales

Transparent Cables

Tru-Audio

Velodyne

Verastarr

Vidikron

Wireworld

Ypsilon

*List includes lines we are factory direct with as well as lines we get through distribution or through our extensive dealer network. Most customers don't care whether we are factory direct if we provide authentic product and great service at a fair price, but if you care about this or any other issue, please ask us.

Unlike most shops that sell a very small number of lines that they are authorized for and will always try and talk customers in to buying just those few lines, we are willing to sell you virtually any line that you want. Obviously we make a lower profit if we have to get it from another dealer, but our goal is to provide you, the customer, with one stop shopping and top notch service. It's more like the business model of Amazon than the old school brick and mortar stores. We want the customer's business and we will try and earn it by providing competitive pricing and top notch service for you on whatever brands you want. Of course if you are not sure what brands are best for your needs and want us to provide expert analysis of what gear represents the best value for your dollar, we are more than happy to provide that too. We spend a great deal of time and money listening to and viewing a wide range of audio and video systems, as well as bringing in gear for long-term testing in our facilities. Most of the salesmen you might deal with in a home theater store do NOT have a high-end audio video system in their homes. I have 4 such systems, including Runcos in every nook and cranny, and I live with this stuff daily. So I truly know what works well and what is worth spending money on and what is not. And even if I used something for years and loved it, when I hear something better, that is a better value, I switch immediately. My main loyalty is to the customer and your satisfaction--I want you to buy not just one thing from us, but all your gear, for life, and to recommend us to your friends and family. To that end, I will strive to give you the best and most honest advice, fair prices and great service. And I'll try to get you any brand you want, ultimately your system needs to satisfy you, not me.

Our clients certainly enjoy their home audio and video rooms. We do as well and hope you'll also take pleasure and be inspired by the variety of these beautiful installations.

Some aspects of making an informed choice in an audiophile grade listening room or a home theater system are worth a little extra effort. We invite you to contact the High End Zone for help in making your choices, we will make the extra effort worthwhile.