Five high-end audio sales people tell it like it is.

My high-end sales career started in the late 1970s at Sound By Singer in New York City. I had a grand time playing with the world's best audio gear for 16 years, and then switched gears and became an audio reviewer. I quickly learned that my sales experience was terrific preparation for my second act in the business and that reviewers don't have access to anywhere near the variety of products that salesmen do. That took some getting used to. Nowadays when I want to know what's going on, I head to the stores.

The best sales people listen to a lot of gear, learn how it works in a myriad of system combinations and, most importantly, know how it sounds in customers' homes. They also listen to their customers' needs and desires. That's crucial to fine-tuning recommendations to suit their customers' specific requirements. When everything clicks between client and salesperson, it's a win-win situation.

To prepare for this article I contacted five of NYC's best high-end shops and came away from my conversations with Innovative Audio and Video's Bruce Deegan; Lyric Hi-Fi and Video's Bob Herman; Sound by Singer's Bill O'Donnell; Stereo Exchange's Cosmos Heidtmann and Earsnova's Laurie Srebnick with a renewed appreciation for the art of selling sound.

It also helps that these folks are all audiophiles, so good sound is more than just a job to them. They're passionate about what they do.

So here is a cross section, from those in the trenches, on the state of the audio market, from what is being sold and how to the trends and fashions at the end of 2009.