Best Place To Buy New Gear, Regular Music store or internet? Options

[Nels]

Hey guys and/or gals,

Hoping some of you out there will shine a bright light on the subject of buying on-line.

Every piece of gear I own,(guitars, amps, recording gear, etc.) I've gotten at a local music store.(Sound Post, Guitar Center, etc.) I'll be getting some more gear in the near future and so I was wondering.....if anyone could comment on their experiences when ordering on-line.

Can anyone comment on their experiences with the likes of Musiciansfriends.com, ..GuitarVision.com and other such places?

Would it be safe to order a large, fragile and very expensive piece of equipment, like the Triton Studio, for example?(That's a lot of money to be gambling with.) ....And what about the return policy dilemma?

As with most of you, I've had some good and not so good experiences when buying at a regular music store, but the one thing that I just can't knock is that... ...if needed, you can return the piece of gear to the regular music store and not have to wait anxiously for a replacement. ...And generally one can check the gear out before ones buys.

Any thoughts, I'm sure would help others as well.

Thanks,
Nels

[Nels]

Thanks guys!

You've been very helpful. ...I'll be ordering some of the smaller items from the various venders you'd mentioned to see which one is best, ..for future reference. As for any large hardware, I think I'll stick with my local Guitar Center and Sam Ash stores for the obvious reasons.

As long as I'm here, let me ask if anyone has an opinion on which would be best to get. ...The Triton Extreme, Triton Studio, Fantom X or The Motif ES?

Here are some of my Pros & Cons.........

Triton Extreme: Offers pretty much all like the Studio and that tube really packs a whalop. No mLan connections though.

Triton Studio: It's mLan compatible and has great sampling and very large banks of great sampled sounds. The touch screen is cool, but too invovled.

Fantom X: Color monitor is very cool. Great sampled sound banks and is alot of fun to operate. Easy to sequence! Virtual Pads! Can trigger video! Skip Back Sampling! No mLan connections. Takes long to load.

Motif ES: All around best acoustic samples. Probably best suited for Yamaha O1X networking. Stand alone DAW control surface through the mLan/Firewire connection. So why doesn't it have a larger LED screen? Orchestral sounds are not as good as all of the above.

You know, I'm actually taken by the Fantom X because it's so much fun to operate/play/sequence, but The Triton Studio does appear to be the most professional of the bunch and is mLan ready.

Any takers?

Thanks again guys and Happy Easter,
Nels