Any suggestions on where to order a Voyager Select from online? I’m hesitant to go with the big names because they seem to be getting slammed with negative reviews (even taking into account the normal amount of noise and expected unhappy customers on these sites), and of course I’m not familiar with the smaller independent sites. Does anyone have any positive/negative online ordering experiences to relate?
Thanks,
Derek
I’d start with NovaMusik.
http://www.novamusik.com
Call them, don’t order on the website. Their stock is never updated on the website. But they are very friendly people and very knowledgeable about synths. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with them.
I second that suggestion. One of my friend bought a Prophet08 from them and even if we live in Canada, he received it quickly and had a good experience dealing with them.
I bought my Little Phatty from Nova and would recommend them.
I strongly suggest novamusik.com as well. They were very helpful and fair. I even got a free shirt, coffee mug, and coffee with my Voyager OS. 
OK, just to throw another one in there - these guys are great too:
http://www.analoguehaven.com
Analogue Haven used to be the best place to buy synths in California, because you could actually drive to them and know the satisfaction of having your gear already. Sadly, they don’t have a storefront anymore.
Anyway, I’d go with Novamusik if you live closer to Wisconsin than California.
I got my Voyager from Novamusik for free, the t-shirt was $2,350 though…
Thanks for the suggestions everyone! Nova Musik looks good, and I like the look of their “Ultra” bundle that includes a couple of Moogerfoogers I was interested in.
Thanks,
Derek
They’ve been good to me, so I’ll always recommend them.
If you call ask for Trip Irish, he’ll hook you up.
I’ve bought a Prophet 08, LP Stage II, and Vermona DRM-1 MKIII from Nova Musik (from the actual store, they’re located like an hour away from me, wee!) Analogue Haven is the shiznit too.
Both are incredibly supportive, small retailers w/ hearts and passion for electronic music.
Avoid the big guys, as they will randomly assign you to some dude as your salesman who at least in my experience, doesn’t know a Moog from a Moogle. I’m sure there’s synthheads that work there, but like Guitar Center, slim pickings.
b
Hold up.
Check the Voyager Select Series price at both Nova Musik and Sweetwater. They’re exactly the same at $3,295.00
Nova Musik: http://www.novamusik.com/search.aspx?type=Model&keyword=5795&mid=288
Sweetwater: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/VoyagerSFM/
The price is the same, unless you work with them.
I’m getting the same Voyager Select Series from Sweetwater for $3200 out the door, free shipping, plus a two year warranty.
Can Nova beat that?
I’m not even going to go into all the other favors they’ve done for me in just a couple of months.
They seem??
Did you actually buy anything from them?
If so, who did you deal with and how did they screw you?
Swaying people away from a solid company based on your assumptions isn’t right.
Neither is defending them staunchly for no other reason than to start a flame war on morals.
Sweetwater is a nice place, but like all larger retailers, they are considerably more faceless from the outset. You immediately get signed up w/ some guy that unless he’s a big synth fanatic, is only interested in milking you for his cut and retaining you as a customer.
Nova Musik and Analogue Haven on the other hand are exclusively in the electronic music biz. Sure, they want your money too, but they have a lot more reason to treat you right, as you’re a good fit for their business. On top of that, they are MUCH more likely give you useful information and advice.
Who do you think is going to give you a better personal and detailed experience from a customer service perspective, Amos Gaynes ala Moog, or CSP ext. 3491 for Roland?
Morals? When did I argue morals?
I’m defending them because you both say stay away from sweetwater based on your ‘feelings’, when I’ve personally only had excellent experiences with them.
Give some evidence that you got a bad deal from them, otherwise quit with the conjecture.
Bottom line is that at the end of the day it’s all about the money you pay.
If you’re more concerned with how ‘nice’ sales people seem over what they actually charge then by all means, go for the fluff.
And why bring up Amos? He’s not a salesman. That’s just grasping at straws.
When you implied it was wrong to sway people away from Sweetwater based on their feelings.
Wrong again. I’ve purchased alot of stuff from sweetwater, a DSI Mopho and DSI Evolver ONLINE. My randomly assigned sales dude would call me all random times of day and leave these stupid generic messages making sure I liked my -reads from cue card for a moment- “Dave Smith Instruments ‘Maw-foh’”. Then promptly reminding me what his extension was in case I wanted to buy more crap from him via telephone.
You’ve got to be kidding me. Sweetwater marks up their retail sky high. They pride themselves on the fact that you might pay a little extra for the ‘‘awesome customer service touch’’. I know a guy who used to work there so no need to try and wobble out of that one.
Now, sure if you know someone at X who’ll play the game with you or even sell at whatever the lowest is that they can offer, you might be able to eek out a good deal, but Nova Musik for instance took 15% off my order once just becuase I bought two big ticket items from them. They then proceeded to hook me up with a free 1yr subscription to Future Music, a shirt, a coffee mug. They even ordered pizza at one point and offered us some, lol. Point was that it was an awesome experience, and I got a great deal. I’m sure you feel the same way about Sweetwater, but that’s not what this is about particularly. We’re talking about big business versus small business.
He’s a knowledgeable technical representative of Moog, a small company with a very specific range of instruments.
A CSP from Roland, in that example is a representative for a big company, who has a large reference database, and probably little actual experience or information personally about the product you need information on.
It’s a direct comparison of the differences between a small synth dealer and a high volume retail distributor.
Again, I’m not invalidating your experience w/ Sweetwater, it’s great you have a guy, I myself have one at Full Compass which is also a high volume retail distributor. The point is simply though that from an initial point of view, the little guy is almost always going to make a more personal impression than the big faceless company.
Haha guy, I’m not arguing big companies vs small companies here, I really don’t give a sh!t, that’s all you.
My point is don’t bash something unless you have a valid reason, and at this point I still have yet to see one from you or anyone else about sweetwater.
I don’t care how friendly my salesman is to me as long as I get the best deal.
For anyone else looking for a solid musicians store to shop at I highly recommend SWEETWATER.
I gave you a clear and valid reason. Don’t get all hurt about this like it’s personal, you’re the one who called a fault about someone disliking Sweetwater’s practices, now you’re getting some answers.
Sweetwater is not the “cheapest retailer”, nor the best informed for electronic instruments. They offer in many cases very generic rapport and leechy, uninformed sales dudes. I’m glad you have a rep there that is working for you, but that’s not the norm.
You still have yet to prove that you got nothing more than hurt feelings from sweetwater.
Did they rip you off? Obviously not since you would have stated so from the beginning.
You just like that warm fuzzy feeling small companies give you.
That’s cool, if free pizza and coffee mugs do it for you then congratulations.
My experience has been the best deals are at SWEETWATER.
I think you’re still missing the point, but if it’s just a raw money thing for you, Sweetwater is not inherently the deal Mecca you claim it to be.
Ignoring any “magic sales guy” deals that can be cut from either dealership (yes Nova does deals too, as I mentioned earlier), let’s compare offers on the websites for Select Series Voyagers:
**Novamusik: 3295.00
Includes:
Your disdain for swag aside, 2 free EP2s is pretty damn cool, as is the gig bag.
**Sweetwater: 3295.97
Includes:
Cool, but if there’s a bad part, you’re going to find out pretty quickly and get it fixed by Moog for free anyway.
Nova will also let you borrow synths for a couple weeks to try em out before you commit to buying them, which is something I’m fairly certain Sweetwater can’t offer.
I’m glad you made out well with Sweetwater, they’re a cool place to shop, but they are hardly the end of the road for buying synths, and you can get better deals out there.
