Øystein Hasnes

Dear HiFi enthusiast,
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My name is Øystein Hasnes, and I have been working for more than twelve years selling High End Audio Equipment at Oslo Hi-Fi Center.

It all started with a NAD-302 that burned up almost two decades ago, and it has been a long way since then. When I started to get seriously interested in HiFi and bought some of the most expensive equipment I now own, I started from the last thing I should have cared about, which was a very expensive set of of cables. It took me about ten years to get my HiFi setup as perfect as it can be. Some people might call it learning by experience. I did not learn so much by trial and error, but rather as a professional by helping thousand of audio enthusiasts with their HiFi setups and by having access to all the latest equipment from all major factories, going to every major conference, and so on.

Early on my in career I learnt to call back to customers in order to know whether they were happy with the equipment they purchased, and if they needed any further advice or help. This made me realize that most sellers don’t receive feedback from what they have sold. It also helped me to build a big network of happy friends that also happened to be customers. Many of them are members of The HiFi Asylum, and we meet frequently, often on a daily basis online, and every now and then we visit each other, listening to each other’s equipment, discovering new and intriguing music, performing equipment adjustments, etc.

With time, I have learnt about many of the common pitfalls clients have experienced, and that there is so much noise and misinformation on the open internet, that it is also difficult to discuss high end, highly expensive gear in an objective way with non-vetted, anonymous internet ‘trolls’. The open internet is simply not a good place where to talk about our passion. Have you ever seen an open internet forum for talking about Ferrari or Rolls Royce tweaking and purchasing?