As long-time users know, Audiogon has not changed much from its original design in 1997. Over the past 14 years, you – the members of the audiophile community – have made Audiogon.com the place for serious audiophiles to buy and sell equipment, as well as to exchange ideas and offer support to likeminded enthusiasts through Audiogon’s Forums.
But like a comfortable pair of shoes, or a favorite old jacket, the leather eventually wears thin or the stitching starts to fail. We look around and realize the world has moved-on. Our favorite jacket is a bit dated and has become snug around the waist. And friends’ jackets are sporting some nifty new looks and features. We begin to think, “You know, this jacket has served me really well but maybe its time has come. I’m starting to wish . . . .”
In the same way, the web world has changed a lot in the last decade, and Audiogon has been looking a little dated. So, at the start of 2011 the Audiogon took a good, long look at the site – and at the functionality needed to serve the high-end audio community for another 14 years. As a result, starting this fall we’re going to begin making some changes. We want the new Audiogon to be as comfortable as your old familiar “jacket,” while introducing some features and functionality you’ve requested.
While we’re pretty sure you’ll like the changes we’re making to Audiogon, we want you, as a community, to know what’s coming. Over the next few months, until roughly the end of the year, we’ll be releasing newly-design sections of the website. To help you better understand these changes, here is a brief overview:
- We’ll be revamping classifieds, auctions, and “My Page” design and functionality.
- You’ll also find lots of new search features and filters such as price, category, and condition. In addition, we know many of you want a ZIP code radius filter and we’re working on it!
- The updated “My Page” will include a notification system for you to easily track all your items, whether buying or selling.
- Other options will allow you to be notified by email anytime something important happens — like getting outbid on an auction.
- You’ll also find easier communication between buyers and sellers, allowing you to quickly ask questions and get answers about items you want to buy.
- The improved image viewer will allow you to quickly look at all the great pictures users put up with their listings, and encourage posting even better photos.
- The listing process will be greatly simplified, especially the checkout process, which will have easy payment options so you can quickly list an item!
- We have not intention at this time to change our pricing.
As for more specifics, here are some Screen Shots to help you see the changes listed:
Creating a Listing
Searching with Filters (View of New Today)
View of a Classified Listing
MyPage
We will continue to update you as we roll out these changes. Watch for notices on Audiogon’s homepage, and you can even look for an occasional email when we need to tell you more than fits comfortably on the homepage! We’re excited about improving the user experience and hope you will be, too. Thank you for being part of the Audiogon community.
The Audiogon Team
Audiogon Blog 
If there is any beta testing of the new pages, I’d love to be involved!
Hi Peter,
Please email [email protected] with the words Beta Testing in the subject line, include your audiogon username and I’ll put you on the list for beta testing. Really appreciate your interest and help with getting the new site released.
Email sent!
Is Audiogon going to implement changes for people who frequent the site but are not located in the USA? Right now your searches totally revolve around being in the USA and if you happen to reside outside of the USA, the search and a few other functions are not user friendly.
Hi John,
Yes, this is something we’re working on. We know zip code radius searching is a big feature people want so they can find listings near their home location. We hope to allow this for people searching internationally as well. We’re also introducing a number of new filters when you search so you can narrow your search by price, category and condition.
Suggestions:
1. Under Classifieds “Sell your music” section (LP, CD, etc.),
“Originals only” block to be reformulated as follows:
“Absolutely no CDR, DAT, unofficial LPs, CDs or similar other copies allowed”
2. “Item Info”
“Category” block to be reformulated as follows (drop menu category): Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk (NEW), Soul (NEW), Classical, Other
Rock
Folk (NEW)
Soul (NEW)
Classical
Other
Pop
Rock
Folk (NEW)
Soul (NEW)
Classical
Other
Pop
Rock
Folk (NEW)
Soul (NEW)
Metal (NEW)
Pop
Rock
Folk (NEW)
Soul (NEW)
Hi Emil,
Thanks so much for the suggestions. We’ll work on implementing as we roll out the new release of the website and really appreciate your feedback.
Will there be any revamping of the forum and/or categories? Preamps and amps in the same category, for instance — WAY too broad.
I would also like to be part of the beta test
Hi Tony,
Thanks for your question and offer to be part of the beta testing. Yes, our goal is redesign the entire site and significantly improve the functionality. Instead of doing the entire site at once we’ll be rolling out one section at a time to make the transition easier on users. Forums will be part of our next release. We’ll also be taking a close look at Categories and adding new ones that were requested by users like you. Thanks again and we’ll add your name to our list of beta testers.
Another big one, apologies if already mentioned, but the ability to add links in classifieds!
Audiogon should take this opportunity to add some extra categories: For example, in the classified ads ‘planar’ section, typically 1/3 (currently it’s 38%) of all listings are for Magnepan, so these deserve their own section.
Also needed is a ‘headphones’ category, as currently headphones are listed under both ‘tweaks’ and ‘fullrange speakers.’
Tosh,
Thanks so much for the feedback. We’re definitely going to be adding a number of new categories as we relaunch the site this fall. Thanks again and really appreciate your support of Audiogon.com.
Dear Audiogon Team,
First, before another syllable, Thank You for the gift you have given each of us.
I, too, would like to support Audiogon’s ‘new view’ beta, and will email as instructed above.
After getting my system to its best performance level, I hired Jim Smith for fine tuning. What he did was more than fine. Learning from experience seems the heart of Audiogon’s forums. Seeing what a master tuner can do, may I respectfully suggest (again) that a Forum ‘Chapter’ be created entitled “Listening Room Treatment,” or “Acoustic Room Treatment?”
The discussion of this aspect of audio performance has not yet come to roost at Audiogon, and represents an arena of substantial sonic improvement where much can be learned, and experience shared. No other aspect of audio can achieve what frequency tuning does; it is that discrete an aspect of our discipline.
While you address content, may I also ask that you modify software to improve navigation from one window to the next, or previous? When I search a zip code, or view a listing photo, I have to move my cursor to return to the previous page rather than using the ‘back’ function. This slows down the search process. While not the first to mention this, I’m certain, it would make Audiogon a more joyous experience to move seamlessly from one window or page to another, or back again.
Thank you very much for opening this discussion.
I am grateful to the originators for this opportunity. Happy Listening.
David Kellogg (cdk84)
David,
Great feedback and really appreciate your thoughts. We’ll work on addressing your suggestions as we roll out the new site.
The Audiogon Team
Two suggestions to improve Audiogon.
Require pictures on all listings.
Do not allow broken,damaged equipment on any Audiogon listings.
Let them put thoses on EBay.
The biggest request I have is to expand search capabilities. Examples:
1. Ability to specify values for multiple search fields:
TEXT = “harbeth”
CATEGORY = “spkr-moni”
PRICE = < $3000
2. Ability to specify complex expressions within a specific criteria (these are separate examples):
CATEGORY = "amp-tube" OR "tuner"
TEXT = "Dynaudio" AND ("110" OR "140")
TEXT = "Dynaudio" AND NOT "focus"
2. Ability to specify a regular expression for a text field:
TEXT = "7 *es.*3" { match all variations of the Harbeth Compact 7ES-3 I've seen. }
ZIP = "97.*" { match zip codes starting with "97" }
Anyway, you get the idea. Thanks.
I’d really like to have alerts for new listings based on keyword(s) that I enter. While I often check the back, it would be a real help to get an email when a particular item is listed. This could be a boon for sellers as it might help get quicker sales at the original asking price (and boost your fees in the process).
Maybe you could put an expiration date, but I could see this spanning a few months potentially.
Your data mining would be that much more valuable, too, as it would help flesh out the user profile.
Anyway, just my 2c. Thanks for a great site!
I also would love an alert feature via your choice of notification method.
Sweet. These changes are great news. You might also put in a search feature that includes country of origin. (eg: Made in USA, Made in France, etc.)
One other thought – the site works really well on my iPhone as it is. Either a) make sure that the new site also works well on an iOS device or b) concurrently launch an iPhone app. There are many developers who have created great Craigslist apps, I’m sure they would be interested in working with you.
Hi Johnny,
Keep your eye open next year as we really want our users to have access on there mobile phones, so we’re definitely looking into mobile phone applications.
Gentlemen,
I applaud your efforts to update the site. One suggestion I have is to send those who post to threads an email notification and link to that thread when follow up comments are added. That way, the poster will not need to enter the site and search for the thread saving him or her time and effort.
Another suggestion is to add a feature which would send out email notifications if one has identified a particular item he wishes to buy. For example, if I am interested in buying a particular used cartridge, I could indicate that interest to Audiogon and then one such cartridge becomes listed for sale, I would receive an automatic email notification. That would surely save daily search time.
You have a wonderful site. Congratulations and thank you for trying to improve it.
Regards,
Peter Ayer (username:peterayer)
I second the comment above about forum thread subscriptions. The forums are missing a lot of features that are standard at most sites these days.
I’d also very much like a feature that allowed me to view all new listings since my last visit. Currently, I use the “New In The Last Two Days” view, but since I only visit once or twice a week, I think I may be missing a lot. It was also be great to be able to filter this view, so I don’t see items I’m not interested in (say HDMI cables, for example).
Please consider a way to search for only used items. I happen to live in a zip code that has a dealer who uses audiogon to sell their new gear. So when I do a search by zip code I see all their new stuff for sale. Makes it hard to see what used equipment has recently been added. You could also accomplish this by allowing me to exclude a specific seller as a search choice.
Thanks for a great site.
I assume, if I understood correctly that you’ve added a filter search of “what’s new today”, “new 2 days”, in which case, kudos
A little help with the send an email to seller. The email should include the potential buyers location i.e. country and or zip code. A phone # would be nice too.
This would save a lot of time with back and forth emails And shipping costs.
Please consider adding DVD-A to the music search possibilities. Strange you can list one to sell, but not search by that format. Thanks
your site does not allow me to respond to a potential buyer. get rid of the new garbage beta and go back to what works
Zip code and partial zip code search is essential. Some of us are not willing to deal over distances, and currently, zip code search is essentially missing. Need to search on 12345 and 123*, etc.
The improved Zip Code search will be online in just a little while. Keep an eye on our blog for the announcement! Thanks for your comment.