Rick: We are a small company and we are VS and Dali dealers. Also, I do live in Garner and if you would like we could meet one day for a beer or feel free to stop by the store. It is always nice to meet others who share the same passion/enthusiasm for audio as I do. I could even bring over some demo equipment if you would like. I look forward to meeting with you.
Claud, Thanks for the kind words. Like you said we are new, but our installer(s) have atleast 10 years experience each. We recently added a new team member from out west. He has work for several companies that are similar in size or bigger than Audio Advice. What he brings to the plate is the knowledge and experience of working with much larger projects (500K-3M installations). His primary function here will be training all staff members on proper installation techniques/and QC. To be honest, there are not many top notch installers in the area. There are a lot of good installers, but not many “Expert” guys. That is the main reason for us going outside of the area to bring in staff. It costs more to get them here, but you have a bigger pool to draw from and are more likely to get what you want. Plus you don’t run the risk of making enemies locally by “stealing” their employees.
Inscrutable. I assume this is Tim. Not much time for Car Audio anymore, only when I visit my friends at CES. When are we having another NC meet.
Jumpin’ Jack: I don’t want you to think we pushed the DALI’s over the Veritas because that is what we had in stock. We push DALI because it is the 1 single line we cary that we all agree is the best overall product in its category. The Veritas floorstanders are good speakers, but are in a similar price point as the DALI helicon’s. Without an unlimited budget, we can not afford to show every product, in every category, at every price point so we had to chose which product we thought was the better overall performer (ie would generate the most sales). The Veritas in-walls are very similar to the FS’s in sonic characteristics. We feel that if someone doesn’t like the sound of the in-walls, then they will not care for the FS’s. IMO, the in-walls are a better product for HT and like you said, we focus on HT more than 2 channel. Not to mention that 95% of all speaker sales for us are in-walls/in-ceiling speakers. The hardest thing about going from a end-user to a provider in this business is that you have to learn to sell what your customers want and not what you want. I prefer 2 channel and if it were up to me that is what we would do. However, I also want to be in business for a long time and HT and distributed audio/video systems are what drives our industry. As we grow you will see more 2 channel. Actually, we just became dealers for Anthem (bringing in the TLP1 set-up), Music Hall (this also gives us access to Shanling, Creek and Epos speakers).
As for the titles. They are not for our ego’s I assure you. I personally hate titles, but the 2 VP’s are my partners in this venture. When forming the company we were asked to pick some titles, so there you have it. The reason for 2 VP’s (1 retail and 1 custom) is we treat these as 2 individual jobs and the plan is to grow and develop each branch separately. We do not always want to be known as the “Small Guy’s next to Audio Advice”. Currently our focus has been working with builders and the custom market. It takes a lot more effort to do this, but it takes more money to expand and outfit a fully stocked retail store. In time…
Regards,
Rich Latta
