Re-Tales

In these Amazon days, retail customers need a good reason to enter any brick-and-mortar store. When you can buy anything and everything you want online, you need a reason to get up off the sofa. Especially when spending discretionary money, people want not only good products but good experiences.

Hi-fi listening bars have expanded far beyond Tokyo, which was their Ground Zero. They can be found in cities from Miami to London, from Brooklyn to Berlin. Recently, in Birmingham, Alabama, Bart Stephens opened High Dive, a listening lounge and restaurant that does things a little differently.

In some ways, the Sound Attic, a new dealership in Tampa, Florida, seems like a traditional brick-and-mortar hi-fi store. It does what such stores do: It sells a selection of hi-fi gear across a range of prices. But there's more to the story, according to Sound Attic founder/owner Charles Weiner, who Stereophile interviewed by phone and email.

With the hi-fi business, arguably, at a critical juncture, keeping it fun is more important than ever. Hi-fi salespeople play a key role in that—they're the boots on the ground. If anyone is going to foster interest and imbue the hobby with fun, it's salespeople.

Hi-fi dealerships need to find creative new ways to get customers into their stores—to stoke their interest and to help new people feel welcome. Special events are the obvious way to get them through the door and keep them coming back.

In these days of industry transformation, acquiring a brick-and-mortar hi-fi store is not for the faint of heart. That's just what 41-year-old Brandon Bartee did in August 2025. Bartee acquired Audio Concepts from Mark Ashworth, who was celebrating the store's 40th anniversary, all 40 years under his ownership.

David and Alma Wilson must be doing something right. They've been married for 50 years, and for 36 years, they've owned and operated Accent on Music on Main Street in Mount Kisco, New York, about an hour north of New York City.

A common theme in this space in Stereophile is the need to reach new audiences and generate broader interest in the hi-fi hobby. At a time when traditional hi-fi buyers are becoming scarcer—as older generations pass on—the need becomes more critical to the industry's survival. Recently, two industry stalwarts—who both happen to be named Walter—have come together to form "an audio distribution and marketing superpower."

A hi-fi dealer's son, Matt Alterman has been in or near the business almost all his life. His dealership, Crescendo Audio, is coming full circle as he opens a new location in Boulder, Colorado, the town where he launched his first store 13 years ago.

Not many hi-fi dealerships can say they've survived half a century of history. Natural Sound, which is based in Framingham, Massachusetts, about 20 miles west of Boston, is one that can. Founded by Jim Lackey in 1975, Natural Sound turns 50 years old this November.