Re-Tales

Stereophile December 2025, Vol.58 No.12 Re-Tales #60: Matt Alterman's Crescendo Audio Returns to Boulder Julie Mullins 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.

Matt's father, Henry Alterman, was the proprietor of Alterman Audio in their hometown of New Orleans. Henry got his start selling gear from his dorm room at Tulane University in the mid-1970s (footnote 1), before "going legit," obtaining a resale tax certificate and other legal documents, and setting up a store on Freret Street near Tulane. Matt helped his father with custom-installation projects, sales, accounting—whatever was needed. Matt formalized employment at his father's business after graduating from college. "I got to attend CES in its infancy, and I got to see a lot of the exciting transitions in technologies that occurred from the mid-'80s to the early 2000s," Matt told me.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Alterman Audio was not affected by the floods; in fact, business boomed. "I helped out the city for a year or two," Matt said. "There was a lot of equipment that needed to be replaced." When the post-Katrina boom turned into a recession, Henry closed the store.

Matt, who is now 46, ventured out on his own. He moved to the Denver area in Colorado, home to Boulder Amplifiers, Ayre Acoustics, PS Audio, and YG Acoustics. His sister already lived there—in fact, she worked at a hi-fi store, ListenUp. Matt interviewed there but took a job at first with Big Picture, a custom-installation firm. Later, he joined ListenUp's Boulder store.

In August 2012, the aftermath of the great recession, sales were slow. Matt was laid off, and a friend encouraged him to start his own dealership.

"I had very little money at the time," he told me. What he did have was community—vendors and potential clients he'd come to know during his time at ListenUp, who had come to rely on his growing expertise. "While I was on the clock at ListenUp, I would do free-of-charge setups and just go above and beyond," Matt said.

The friend, Josh Raderman, would become his business partner. The two attended the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest together that September to scout brands. In November, they rented a storefront, and Crescendo Audio was born. Crescendo still carries most of the brands they started out with, including Dynaudio, Boulder's own Ayre Acoustics, Audeze, and Naim.

You could call it ironic considering Matt's Katrina story: After a couple of years of business in Boulder, which is 5430' above sea level—the lowest point in New Orleans is about 8' below sea level—there was a serious flood. Raderman moved on to other endeavors, and Matt moved the store, to Wheatridge, a town just outside Denver.

"Wheatridge is one of the few towns here in the Denver metro area that feels like a community," he said. "Coming from New Orleans, where community is everything, unconsciously, community was important to me, and my landlord made it easy to make this decision." The city of Wheatridge covered half the cost of his street sign. Crescendo picked up Wilson Audio Specialties, Triangle, and most recently, Gryphon.

In talking with Matt, community and relationships come up often. He considers those things key to his store's success: "In addition to having this gear, sometimes you need people to believe in you," he said. A big part of Crescendo's business comes from longtime customers who feel the itch for something new.

For times like that, Crescendo offers a generous trade-up program, offering 100% of the original purchase price on trade for more expensive gear. "They don't have to worry about their products not retaining value," he explained. "We've done that from day one, and lately it's become more important than ever. That drives a lot of relationships."

More about relationships: Crescendo is face-to-face, in-person only; Matt isn't interested in online sales.

The big news: Crescendo is opening a second store back in Boulder, a collaboration. "I have a new opportunity in Boulder, an offer too good to be true, so I'm back after an absence of 11 years." The place is called Stone Cottage Studios. "During the daytime, we operate as a stereo store—Crescendo—and during the evening we operate as a recording space and a live music venue."

Matt has been hosting listening events for years at the Wheatridge store—listening to records, not live musicians. He has been hosting Final Friday listening sessions for nearly two years. "We pick an album and listen to it in its entirety. We try to get the best pressing and the best sound quality. That's been a really important thing for me lately in terms of building community and providing for the community," he said.

He'll do the same thing at the Boulder store, but on Sunday mornings: Second Sunday Spins. He and his clients and visitors will listen to music over coffee and beignets, a nod to Matt's New Orleans roots. "It's one of the things I look forward to most."

---

Footnote 1: This is the second straight month in which a dealer featured in Re-Tales got started selling equipment out of a dorm room. See last month's Re-Tales.