Re-Tales

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," their first press release said. The Walters are bringing their skills and experience together to form the 2WA Group, merging their respective companies: Walter Schofield's marketing firm Nexus Audio Technologies and Walter Swanbon's Fidelis Distribution. "Fidelis Distribution and Nexus Audio Technologies no longer exist as those entities," Schofield said during a recent conversation I had with the two cofounders. 2WA's "core group" has two other members: Dwight DiMartino, who is serving as inside sales and service-support manager, and David Hudon, who specializes in logistics and technical support.

In turn, 2WA will work closely with some other businesses, which the Walters call the "2WA support team": Penry Creative (branding experts), JK Performance Group (new-media marketing), and Sohmer Associates (PR).

In the late 1970s, the two Walters were teenagers, both working in hi-fi after school: Schofield at Tech HiFi, Swanbon at the more specialized Eardrum Audio of New England—not to be confused with Eardrum in Long Island or the one in Westchester, New York. Soon after they met, Schofield started coming into Eardrum to hear and see the new gear. They started to hang out together. "We've been friends ever since," Swanbon said.

While he was at Boston College, Swanbon dabbled in pro audio, recording live classical and jazz recitals at Berklee College of Music and the Longy School of Music at Bard College. At BC, he was a campus rep for K&L Sound. A decade passed. "We worked together in the late '80s. We had a repping firm called Semper Fidelity. We did lines like AudioQuest, Sumo, Aragon, and Paradigm."

Around 2000, Swanbon opened his Boston-area dealership, Fidelis AV, in tax-free New Hampshire. In 2016, he started Fidelis Distribution. Nashua, New Hampshire, will be 2WA's home base.

For his part, Schofield has worked for companies from Meridian and Linn America to Mark Levinson and Krell Industries.

The 2WA Group's roster includes global clients from the cofounders' previous companies: Stenheim, Aequo Audio, Falcon Acoustics, Ideon Audio, SPL (Sound Performance Lab), and Trilogy Audio Systems.

Manufacturers and distributors must choose each other. I asked about 2WA's criteria for selecting manufacturers. Schofield cited cutting-edge technology, sound quality, reliability, stability, and scale. "Scale" means that the client company must be able to keep up with demand as 2WA's services pay off and sales increase. "Also, relationships with management of each company are extremely important to us," Schofield noted.

Success in a difficult marketplace means having the right product and the right representation. "Dealers are shrinking, and there's a ton of products that want to be represented on their shelves—too many," Schofield said. "To make it worth their while to carry your product, it needs to not just be a good-sounding product or a good-looking product. It also needs to be a sound business decision. What makes it a sound business proposition for a dealer is the ability of the brand or the distributor that represents the brand to drive people into their locations. You need to do that with a constant presence with social media, viral media."

A big part of that is equipment reviews—being ever-present—in Stereophile and other publications. Dealer events are part of the plan. "We certainly will do dealer events with our partners," Schofield said.

The 2WA Group is focusing primarily on luxury goods. As such, they intend to market their products via other niche interests: cars, watches, wine, and so on.

They aren't the first to take this approach. Ann Arbor's Paragon Sight & Sound has done special events with an area Ferrari dealership, for one. Germany's Tidal Audio has sold limited-edition speakers that incorporated Bugatti automotive design elements, available at select Bugatti dealerships. Gryphon has set up a showroom in the Pacific Design Center. Devialet has long sought exposure via art installations; they also set up mini-stores in luxury shopping malls such as the Shoppes at Columbus Circle. This kind of marketing isn't exactly new: From 1959–1974, Acoustic Research had a music room in New York's Grand Central Terminal.

2WA will take a somewhat similar approach, but with significant differences. Schofield shed some light—but without revealing their "secret sauce," as he put it. The goal is to expand awareness of luxury audio across other high-end specialty niches, via multiple methods.

"We're messaging people in the lifestyle segment by targeting publications like wristwatch publications, wine, high-end travel, high-end real estate, jet shares, golfing—all of these interests," Schofield said. "We're creating awareness for the exceptional quality, high-performance audio space that nobody else is doing in the same way we are."

Swanbon said that he and Schofield have been talking about this for a long time, looking for a way to work together again.

"Over these past decades, we've continually supported one another with an ever-present ear, business counsel, and our views on current trends in the high-performance audio market," Swanbon said in a press release. In our interview, he added, "We have a lot of shared ideas on how to do a better job in this business and how to leverage some of the great connections we both have in the industry."