Mark Henninger, Julie Mullins

At the Florida International Audio Expo, Julie Mullins interviewed the Scott Walker Audio team as they showcased Aldo Filippelli’s installation from Luxury Audio Group. Every component was selected to suit a 35×55' room with 10' ceilings, ensuring the system delivers precise, adaptable sound in a challenging space.

Hi-fi dealership Big Kids Toys, in Greensboro, North Carolina, is aptly named. Since its 2002 inception, fun has been at the center of its ethos. At the outset, company founder Michael Twomey established a mantra: "Life is short. Enjoy yourself." It might not be all that original, but it's apt.

In the third quarter of 2024, Big Kids Toys began expanding to the Midwest: The dealership's sales manager, North Carolina native Luke Sumerford (above), opened a home-based dealership in Fort Wright, Kentucky, about five miles from the Ohio River and Cincinnati, Ohio. That's a long way from Greensboro.

Sumerford, at 29, is part of hi-fi's youth movement. He hopes to instill—or reinforce, or bring back—musical enjoyment as the central pillar of the hi-fi hobby.

Matt Thomas's hi-fi business has always been personal. He wants to keep it that way—in his curated, personalized sales approach, in choosing esoteric gear to carry, and in his listening preferences and not wanting to get too big.

A health crisis was the catalyst for Matt Thomas to start Hearken Audio: A back injury caused temporary paralysis. "For lack of a better word, it was an experience," he told me in a recent phone conversation. He's now fully recovered, but the experience changed him. He decided to pursue his passion. He was already an avid audiophile and music lover; he had been for years. After the accident, almost five years ago, he started Hearken Audio, a home-based dealership in Kitchener, Ontario, where he lives with his wife and two teenage daughters.

Myriad distribution factors drive and affect the hi-fi marketplace. Ultimately, these can impact end customer purchasing choices. Recently I've written—including in the December 2024 issue—about evolving new distribution models and how the term's meaning has shifted somewhat: Some companies have been expanding (or in some cases reducing) the kinds of services traditionally provided to exporting international manufacturers.

That made me curious about how business is going for "traditional" distribution companies. That is, companies whose services typically include handling importation, warehousing, shipping, and working with retailer partners and dealers in other capacities. They support retail dealers with the inventory they need.

YG Acoustics speakers have always had a distinct look, but the massive aluminum towers in room 806 were unmissable, even if you only glanced into the room. These were the Colorado-based manufacturer’s state-of-the-art Sonja 3.3 loudspeakers.

Traditionally in hi-fi, "distribution" refers to importing and warehousing audio equipment then delivering it as needed to a network of domestic dealers. In recent years, that model has evolved. Distributors have expanded the range of services they offer, and an increasing number of companies are skipping the distributor step altogether: dCS and T+A, among other companies, have established wholly owned subsidiaries in the US to handle importation, local warehousing, and other domestic duties. They and others have hired full-service sales and marketing agents, sometimes called "brand ambassadors." The goal, of course, is to make the practice of getting a product into the country and on the radar of dealers and customers as efficient and effective as possible.

Since it started in late 2020, this column has emphasized the imperative for bricks-and-mortar hi-fi dealerships to evolve if they want to survive and thrive in the current era. They—indeed, the whole industry—need to attract new customers as they give existing customers reasons to keep coming back.

In its current form, Houston, Texas–based dealership 3mA arose from founder and majority owner Johnny Yip's connection with Luis Miranda, a customer. The two became partners when Miranda bought into the business in 2017.

North Carolina hi-fi dealer Audio Advice has been busy lately. As I reported in last month's Industry Update, the company recently acquired The Audio Lab, a longtime dealership based in Wilmington. As this issue went to press, Audio Advice was getting ready for Audio Advice Live, the show they put on annually at the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel. Just before showtime, Stereophile spoke with Audio Advice CEO Scott Newnam and COO Gregg Chopper via Zoom. We asked about the expansion and their approach.

In the e-commerce era, brick-and-mortar dealerships must give customers compelling reasons to stop by. Los Angeles hi-fi dealership Common Wave's owner Wesley Katzir keeps customers coming through the door with a simple idea: that music matters in our everyday lives and that what he enjoys, other people will enjoy, too. That extends not just to music but also design, which is a particular preoccupation of Katzir and his business.

"I wanted to create a hi-fi space for people who were interested in the same sorts of musical and listening experiences as I am, which is much more communal," Katzir told me in a recent phone conversation. "We have enough screens in our face. I'm trying to get people away from that to a more meditative, peaceful experience with music."

Some 30 years ago, vinyl records seemed to be heading in the direction of the 8-track tape, toward becoming an obsolete format. As everyone knows, vinyl rebounded and has so far avoided that fate (but see this month's As We See It about the status of the Compact Disc). An international association aims to keep it that way.

The Vinyl Alliance was formed in 2019 "to strengthen awareness and the image of vinyl records worldwide," according to the organization's website. The VA is a membership organization with some 40 institutional members including vinyl producers, record companies (including all three major labels), music resellers, record-press makers, pressing plants, and turntable and cartridge manufacturers.