Another high end audio chain goes belly up

Just came across this on AGON. I poked my nose in there just a few weeks ago. Sad.

I will say their knowledge of TTs (and selection) was pretty poor. That just leaves Overture in the Wilmington, DE area.

https://app.audiogon.com/stores/quakercityauctions

 

The photos show home theater stuff. No wonder they closed. That market is dead.

 

I don't know the numbers, but I'd be surprised if the home theater market is less healthy than the home stereo market. I don't think either of them is particularly robust, but I think a lot more people are willing to buy basic HT equipment than they are stereo equipment. A lot of people seem content with inexpensive speaker docs for music listening now.

 

The internet is killing brick and mortar stores, and that's really too bad. However, it is a godsend for people like me who live hundreds of miles from the nearest audio dealer that carries any high-end gear.

The high-end market is really a very small market, and it's difficult for a store to cater to such a limited clientele. Big stores, like Best Buy's Magnolia have a better chance of making it because the store itself can make a profit selling the popular consumer electronics. Also stores like Music Direct, which has a nice store in the Chicago area, or so I've been told, also have a strong online presence so they can sell to the high-end crowd all over the country, effectively reaching hundreds of thousands of potential consumers. The county I live in has just 250,000 people, and I'm the only audiophile I know. Now, I know I'm not the only one, but there just aren't that many of us around. Kinda sad when you think about it....

 

This story on the Hi Fi House closing (I guess there were 3 locations — not really a chain?...) seems to indicate they were in fact all in on home-theater and custom installation:

http://www.cepro.com/article/veteran_integrator_htsa_icon_hifi_house_abruptly_closes/

 

I got the Audiogon email on this today, unfortunately. Poor Philly, I remember Soundex closing, among others.

I think there's something to be learned here that is more "macro-economic". It speaks to our overall socio-economic situation and the dwindling "middle-class". Look at today's business report on the Dollar Tree/Family Dollar merger. They talk to a well respected retail analyst who boils it down to "the middle class is dying". Sears and JCPenny are doing horribly while Dollar Tree is skyrocketing as the general population starts to move downscale. All the while, the UBER high end is also doing very well. A further stratification of the country economically.

The Home Theatre business is doing very well, for those who hire design firms to do a turn-key build out. Just as the iPod docks and $199 multi-channel receivers do fine. Today, don;t try to position yourself in the middle, as HFi House did. Overture is great, Terry has made that store work through thick and thin, but it survives on the high end.

 

Hifi House suddenly closed a few weeks ago after the bank called their notes. This is after record revenues the past fiscal year. They were heavily committed to 2-channel as well.

 

some small words of very personal appreciation for the existence of HiFi House…


My youth was spent growing up in Newtown Square, PA, just west of the town where HiFi House was located. In high school 1973-76, as soccer goalkeeper, I had some excellent players in front of me. One of the most tenacious, persistent, never-say-die guys up front was "Jonny" Jon Robbins. Not a big guy physically, but a big presence - intense intense intense energy and determination. (He was also never shy in any way about reaming me out if he didn't like how I was performing). But no matter how intense, seldom out of line. Jonny was intense with us because he cared about the team.

---

I went to HiFi House for the first time in early-1970s simply because I loved music, HiFi House was a family business, had a good reputation, and I had saved a precious little bit of money delivering newspapers and working in the local fruit and vegetable market (sigh, trimming lettuce at 5am and learning the will-never-leave-my-brain smell of banana boxes…).

From the outside, HiFi House had a perhaps-unimpressive location in an industrial park, I recall going inside and there was noone in the showroom.

Then in walked a guy who changed my life.

---

Daryl Paxson: the complete embodiment of every good stereotype you can imagine of 1970's laid-back, mellow sorta-hippie audio sales guy. Daryl was the sales person we all wish we could have met when we were young and wanted to learn about audio gear: very kind, very patient, no pressure, tolerated many, many (did I say many…) visits, and shared an unbelievable wealth of knowledge about gear and music. He guided me in bang-for-the-buck mode to my first real turntable/cartridge, cassette deck, non-homebew speakers, and an Advent Model 300 receiver. Certainly not much revenue for him….

(Those speakers which Daryl brought into my life were Genesis Physics Model 1's and Model 2's - you might enjoy this post about my Model 2's Little Feat karma).

---

Daryl was a fine person, a great guy. We used to hang out in the showroom on many evenings, just listening to music as he would explain differences in all the gear, playing high-end vs other equipment…. he got me completely, utterly hooked. I didn't have a father around, Daryl knew it, he had gone through similar issues… We became friends, he helped me though lots of stuff (especially the world of high-school girlfriends, fortunately he approved of my main choice)… had some wonderful music and arts adventures outside of HiFi House as well.

Due in no small part to Daryl's influence, I ended up studying electrical engineering at Lehigh, started attending Audio Engineering Society conventions in New York… became fascinated by digital signal processing, landed my first job at Bell Labs in the team that developed the first integrated circuit DSPs, helped build the earliest use of DSPs in pro audio, moved to Switzerland, worked for Studer… later went back to Bell Labs based in europe, was a principal in building the first business of the DSP-based integrated circuit systems-on-a-chip that started the world of digital cellular in the later 1980s. Built businesses, travelled the world, met amazing people everywhere and had countless wonderful experiences.

Needless to say, I have always been grateful for having met Daryl at HiFi House.

---

My life changed a lot due to a very bad incident of police misconduct years ago which as one consequence completely decimated my career. Still haven't been able to get much work for years; in fact I'm currently homeless, completely wiped out in Berkeley. But the universe somehow led me to opportunity working hard in the civil rights world to try to help other people avoid similar fates. One case reached and was considered by the United States Supreme Court; another which I am forced to do by myself has as of past weeks made it into US Federal Court. Analytical training from the engineering education, and a sense of passion nurtured through music and theatre, have been foundations which have made it in any way possible.

I don't recall precisely when Daryl passed away many years ago, but I do still feel it in my heart that when I learned of his death, I knew, as it is said in german, that the stars had pulled an exceptional person to their midst.

Thank you Daryl Paxson for nurturing my path. May you Rest in Peace.


The article linked above about the closing of HiFi House says that when the closing came, the company handled it with class, personally with the employees. I've not had any contact with Jon Robbins since those soccer fields of almost 40 years ago…. but this matches my memories of the young Jon Robbins. He busted his butt to the end, and he cared about his team.

Thank you family Robbins.

Thank you HiFi House, may you Rest in Peace.

 

I think Axiom nailed it in post #6. People in the middle class do not have the money to spend on stereo equipment. Lots of younger people tell me that they want to get a good stereo eventually but they can't afford it because of student loans and high rents.

They basically finance their phones on a long term plan and use them for music. They do want music to sound good so they invest in better headphones and little headphone amps for listening sessions. The rest of the time they just use blue tooth or sound docks.

As for Home Theatre I think the market is saturated and people realized they don't want every sitcom and commercial shouting at them and rumbling with deep bass effect. The home theatre sound is turned off most of the time when they watch TV. That always seemed a little silly to me.

Consumers are the engine of our economy, and they are running out of gas.

 

If by the home theater market, folks mean custom installations and actual theaters, I have no doubt that the market is hurting. These are costly installations, and many people simply do not have the disposable income or need for it. It's far cheaper and still effective to buy stuff at Best Buy and set it up yourself. A lot of people save more money by foregoing the speakers and receiver; an HDTV and Blu-Ray player is good enough for a lot of people. Some people stream and don't even need a Blu-Ray player.

 

Very true. Plus younger people are accustomed to taking music around with them i.e. MP3s or similar nowadays whereas their parents less so, although looking at the state of some of the second hand records I have acquired they have definitely been to a party or two back in the day.

 

Very moving. Sometimes we forget that it is people and personalities that drive a business.

 

the world is going to hell in a hand basket

 

But at least I'm enjoying the ride

 

Only part of it.

 

No tears from me.

Why ?

Because in the old days you could go and listen to some piece of equipment and then purchase exactly THAT piece of equipment you saw and heard - as soon as all those shops became just showrooms with demo equipment I could not purchase, I had no need for them. I want that piece I saw or heard - not the one they order for me ..... that I can do for myself with the internet.

It is a pet peeve of mine, I know and I know also that nobody gets this, but not being able to purchase exactly that piece of equipment, or car (if new) or sofa, or whatever that you actually saw, smelled and heard or have driven on a test drive etc, no, you can only order and get some other piece which should be the same ...... I want exactly this one and I want it now ! Wrap it up and let me take it home.

Rant over.

 

To each his own, but I prefer to buy new rather than the demo unit. I don't buy into break-in, but for folks that do, the demo unit may be broken in, but you can do that yourself with a new unit. All of this said, it is a pain when a brick-and-mortar store has no inventory. After the time spent driving to the store, listening, etc. and making a decision, I could just buy online and not have to drag the item home. The item may even be cheaper online, and I may get it faster from an online retailer than from the local store ordering it by mail.

Several years ago, my wife and I drove a half-hour to a local shop to look at audio racks. We decided what we wanted only to find out that they stocked none of what was on display. They were charging full list and said they would get the rack I wanted in two weeks. We had just moved into the house and needed the rack to set up a stereo system. I ended up buying the rack from a reputable online retailer and received it in three days. It was also cheaper than buying from the local shop. I know that some people are sensitive to folks wasting the time of the local shop employees only to buy online, but it's my time as well (as well as my money).

Upinsmoke mentioned Overture Audio in his first post. I used to live in Delaware, and that was a great store when I lived there. They stocked most of the items on display. Their salespeople were a bit snobby, but they were very knowledgeable and helpful. I miss that store.