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Ideal Manufacturers for your local hi-fi shop...?

I'm a college student, and am majoring in Business and Econ/Finance to one day open up an audio shop. I want to focus on multi-channel music reproduction and true high fidelity home theater; something worth listening to music on.

This coming semester I will be in an Entrepreneurship (Small Business Management) class and have to create a fictional business, my choice as to what business seems obvious.

I’ve chosen a few manufacturers that I believe offer a good balance to and selection for a variety of price ranges. This will be a mostly audio based store, so keep that in mind. I would like feedback from the experts/obsessed, like myself, as to what vendor you would recommend adding or omitting to this list. Please keep in mind a couple of things though. 1. This is not a list of my favorite manufacturers; the goal is a list of an ideal selection. 2. The list will ideally be as short as possible as I will just starting out and will make life and the project easier. 3. Any advice on how to get vendors to sell at a brand new store (under real life circumstances) would be greatly appreciated. 4. The goal is high end home theater and multi-channel music reproduction, but we all know 2 channel can’t be ignored.

Parasound Halo (very attractive products, a good 2 channel preamp, the JC-1 bargain “A” rated bargain monoblocks)
Rotel (the only “receiver” offered for those wanting a smaller system, as well as a more affordable home theater alternative with there cheaper pre/pros, they also offer a universal disc player)
Meridian (The cutting edge in digital sources and pre/pros, the G series would be a very attractive option for most customers, hopefully.. No desire to sell their speakers if possible)
PS Audio (A wide range of power products, but not as generic as the Monster brand I would not sell their audio cables if possible)
Audioquest (Once again we have a single company with a solid background and a wide range of product. They also appear to me to be a good value)
Mark Levinson (All the amplification I could want, as well as the best 2 channel pres and cd players I would offer)
Revel (For a class A rated speaker the Ultima Studio is a bargain and offers full range in both frequency and dynamics, they also offer a worthy center, the most important channel, and surrounds. Their new SUB30 is supposed to be great as well.)
Totem Acoustic (This would be my average speaker, they offer a traditional look with wood grains versus the modern Revels, they also are dynamic yet small to be room friend [waf] They Their price range would dip to the bottom end, with the rainmaker or Dreamcatcher paired with a rotel receiver)
Gallo Acoustic (Once again we have a bargain buy with the Reference 3, but also another worthy center, the Duo. They also offer a great alternative to in-walls for those with picky decors.

I want each and every comment from all that took the time to read this entire thread, sorry so long, and thanks a ton for the help.
Patrick Mahoney from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais IL.
eclipse911t

Showing 5 responses by prpixel

prpixel
876 posts
 
Patrick,

If your market is big enough, sure you can make a living just doing retail. A lot of people go into business with the idea "I like product x, so everybody else will like it too". This is a flawed business model; you have to sell what the public wants, not what you as a individual want.

As far as you idea for using mono amps goes, offer it as an option, but have a good 5 and 7 channel amp as the primary.

I was going to suggest that you pick up a few issues of Audio/video interiors but they've changed the focus of thier magazine. You would se beautiful homes with incredible looking theaters driven by mid-fi crap.

Let me say it once again; Audiophiles are a very small minority. I can't stress that enough.

Good luck,
prpixel
876 posts
 
First, not everybody on this site is an audiophile.

When your young, you think you can change the world. After about 20 years of banging your head against the wall and pissing into the wind, you'll learn that sometimes it's easier to move a mountain than change the world. I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm saying be prepared for a lot of aggravation and frustation. When I was you, I felt the same way; now I just want to hide in my safe little hole.

Later,
prpixel
876 posts
 
That last line should have been:

When I was young, I felt the same way; now I just want to hide in my safe little hole.
prpixel
876 posts
 
Cinematic_systems,

Just for the record, the dealer also offered Anthem, Aragon, Parasound and Theta. The client wanted a receiver so in went a Denon 5XXX.

I've sat through some of these sales meetings, to do the remote part, and sometimes the client is trying to hit a price point. They don't want to spend a lot on eq and spend more on making it look good and easy to use. Other clients trust you to give them the best for thier money, but they don't want you to sell them stuff that they will never use. As you know, there is a lot more profit in hi-end seperates than in a $1200 receiver. Hey, I've actually come across clients that only wanted one speaker in each room for WHA to save money.

Just for the record, I've been retired for the last three years, but I do still consult on the occasional proposal as a courtesy.
prpixel
876 posts
 
Well, if you thinking of doing HT, then here are a few things to consider:

1. Most people don't care about sound quality when it comes to HT; they want boom and sizzle.

2. If you're doing just HT, then you're going to have to do custom install and whole house audio.

3. Your also going to have to learn to program remotes such as pronto, crestron, elan, lexicon, etc.

4. Most people who spend big bucks on HT/WHA(whole house audio) don't care about the sound; they don't want to see it (inwall speakers) and they want it easy to use.

I've been affiliated (I did the home automation)with a couple of local "hi-end" stores over the years. Their bread and butter is custom install. Retail makes up very little of the bottom line.

Example: you sell a guy a 42" plasma for $3000 which has about $600 in profit in it. You sell him the wall mount bracket, cables and install for an additional $2000 with about $1600 in profit. So, which would you rather sell - the tv or the install? Or, you can sell a customer $30000 of gear like Denon, Sony and Yamaha and then charge him $100000 for the install and programming of the remotes. I saw one customer spend over $1,000,000 on a system for his 22,000 square/foot mansion, which doesn't include the 7 car garage. The audio gear was less than $200,000 which including many crestron touch-screen panels.

Remember, High-end and audiophiles are a very small minority.

I've seen stores cater to just the very high end and go out of business and I've seen stores cater to the "entry level" of high-end and go under also. You have to strike a balance. Remember the guy that's spending $250,000 doesn't really want to rub elbows with the guy spending $500. Just like the guy spending spending $200 on a gourmet meal doesn't want to sit next to the guy spending $10 on the early bird bistro menu special.
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