Amina completed a family home in Scotland with 40 separate areas featuring sound and vision – and the criterion that not a single speaker must be visible
[KEY POINTS]
This isn’t a tech-savvy market – every sale is an educational process
Aesthetics are key, but clients, architects and interior designers are often not aware of the more innovative speaker solutions
Though several interviewees say distinctions are more subtle, the market essentially splits between showy ‘bachelor’ and invisible ‘family’ solutions
MP3s are a common element, with uncompressed alternatives and processing capable of delivering richer audio – but hi-fi isn’t generally the prime consideration in residential audio
House music
The residential audio market is diverse: do customers want ostentation or minimalism, high-end fidelity or digital convenience? Gez Kahan settles into a comfy chair and listens in
IT was a cliché of 1960s Hollywood, the millionaire bachelor pad, where at the touch of a button the villain – they were always villains, these millionaire bachelors – could convert an ordinary luxury apartment into a seduction paradise. Drapes would close, lights would dim, the sofa would morph into a king-size divan, soft music would play… and leggy lovelies would succumb. Actually it was boys who succumbed. Leggy lovelies
tended to be gadget-proof, but lads – they were seduced, all right. All they lacked (give or take a million dollars) was the technology to make the dream come true. Fast forward half a century and not only do we have the technology, but the interim stages of an integrated residential AV set-up – multi-room speaker systems, for example – are relatively commonplace, even for ordinary folk. And with millionaires (as distinct from
villains) now almost a cliché, there’s a whole heap of residential audio solutions available to anyone prepared to invest a few dollars more. So what are the boys asking for these days? And how aware of current technology are they?
“Based on our business
experience,” says Todd Anthony Puma, president of The Source Home Theater Installation & Design Corporation, “the customer doesn’t know any technical
detail to speak of.” Puma’s company, based in New York, typically deals with well-off clients wanting an audio- video solution to suit their swanky homes. These people aren’t suckers (you don’t get rich by being an easy mark), and the testimonials on The Source’s website show they shop around before buying… but the sale itself is generally an educational process. “We ask what they’re looking for and suggest the speakers, controllers, TVs
etc,” Puma says. “Ours is a referral business – our clients find out about systems we’ve installed when visiting friends’ houses or at parties.” The testimonials prove that too. One of The Source’s recent installations is the ‘Man Cave’ for Amani Toomer, a former New York Giants American footballer (see case study, page 30) – and the company’s site is littered with testimonials about their own systems from Toomer’s team mates.