Meet Your Dealer – Choice Hi-Fi

Choice Hi-Fi is a perfect example of the new wave of audio supplier, eschewing the conventional dealership for a more personal and domestic approach. Customers can pick and choose from the company’s extensive range of new and ‘pre-loved’ audio equipment in an environment more like the end user’s than any store. Featuring a range of top-class audio products from old and new, Choice Hi‑Fi works out of its Richmond-upon-Thames premises, to give a sense of real domestic products in a real domestic environment.

There are good points and bad points to this way of working, and it seems Choice Hi-Fi has addressed many of them head on. We think the company has a fascinating insight into the next phase of home audio retail, so we spoke to company top-dog Alain Abensur on how audio business is changing.

What brands/products do you stock?

Choice HiFi is unique in that we carry established and well respected brands such as SME, Avalon, Mark Levinson, Primare, Revel, Townshend Audio, Bel Canto, Furutech, Stillpoints, Entreq, TelluriumQ, VTL, and Tom Evans, as well as lesser known but equally capable newer up-and-coming brands such as B.M.C Audio, Analog Domain, Ubiq Audio, Melco, and Exogal. In addition to this we are perhaps best known for having a huge and diverse range of used equipment; right now for example we have pieces from Krell, Jeff Rowland, Classe, Koetsu, Dan D’Agostino, Clearaudio and many more.

We believe this marriage of new and used equipment allows us to offer our customers complete and cost effective solutions to their hi-fi needs.

We also offer to undertake third party sales, selling our customers products to fellow enthusiasts that want the same level of service, peace of mind, and support without resorting to vagaries of eBay and the like. More on this later, perhaps!

What inspired you to get into the industry?

For me it was simply a passion for music and a love of hi-fi. Having come from an engineering background (primarily in automated machinery and hydro/pneumatics). I was first inspired to design a turntable based on those technologies (but that’s another story).

By the late 1980’s engineering was on its knees in the UK and I was debating in which direction to take my career. Then as now it was hard to find a dealer that would a) take in a part exchange and b) that was not locked in to a narrow range of brands. In other words who offered real CHOICE. So the upgrade process was a slow and laborious one. It was the unduly painful experience of upgrading my LP12/ Naim system and the search for alternatives that provided the inspiration.

Leaving the world of engineering behind I started Choice Hi-Fi with the major differentiating principals: that I would welcome trade-ins, sell both new and used equipment, and therefore not limit the brands I offer.

High end audio is built to last so this marriage of new and used as well as the willingness to take trade-ins allows my customers to have access to a level of equipment whose quality and performance is far beyond that which their budget would otherwise allow. In short, my customers enjoy far more bang for their buck and the upgrading process is kept simple as I handle both ends of the transaction. It also means that over the years I have gained first hand experience of almost all brands as well as a deep understanding of the synergy between products both old and new.

What music do you listen to when doing a demo?

By and large, an audio system ought to be ubiquitous, meaning it should be equally at home with classical music as with grunge. The reality, however, is that some speakers tend to be better suited to one genre or another, although most attempt to be at home with all.

I have my own personal favourite recordings, ranging from Gorillaz Plastic Beach to Kari Bremnes Gate Ved Gate and from Arturo Delmoni Songs My Mother Taught Me to Beethoven’s Symphony No.9, with much in between. At the end of the day though there is no substitute for listening to your own music when evaluating a system, and that’s precisely what I encourage customers to do.

What is the best piece of advice you can give to someone who is looking to improve/upgrade their system?

To love music is to be passionate and I ask people to ‘feel’ rather than ‘think’ their way to their next purchase. Buying or upgrading audio equipment is often an emotional decision and is fraught with many conflicting factors, not least the cost. So it is hard to be sure you are making the right decision. Always ask yourself first and foremost, how is this component or whole system imaking me feel. Once that question is answered, the rest falls into place much more easily. The finer nuances of voicing, detail, dynamics, soundstage, etc. almost answer themselves.

There’s one more important aspect to this. The old adage that “People Buy People First” is as true in our industry as in any other., but is often forgotten both by dealers and by customers in search of a bargain at all costs. The key is to find a dealer that you can relate to, from whom you can learn, and with whom you can further your quest. System building is an evolutionary process; it grows and evolves as we grow and evolve and as circumstances and technologies change.

Where do you see the industry going?

I’m generally very optimistic. Our industry has always been led by innovators and I believe this will continue to be the case in the future. These innovators often become trendsetters and so each era has tended to have a “style” of sound, and a focus in certain areas; think of Spikes, cables, bi-wiring, power conditioners, mains cables grounding, and isolation.

I believe there will be an increasingly holistic approach to system building taking into account all of the above as we gain a better understanding of the their influences.

Entry-level products continue to get better as filter-down technologies get implemented. However, the gap between these and true high-end system will remain.

Differing technologies and implementations will ensure we continue to have diverse offerings, each with its own colour allowing manufacturers to differentiate themselves from one another.

Computer technology will continue to give ever-higher Bit and Sample rates interpolating the waveform to the nth degree but until we have a breakthrough in our understanding of psychoacoustics and precise algorithms for how the brain interprets sound, with a transducer to match, then the steps will continue to be small incremental ones.

There is and I believe will continue to be a dichotomy between those that want a hi-fi system but need it to be invisible and those who may have the luxury of a dedicated room or at least for whom the system takes centre stage.

We are not a one size fits all industry.

Who or what has been your biggest influence?

I can best answer that by products and their designers. In the 90s we were responsible for introducing Focal (then JMLab), Alon (now Nola), and Boulder into the UK. Each of the men behind those products had a clear vision of the best way to implement their respective technologies.

For Focal, it was the D’Appolito design and inverted dome tweeter which was capable of producing some stunning detail and dynamics albeit at some cost in the early days! Boulder was all about the unique gain stage with a then unrivalled build quality capable of enormous control and dynamic swing. And Alon was all about the open baffle design with an electrostatic style sound stage – deep, airy, and tangible. Those three manufacturers more than any others for me broke new ground and therefore influenced my understanding of what good hi-fi was capable of.

How has the Internet affected your business and do you sell online?

The Internet is a double-edged sword. We all know what a wonderful resource it can be. On the other hand it can give credence to opinions and ideas that are unfounded and based on hearsay and conjecture that spread like a game of ‘Chinese Whispers’ (‘Telephone’), and end up far from the truth.

Many sites now allow users to buy and sell their items online.

Long distance, arms length selling is here to stay. However, I much prefer the one-to-one interaction with customers where you can gain a real understanding of their needs not to mention the friendships you develop and the music you discover along the way.

In short, the need for good audio dealers is stronger today than at any time in the past, because when you are parting with your hard-earned cash, there is no substitute for coalface experience, especially when combined with service, support, peace of mind, and long-term relationship.