Fifty-store chain Car Toys expects to outfit 12 stores with Hi-Res Audio demo showrooms by the end of the year, as management now sees Hi-Res Audio as key to its future strategy.
Car Toys VP of Sales Tom Healy said Hi-Res “is the story of the industry right now. It’s the story we’re trying to tell. It’s where the training is; the new Kenwood line is all about Hi-Res certification. Kicker, JL Audio, Alpine, Mosconi, Focal are in that space. It’s sound quality and OEM integration.” He added, “OEM doesn’t have this.”
With Kenwood’s recent launch of Hi-Res amplifiers, speakers and head units and the continued push by early advocates such as Audison, the format may be gaining a higher profile at retailers.
Car Toys now calls the new locations with Hi-Res demo rooms “Elite” stores. Five stores slated for the demo rooms include Car Toys in Frisco, TX, South Center WA, and North Glenn, CO. An Olympia WA location just started building the room last week. This all stems from an experiment by Car Toys’ Lynnwood, WA store, which pioneered the format in November last year.
It takes 10 days to build the demo room; “We have it machined and ready to go. The store just has to put it up, tune it, and build some boxes,” Healy said.
The push into Hi-Res Audio is the result of the efforts of a Car Toys store manager Jeremy Boyd, who happens to be the winner of the 2012 MECA Sound Quality competition championship and a winner in SPL world championships for the past two years. Fans continually come to Lynnwood Car Toys (near Seattle) trying to get the same audio set up as in Boyd’s winning cars. So he went to upper management seeking permission to create a demo room that showed off the high end products he competed with. It focused on Hi-Res Audio as Boyd’s system centered around the Sony RSX-GS9 deck (which upconverts a signal to Hi-Res Audio quality). It also includes Focal Utopia No. 7 speakers and JL Audio C7 components.
Sales of DSPs and high end speakers went up and management was sold.
The Lynnwood store just completed a $100,000 build on a BMW as a result of the demo room. They system includes three Mosconi amplifiers at $2999 each, two pairs of Focal No 7 active speaker up front, an Aerospace 8to12, No. 6 actives, a Sony RSX-GS9 and an in-dash iPad plus a TV in the dash for a backup camera, 4K gaming and an Xbox One X, GoPro cameras, and full Wifi and gaming hubs. “We couldn’t have sold it without this room. Being able to show the high end speakers makes the difference,” said Boyd.
“We’re selling a lot more active three-way set ups; more DSPs in general and higher quality speakers. We’re selling more C7s and the Focal 165 FX is selling very well at $499. We’re getting people more interested in sound quality,” he added.
When a customer comes in the door, “It’s like, ‘You got a minute? You gotta hear this,’” said Healy. “Most people are pretty interested in that.”
What’s more, the success in Lynnwood, has created a new attitude by management in favor of high end selling and Hi-Res Audio. “Everyone is excited about embracing the industry change. This is the biggest thing that has happened in a decade,” said Randy Blackburn, Car Toys’ National Install Manager, speaking of Hi-Res Audio.
“It can absolutely boost a stores’ bottom line. You get bigger tickets and more labor. We sincerely don’t understand the percentages yet. We have a hard time identifying what this room cost. But we know it influences the whole store,” Healy said.
No, $100k systems are like unicorns and mermaids…. however, we should all embrace ANYTHING that motivates a customer to change their paradigm of “i only want to spend $300 on a deck and two” to “I really want my system to sound significantly better”. Good demo systems/rooms are a great tool to assist that change.
Just in time inventory… support your local distributor. A few present more in many cases… but you are right. The cost of keeping the inventory outweighs this small difference.
Great idea, but it won’t save the industry.
Best of luck. $100K BMW systems are not the norm in the industry, nor in the Seattle market. Glad CT is trying something, but the green grass opportunity just isn’t in this micro niche. It doesn’t justify the investment, unless of course the vendors are providing the product at N/C and offering just in time delivery.