A Car Toys store manager, Jeremy Boyd, who started the chain’s push to Hi-Res Audio, has been promoted to Director of High End Audio for the near 50-store chain based in Seattle.
Boyd, shown above in the center of the photo, is an accomplished car audio competitor. He built a high end demo room in the Lynnwood Car Toys, which became the prototype for similar demo rooms in more than 20 Car Toys locations, dubbed Car Toys Centers of Excellence.
Boyd’s ability to sell high end product including Focal Utopia speakers and JL Audio C7 speakers, even in neighborhoods with modest income levels, helped push the chain to move to the high end.
“I had seen where DSPs [digital signal processors] were going in the industry and I came up with an idea to get three way [speaker systems] on the displays and amps with DSP and standalone DSPs,” said Boyd, who is modest and given to understatement. “We did pretty well there. It started with one store, Lynnwood, and it’s in over 20 stores now.”
Boyd’s role is to facilitate training and find new hire installers, plus oversee the functionality of the high end demo rooms.
Part of Boyd’s role is to make sure the high end systems are tuned properly and the customer has a high end sales experience to match the upscale system.
“Jeremy’s role is more about the sound quality of our builds. His role was created because we recognized that complex high-end audio systems are as much about the sales experience and services as it is about products,” said Car Toys Chief Operating Officer Tom Healy.
“In the end the quality of the product equals the quality of the tuning and installation. That requires training sales people, ensuring our rooms are tuned, and training our technicians on tuning the latest DSPs,” said Healy, adding, “We believe Car Toys has the best sounding mobile audio rooms in the industry and we will produce the best sounding mobile audio solutions in the industry. As a world class expert in sound quality Jeremy Boyd will ensure we maintain that standard.”
A few weekends ago, Boyd won two bass completion categories at Surf City breaking two IASCA world records, said Healy. Boyd won the 2012 MECA Sound Quality competition championship and was a winner in SPL world championships for several years.
Boyd plans to spend a lot of time in the field, and currently moved to Texas, rather than sticking close to Car Toys’ headquarters in Seattle.
“There’s still a lot of training and finding the right guys and the guys who install at a high level,” he said.
Top Photo: Right to Left, Tom Healy, Jeremy Boyd and Randy Blackburn
