Luxus is something beautiful. Those who can afford it are happy to show it off. Expensive cars and watches are eternal classics, noble droplets from Bordeaux have long been a sign of expensive taste, chic luxury smartphones have established themselves as flagship products.
All of these things are also desirable because they are tastefully advertised in movies, television, magazines, and the internet. Many manufacturers have flagship stores in the cities where the curious can look at their products and maybe even touch them. You don’t order noble things on the Internet from Amazon, you buy them on the spot.
When was the last time you saw advertising for high-end, i.e. for noble and high-quality hi-fi? When was the last time a friend or colleague at home demonstrated their stereo system with fat speakers? That was perhaps 30 years ago, when young people still spent their money on a CD player and not on a Playstation as they do today, or when adults happily placed the tonearm of their top-class record player on the LP. The higher the tower of amplifiers, tuners, turntables and so on grew, the greater the owner’s pride. Those are long gone times. If high-end and hi-fi continue to go downhill like this, both will soon be underground where no one will dig for them anymore.
What a theatre
Measures that counteract the decline are few in Germany. Most stores just look like they did 30 years ago, when customers depended on such shopping opportunities. In the relevant audio magazines, the monthly flipping of the pages with the advertisements becomes torture because the photos from the Photoshop beginners’ course and sayings from the DIY kit have been the same for decades in order to appeal to a target group that is constantly shrinking. But there are a dozen exceptions in which high-end and hi-fi are presented in a contemporary way: My Sound shows extremely beautiful and contemporary premises on Lake Starnberg, Auditorium has three chic shops, Aura in Essen makes something, and the hi-fi Professionals in Frankfurt anyway.
Even if Ernst Schmid has what is probably the largest shop in Germany there, it is still not big enough to adequately present the high-end Champions League. So the 63-year-old rented a former theater in Eckenheim, a district of Frankfurt, in order to set up the crème de la crème of the high end there. There is enough space in the six projection rooms, the cinema and the gallery for turntables. During the tour we pass the Burmester Statement BC 350, one of which weighs 400 kilograms, followed by McIntosh’s Maestro system with the XRT 2.1 K speakers bass horn builds up. Finally, we are in front of the Grande Utopia from Focal, an old acquaintance from the days of the fair. “And if you don’t go there,” says Ernst Schmid, “you don’t even know that such speakers exist.” That’s exactly the problem in the industry.
That should change with the new location. Entry to the theater is by appointment only. It is free of charge, with the boss himself, who also serves coffee or wine. “I’m always there for the customer,” promises Schmid. He really means around the clock. Two appointments were at eight o’clock on Sunday morning. Soon someone will be coming by at three o’clock in the morning. There are more potential buyers in Germany than you think, because many don’t even know that they are. Bugatti, Rolls Royce and Bentley also sell some of their cars to Germany. If customers are still shocked by the prices, Schmid is happy to ask how expensive their cars or watches are.
The hi-fi professional wants to win new customers with his exhibition. It’s a different target group than the store in downtown Frankfurt. A system for half a million euros, some of which are in the theatre, can really only be afforded by people who earn or have inherited a lot of money. This is where millionaires step into the theater if they are seriously considering buying such a facility. The fact that they can come by with the family, are greeted with a handshake or an elbow and are looked after in a warm, feel-good atmosphere are just as good prerequisites for a deal as Schmid’s sales strategy, that high-end has to “fit the lifestyle”. However, the sound is likely to be most convincing if you sit and listen in one of the large rooms.
#Future #High #HiFi #Hear #Signals