A Pandemic project that ran away with itself....
...and unintentially became part of a new movement in HiFi
Alongside some pretty acute imposter syndrome, joining an industry with no experience brings some unexpected advantages. Because I didn’t learn at the knee of a fellow HiFi dealer the how not’s and how to’s of audio retail, I didn’t, as if by osmosis, absorb the decades long approach that seems to have become accepted as THE WAY. When my newly formed partnerships with manufacturers and distributors asked my where my shop is, or what other established brands I would be partnering their products with or what Diana Krall album I’d be using for demo - I drew a blank.
I’ll start at the beginning…
I came to High End Audio via my brother-in-law John, 20 years ago at the age of 19. When my now wife and I visited him in New Jersey, I entered his house for the first time and saw a pair of monolithic speakers flanking a long wall in his lounge with cables trailing off into an adjacent room; dimly and enticingly lit. I had always loved music, had many hand me down stereos and tape cassette players throughout my childhood and teenage years and even been in bands, but I had never really thought about audio quality. I’m not sure I even knew what an audiophile was. John’s speakers, a pair of Vandersteen Model 2, caught my attention, but the room they connected to was the gateway drug to the now 20 year obsession that most of us who love this hobby will admit borders on lunacy. A rack of glowing components with cables running here, there and everywhere, a turntable sitting atop a wall mounted platform, stacks of CD’s, music magazines and books - and here’s the kicker - an entire wall of vinyl. I was mesmerised.
That weekend, John played me three formats of the same album - Joy Division’s Closer - a FLAC via his Squeezebox Touch, CD and Vinyl. We listened to differences, picking out improvements and detail. I’d always loved the album and the band but I had never heard it like this. Hearing music I loved, as if for the first time, over cold beers…the rest is history.
Back in England it was time to save up for my own system. I started buying hifi magazines and trying to understand how it all worked. One month I came across an advert for a dealer called Audio Sanctum who was advertising a new brand from Sweden called XTZ. A Class A/AB switchable amplifier, CD player and speakers for under £2000. This seemed too good to be true? The big name brands I had been researching for months had cost that for a single component? The following month a rave review appeared, championing this new boutique brand’s approach and pricing and made my decision for me. To this day, it remains a phenomenal system for the price and not only represents my first foray into high quality audio, it was also the initial seed that would become how I approached audio retail myself - leave the big name brands for others, boutique is the best sound for pound in HiFi.
Fast forward a decade and the beginnings of audiophile nervosa had kicked in. Components were swapped out, sold, traded up, down and sideways. Products from GoldenEar, Croft, Grado, Oppo, Innuos and various other esoteric bargains dropped in and out of the system alongside vintage turntables and speakers and all manner of tweaks and accessories. The years rolled by. I become a forum and HiFi review blog devotee, devouring information and feedback on exciting and unusual audio designs. I kept noticing a Chinese brand called Line Magnetic being discussed on many of these sites and how incredible they were for the money and started to dream of their 1940’s Western Electric speakers, SET amplifiers and glowing 300b valves in my future….if only they didn’t have to be bought from slightly dodgy looking websites or ebay….
VAL HiFi
Fast forward to late 2019, a few months before reports of a new virus appearing in Wuhan, China, I was start to wonder - ‘if no one else is going to bring these interesting and boutique brands into the UK, could I?’ I start to reach out to companies I have long admired and followed and asked the question. With fairly low capital, funded from selling all the HiFi I owned at the time, I started the process of creating the type of business I had always wanted to find myself. A good friend helped me turn the sketches I had in my mind and the influence I’d wanted to mine for the logo. I chose a name - coined after my then 18 month year old son VAL. Then I found a great web designer to help me pull it all together and expand on my new brand identity - I wanted to be unique and set out my stall proudly as just that. This was not going to be just another HiFi retail business.
As brands started to come on board, often offering to loan demo equipment to begin with in return for reviews in UK magazines, I had my white whale to harpoon. Line Magnetic….
The UK and much of the world had gone into full blown lockdown as spring arrived so I had time on my hands to seek them out. I made contact with the owner of the new European distributor for Line Magnetic based in Paris. A Zoom call (like the no doubt billions of others going on at this time) was arranged and exclusivity for the UK was agreed. Gotcha.
Around this time I saw an ad in HiFi News for a distributor called Whole Note who seemed to share a similar ethos to me - askew the big name brands, look for the smaller and exciting underdog - and I took on all of his brands. It was the start of a long standing working relationship and friendship and in fact without David’s support and guidance over the early years and beyond, VAL HiFi wouldn’t be what it is today. I’m grateful to him.
The website was developing and more and more of the brands and products I had loved were joining my portfolio. Now it was time to get the VAL HiFi name out there. Our first advert in HiFi News magazine arrived in print in Autumn of 2020.
The Covid lockdowns proved to be an unexpectedly perfect enviroment to start a new HiFi business. As people were confined to their houses and with only so many Netflix boxsets to binge and quizzes to sign up to, music became a solace or at least reminded people of the solace it can offer - perhaps many had forgotten as modern living had dominated their headspace and spare time in recent years. It also turned out that I wasn’t the only person who wasn’t turned on by the latest KEF or Chord products. The boutique brands and products that VAL HiFi had to offer found an audience immediately.
It’s now been nearly 4 years since we launched and we have gone from strength to strength, building a large online following and an ever expanding clientele of boutique hifi enthusiasts. Some brands have come and gone but many of the initial line up remain and are now joined by an incredible supporting cast of cutting edge, beautifully made and brilliantly boutique brands. As of today, we average nearly 25k visits to www.valhifi.co.uk each month.
HiFi retail needed to change and indeed it is. The days of the high street dealer offering the usual suspect brands are waning. Customers are becoming bored of the continual cycle of upgrades and add ons from companies that have a release plan no different to Apple, with the law of deminishing returns turned up to 11. If you’re reading this, chances are you too want more from your HiFi and your hard earned cash. We’re glad to have you.
Our passion is for discovering, supporting and championing boutique brands. The very best in HiFi does not always come from the most well known brands and we believe we have the ultimate alternatives. In the next post, we’ll take a deeper look at some of them.
Thanks for reading.
Greg
