IF YOU'VE been around hi-fi long enough, you'll recall when Bang & Olufsen products were sold in regular music-equipment stores. It didn't work all that well. The gear has always looked great, and it's expensive, but sonically it has seldom been near the top of the tree. This meant specialist hi-fi dealers with golden ears frequently steered their customers into alternatives that cost much the same but performed a bit better.
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So the Danish company did something clever - it started its own stores. These began as dedicated areas within much larger places, usually big department stores, and later branched out into small shops in the right sort of areas.
Exclusive stores meant staff members were properly trained and thoroughly focused. Exclusivity meant no competitive product could divert a customer's attention. Sales improved greatly, along with brand awareness.
It's an expensive idea but it has paid off, and Bose has used it with similar effect.
Now US-based company Sonos appears to be dipping its toe in the water.
If you've never heard of Sonos, you've missed one of the great success stories of recent years. Indeed, many hi-fi dealers say that without it they'd be staring ruin in the face. It's a small but highly flexible range of products that interface wirelessly to give whole-of-home audio at a fraction of the cost of traditional hard-wired systems.
And now it has its first exclusive retail outlet. Mind you, it's a bit of a hike from here, being in Subiaco, an upmarket Perth suburb roughly midway between the city centre and the coast.
Why Perth? ''Perth is a great place to test-market an idea,'' says Jarrod Silverlock, the shop's owner.
Silverlock used to run a custom installation business and kept coming back to Sonos equipment, partly because the clients liked it, and partly because it kept costs down, but mostly because it made things easy.
Having recognised the potential of the product, he started pestering the Australian importer, Niv Novak, to set up an exclusive shop in Subiaco.
Novak talked to the Americans and the idea went ahead. Now everyone in the Sonos network is taking an interest in the little shop in the trendy inner-Perth suburb. It is just over the road from the Bose shop, and B&O is nearby.
Novak pointedly explains that Sonos has no financial interest in Silverlock's shop and is treating it as it does all its other retailers.
And yet one can't help but conclude it's very good for the Sonos brand. Along with carrying a high-street presence, it's one of the few places where you can see the entire range on display, with explanations of each product and the part it plays in a system. There's also a display outlining the whole Sonos concept.
Anyone asking for a demo is invited to hook their smartphone into the shop's wireless network to play their own music. They can get it all operating in a few seconds and the simplicity of the system couldn't be made more obvious.
''It's the sweetest product I've ever worked with,'' Silverlock says. And he's just put his money where his mouth is.
Uncross your wires at home
WHETHER you're throwing a party or relaxing on the couch, it's easy to stream music around your house.
The Sonos Digital Music System is the gold standard when it comes to multi-room audio, with speakers around your house creating their own wireless network. Using your smartphone, tablet or computer as a remote control, it's easy to play the same song in every room or send different songs to different rooms. You can listen to music from your home music library, subscription music services, internet radio stations or devices such as CD players.
Apple's AirPlay is another handy multi-room audio option, streaming music from iGadgets or computers running iTunes. Some subscription mobile and desktop music apps also support AirPlay. You can send music to wireless AirPort Express adaptors connected to speakers around your house, or to an Apple TV hooked up to your television. You'll also find AirPlay streaming built into a range of third-party speakers from Logitech, Bowers & Wilkins, JBL and Altec Lansing.
Using AirPlay can work out cheaper than a Sonos system, but it lacks the flexibility in terms of playing different songs in different rooms and drawing music from a wide range of sources. Another option for streaming music is digital radios or other home-entertainment gear that supports the DLNA streaming standard. You can now run a DLNA server on a computer or network-attached storage device and stream music across your home network.
