For Carlton Audio Visual this has been a year of enforced change. The post pandemic landscape was quite different for us. Its our understanding that dealers in our marketplace with a strong online sales bias did very well during the two year lockdown period.

Trapped consumers in their homes adopted shopping by internet and those retailers that had the appropriate product and presentation online to capitalise were able to make hay from covid sunshine.

We were at a disadvantage; Carlton Audio Visual is a company strongly invested in personal service and demonstrations of actual product, in a store that people were not allowed to come into during the lockdowns.

We got through by spending a lot of time on the phone to potential clients and by dropping kit off for people to try at home. The techs were generally in demand for their networking and maintenance skills although most of our ongoing audio visual installation projects were deferred or drastically slowed.

In the post pandemic environment where our industry colleagues are getting leaner and smarter with sometimes massive capital investments in their business, and we all have excellent google ratings … how do we keep selling good Hi fi to highly critical clients at competitive prices with excellent service?

In a small business like ours there are realistically limitations on what we can change and improve upon. Yes we are limited by our people and resources ...

There is something very fundamental to a business in our scene that sometimes is forgotten in the very high standards of service and presentation required to stay afloat.

It’s the raw quality of the material of your purveyance.

The past year has for us been a process of a reconsolidation with suppliers and brands, basically to capitalise on our strengths and exploit the online purveyor’s weakness.

To this aim we have acquired a new brand portfolio in the last twelve months that has extremely high entrance barriers and a built-in requirement of a high standard of classic service standards.

This is part of the post pandemic opportunity for a dedicated Hi Fi dealer that wishes to promulgate a high service standard and that has a developed identity. 

Here are the main parts of this new mix. This is in addition to our exsiting exemplary collection. Our brand paragons of Audio Research, Dynaudio, Krix, and Sonus faber are stronger than ever in this blend.

Van Den Hul ... handmade catridges and super tech cables from the Netherlands

Cyrus XR … this is the high end version of the established English brand that is a complete electronic makeover of these magnesium alloy shoeboxes.  Radio Observatory SN ratio levels.

Yamaha Aventage … the tier one Yamaha surround sound receivers. Crisp and strong.

Aurender ... an ultimate audio streaming and server brand from Korea.

Spendor loudspeakers … now being nurtured by a local distributor with the full range on display … absolutely British

Yamaha 5000 series … we are the sole Victorian distributor for these controversial but highly accomplished Japanese high-end components and speakers

Naim … we have literally been dying to sell this iconic UK product for twenty years and finally after all the other dealers were sacked were able to pass the audition (just) and now have a dedicated room.

McIntosh … we can now offer the Core range of these iconic New York manufactured components.

Sony Headphones … from the WX1000 through to the MDRZ1R

Meze Headphones ... new kid in the high end head-fi speace from Romania

Sony laser projectors … industry standard HDR cinema devices

Loewe TV … getting stronger and bigger, new distribution model will threaten the Asian majors.

Chord Electronics pre and power amplifiers … a touch of class UK high end.

Acoustic Signature … Germany has won the vinyl war with these highly engineered turntables wich have incomparable precision and sound quality.

Synthesis ... sensibly priced hand made valve amplifiers from Italy

Coming soon … a dedicated PS Audio space in a new highly competitive reseller partnership including the Aspen loudspeaker range.

Coming soon ... a dedicated space for Interdyn products with some interesting additions.