By Recently-retired Mike Twomey is one of our favorite people in the audiophile community. Until last week, he was the proprietor of an audio boutique in Greensboro, North Carolina, called Big Kids Toys. At 70-something (we will protect the rights of the innocent here), Twomey worked hard to prepare an heir apparent but, after paying for college, opening a second pop-up location and years of training, that plan sadly didn’t work. Only weeks ago, Twomey made the hard decision to close Big Kids Toys. He has liquidated his inventory, which included some absurd audiophile toys from the likes of Dan D’Agostino, Audio Research, Constellation, Aurender, Magico, Focal and more.
Unlike many who close a business, Twomey made it a point to pay every bill as well as to turn his client roster over to a nearby audiophile store that will service BKT’s loyal, music-loving and audio-buying clientele. Twomey is just a salt of the Earth type of guy. who now spends his time volunteering in ways that he won’t let me share but he’s basically a saint. Twomey quietly and often anonymously funds scholarships for people in need on the engineering side if things. Simply put, the world needs more people like Mike Twomey. He also makes an important part of my pending argument in this pitch to those who might be compelled by my concept of opening a stereo store at some level or another. The audiophile community is what I missed the most during COVID when I was gone, and it very much impacted my decision to start FutureAudiophile.com roughly four years ago.
If Your Job Isn’t That Much Fun, Owning a Stereo Store Is!
My technical title is Publisher and CEO of Luxury Publishing Group Inc. I have a been a “dotcom CEO” since the late 1990s (an era when that was the coolest job out there), but that’s all really fluff and bullshit. I am (always will be) just a stereo salesman. Granted, a fancy one, but audio and music is in my DNA. I love everything about the hobby and what it can do for us on so many levels. When I was in retail, I loved setting up gear for display. I loved working with new clients to make their audiophile dreams come true. I loved taking gear over to my client’s homes for a personalized audition “on the road.” This was one of the ways that I made friends with so many of my clients. Some of those relationships have endured a generation or longer.
The thrill of closing an audiophile sale is real. Populating a store with just the right mix of gear for your area and clients is a blast. Bringing art to people’s lives is downright rewarding and soul-restoring. This is not like being a roofer in the summer based in Scottsdale. This is the most fun, rewarding, relatively low-pressure work that pays well. Am I speaking your language yet?
The Barrier to Entry Isn’t Too High to Get Into the Audiophile Business
The biggest mistake people make in audiophile retail is to over-spend on rent. The late and highly controversial Manhattan audiophile retailer Andy Singer told me towards the end of his legendary run in the Big Apple that he simply couldn’t make enough sales at a high enough profit margin to cover the increasing cost of rent in Manhattan – even in a second-story location. Somebody like Sunil Merchant at Sunny Components in Covina, California (roughly 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, with a very, very high concentration of Asian customers) has it right. He owns a very nondescript, one-story location that is by the Amtrak train tracks, and it is perfect. On the outside, the place looks pretty patinaed, but inside, it is an absolute oasis of uber-high-end audio. He’s got $600,000 WADAX DACs and giant Stenheim speakers, stacks and stacks of CH Precision (I think he’s the top reseller in the United States right now), as well as countless pairs of Rockport speakers. The Sunny Components model thrives on low overhead and a great experience (great service, too, as I use his techs for some elements of my system when I need professional audiophile help) versus swanky digs like those I worked in at Christpher Hansen Ltd. (the old Rolls Royce building in Beverly Hills with a crazy renovation on it), or even the B&O store on Rodeo Drive which, like other retailers on the legendary street, fail to make a profit because of simply brutal overhead.
The Audiophile Industry Actually Wants You Involved
The companies that sell audiophile gear are always looking for new dealers. They love a new retailer even more than a crusty-ass old one. Bringing some new passion and legitimate enthusiasm will get you everywhere in this space. If you show these companies that you are for real, are willing to invest modestly in their line and will pay your bills on time – they will hook you up in return. They will fly in and train you and your staff. They will allow you access to special demo components. They will help you “floor” more expensive components that might not make sense any other way. Simply put, they will bend over backwards to be helpful if you come to them with the right attitude and a little bit of money to spend on your store.
The days of A-list lines being difficult or even impossible to get are over. Most audiophile companies have finally figured out that having an exclusive dealer in one city is a foolish business model. At one point, three of the four top-grossing Mercedes Benz dealers in the nation were located triangulated by 17 miles in Orange County, California. I lived in The OC (Laguna Beach) last year after the fires in Pacific Palisades, and the volume of Mercedes on the street down there is absurd. They are like a Toyota Camry or a Honda Accord anywhere else. Why? Because Mercedes has absolutely fantastic distribution that the audiophile world could only dream of. With this said, your chances of selling truly premium lines of gear is easier today than ever before. You might get some restrictions when you open a premium line, but those shackles quickly are removed when you start making some meaningful sales.
Selling Specialty Audio is Profitable When Done Right
Profit margins range from 40 points to sometimes as high as 60 (think: cables) and, assuming that you don’t have out of control overhead and/or a sales team that gives away the farm with 20 plus percent discounts (learn here how you can go out of business giving 20 percent off) or totally unrealistic trade-in values, you can make a very nice living selling audio gear. When a customer comes in demanding discounts that are absurd, it is better to simply walk from the deal than to just “take the money,” which is contrary to traditional thought. Replacing soulless discounting with liberal trade-in programs, house-made warranty plans (such as, if your amp breaks, they give you another while it is being repaired at no cost) make for happy clients. Simply befriending your clients and treating them like your friends or family is key. If you can earn the right to ask for referral business (and actually get it), know that you are doing things right.
Don’t Feel Pressure to Do Custom Installation and/or Home Theater
Mike Twomey at Big Kid Toys stopped selling and installing home theater two or three years ago. And his sales went up, while the complications in his business dissolved. I am not sure that will be the case for every AV store, but it is an interesting audiophile retail case study. Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) is good advice and has been for decades. You don’t need to be everything to everybody with this business when it comes to tech and AV. Knowing your specialty and staying in your lane makes you more of an expert. In this case, it can lower your overhead (a fancy Crestron programmer is going to cost you $125,000 or more, depending on your location and their qualifications), which is never a bad thing. Cliché says that you need to do screening rooms and home theater. You notice after selling HomeTheaterReview.com that I never got back in that space? There’s lots of good reasons for that, and they apply to this concept, too.
You Bring Art and Happiness to People for a Living
We made fun of the Finance Bros in business school 30 years ago. They looked (and often acted) like they couldn’t score with a fistful of pardons in a women’s prison. Today, they fly on Gulfstream G-600s and have $25,000,000 accounts at Goldman Sachs with their gains, but do they love what they do? I will trade selling the great-sounding Jimi Hendrix or John Coltrane for Wall Street arbitrage any day of the week.
Owning an audio salon is rewarding work. You bring art and passion and joy to people’s lives for a living. Day trading can be fun, but does it bring the same kind of joy? You tell me.
The Audiophile Retail Competition is Often Weak, Arrogant and Lazy (or Nonexistent)
Most of the people in the audiophile community are great. Respectfully, some of the long-standing OG audiophile retailers can be a little cranky. They have had their asses kissed for so long and gotten away with bad behavior in ways that wouldn’t work in many other businesses. New blood into an established market can be disruptive, and I am using the very positive Silicon Valley version of the word “disruptive.” I could see top brands calling on a new store in a market that just didn’t have any other options and making you a deal that you can’t afford to turn down. That alone is totally fun, and building up a franchise with well-organized, marketing-savvy, tech-minded partners is a good thing. You don’t have to go with a full Howard Stern package and destroy your competition, but by all means you can eat their lunch by earning the right to sell to their best clients and take some of their market share. Good value and excellent customer service simply never goes out of business.
Incredible Opportunities Exist (such as taking over a store)
Twomey would have sold his store if he could. He tried to develop a successor to take over an established million-dollar-a-year, well-run and profitable business. Complicated life situations and other opportunities got in the way and time ran out on the clock for Twomey in ways that made it easier to close the business than give or sell it to somebody. That’s a shame.
Other retail stores in your area might be looking for ways to transition out. Just last week, a cool little audiophile manufacturing company owned by two engineers came to me and asked me how to gracefully exit, as they are naturally aging out. This is a smart little company, and an SBA loan would easily finance this brand in a space that is really becoming popular with younger audiophiles.
Final Thoughts on Opening a Stereo Store in 2026 …
In my career, I’ve made millions of dollars over the years and lost millions, too. In fact, I’ve done that crazy dance a few times. What it has taught me about money is that money is really only good for one thing, which is providing freedom. Money “Can’t Buy You Love,” to paraphrase what some bubble-gum act from the U.K. once sang. A larger-than-life artist once suggested the concept of “Mo Money Mo Problems,” and he had a point. Money is nice and every audiophile likes expensive toys, but isn’t a well-lived life better? Doing what you love and making people happy is a good way to spend your limited time living on this rock. Why not open a stereo store near you? Make it a passion project. Make it a retirement business. Use it to teach the next generation to learn to love music, as well as the benefits of listening to great-sounding music. And if you do, don’t be shocked if you make a whole bunch of cash while smiling all the way to the bank and living your best life.
