Thanks Marco. I am in full agreement with what you say.

As to what prompted this, well a few weeks ago I needed to buy some speaker stands and I went to my local Sevenoaks. Very polite, competent and efficient. I bought from them. The store was on a high street, mid week – and empty. A few days later I wandered into the Richer Sounds in New Oxford Street in London – on a Sunday.

The street was very far from busy. But the Richer store was packed. People were handing over money. Moreover the harassed staff still looked happy and the sort of po-faced customers you might see in Linn / Naim specialists and similar places were totally absent. It looked like fun! The contrast was striking, and is lingering on.

As for me, well I'm finding it very difficult to look at this as a ‘civilian’ – by which I mean it cannot properly disassociate my in-the-trade perspective. My best guess is that no, I wouldn’t be put off the brand if it were at Richer Sounds.

Incidentally, given the curious perspective of me working as a retail marketing consultant for a number of audiophile brands (none of which I stock, thus avoiding a conflict of interests) I truly believe that the promotion of the Cambridge brand by Richer Sounds, and the apparent high value of the equipment, is one of the shrewdest and most well executed marketing strategies I’ve seen in many years. And I congratulate them!

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