New audio company (Question for staff)

[admin_exported]

Hi guys this is my first post, this is a question for the people who work for whathifi.

I will try and keep this as short as possible, I caught the hifi bug a few years back, being particually focused on accurate bass reproduction. In my spare time I have built many subwoofers for friends and would like to now start a business. If I were to present a subwoofer to you professionally finished would you review it? I believe my designs off far better value for money than commercially available ones and a review from whathifi would help vastly in marketing. (Providing it was well received.)

Thanks for any responses, Alex.

 

[the record spot]

Think from memory the magazine would want to ensure your product was generally available in the marketplace for readers to buy. No real gain in reviewing a product that consumers can't subsequently buy. In fact, there've been supply issues with some products in the last year (EB Acoustics speakers spring to mind), so you'd probably need some evidence that you have a subwoofer that's commercially available over and above anything else.

 

[iemslie]

Not directly related to the OPs question, but perhaps a DIY feature in the mag every month would be interesting. Readers send in details about speakers, amps, etc, that they've built themselves and the mag select one per month to review, rate and offer suggestions for improvments. Perhaps a basic lab test too? I'd sooner see these kind of things filling the pages than tablet group tests. Cheers.

 

[matthewpiano]

Like RS says, I think availability is a major criteria. It is one of the things I like about WHFS&V. One of the other magazines often reviews stuff that is either awkward or virtually impossible to get hold of and it does get irritating. If the readership can't audition or get hold of something what is the point in the review?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi thanks for the reply, in light of what has just been said, I though if I set up a website with the product in a commercially available state on a "built on request" basis with a guaranteed delivery time of 2 weeks from the purchasing date, would this be classed as available? Thanks for all your responses.

 

[the record spot]

I'd suggest you have a chat with Richard from EB Acoustics before anything else. He had some issues with delivery schedules and what happens when the plan falls apart. In fact, I'd suggest that this is a required conversation for you!

 

[CnoEvil]

Hi thanks for the reply, in light of what has just been said, I though if I set up a website with the product in a commercially available state on a "built on request" basis with a guaranteed delivery time of 2 weeks from the purchasing date, would this be classed as available? Thanks for all your responses.

Good for you, but RS is right, as a very favorable review can leave you a victim of your own success......something to be mindful of, but not put you off.

I for one wish you luck

Cno

 

[Clare Newsome]

Hi thanks for the reply, in light of what has just been said, I though if I set up a website with the product in a commercially available state on a "built on request" basis with a guaranteed delivery time of 2 weeks from the purchasing date, would this be classed as available? Thanks for all your responses.

Potentially, but we'd need to talk further about overall capacity etc.

We're more than happy to review products from companies of any size, but we need to ensure (as far as possible) that our readers can at least have a decent chance of getting their hands on the products we feature. We want to be reviewing real-world kit that people can try before they buy (either via an audition at a dealer or via a home trial period).

Good luck with your designs - it's an ultra-competiitve market out there, but there's always room for quality and innovation. 🙂

 

[Frank Harvey]

Not wanting to appear negative Alex, but you need to be very sure of your designs. As Clare says, it's extremely competitive out there, with plenty of dedicated sub manufacturers taking care of the serious market, and many other subs from speaker manufacturers taking care of everyone else.

As far as forums are concerned, there's about three manufacturers that are constantly recommended, and anyone mentioning any other brand is shot down on a VFM basis. Any other brand and people don't want to know, which is part of the reason I no longer get involved in the sub section of a certain forum. Basically, you have to provide the best quality, the most power, the deepest bass, the best finish, and the best back up service, all for the lowest price. It won't be an easy ride. If you want to know these brands or products, get in touch and I'll let you know - I'm not doing their advertising for them

First thing to do, is grab a few sub's from these 'don't bother with anyone else' brands and see how yours compare. If you can better them, you're half way there...

 

[Dougal1331]

Not directly related to the OPs question, but perhaps a DIY feature in the mag every month would be interesting. Readers send in details about speakers, amps, etc, that they've built themselves and the mag select one per month to review, rate and offer suggestions for improvments. Perhaps a basic lab test too? I'd sooner see these kind of things filling the pages than tablet group tests. Cheers.

Yes! Building your own speakers- or even modifying and improving an existing model- is extremely satisfying, and tweaking and problem-solving become a real hobby in themselves. I have built speakers (including "The Noggin", which was big enough to climb into, and featured an 8" super-low-resonance bass driver. It sucked, but valuable lesson learnt...), and modified others. The thrill of plugging-in for the first time... the trepidation, the anxiety, then the elation of hearing something you've just built sing like a chorus of angels is really rather unparalleled.

Good results can be had from DIY- my 753s came out OK. Well, more than OK- they're better than the originals!

 

[Anonymous]

Not wanting to appear negative Alex, but you need to be very sure of your designs. As Clare says, it's extremely competitive out there, with plenty of dedicated sub manufacturers taking care of the serious market, and many other subs from speaker manufacturers taking care of everyone else. As far as forums are concerned, there's about three manufacturers that are constantly recommended, and anyone mentioning any other brand is shot down on a VFM basis. Any other brand and people don't want to know, which is part of the reason I no longer get involved in the sub section of a certain forum. Basically, you have to provide the best quality, the most power, the deepest bass, the best finish, and the best back up service, all for the lowest price. It won't be an easy ride. If you want to know these brands or products, get in touch and I'll let you know - I'm not doing their advertising for them First thing to do, is grab a few sub's from these 'don't bother with anyone else' brands and see how yours compare. If you can better them, you're half way there...

I'm assuming your referring to bk/svs as some of those companies...

I'm grateful for your truthful response and rest assured I would not dare to put a product up for review unless it could crush everything in its price range. I am currently building pro audio subwoofers as although I would prefer to enter the hifi realm I am trying to concentrate on getting a product I have nearly finished to market.

Thanks for all the encouragement, hopefully you'll be hearing from me again in a few months. 🙂

 

[Fuzzy Bear]

Hope I'm not breaking rules with this suggestion but here goes....

Prehaps decide on what other subs you think yours would be in competiton with. Then make a request on the forums for anyone who owns, heard, experienced rival/similar subs to arrange some sort of listen. However you work it out is up to you.

There is a community of Audiophiles here and and dare I say some of the members with many many more hundreds and thousands of posts than me have a reputaation and would give you some exposure and positive standing even if it is smaller.

This seems like something you can do much sooner than getting it reviewed in national magazines.

Good Luck