A revision to my roadshow idea.... Maybe some existing customers could be the people to Demo their speakers... I am sure maybe some of us will be willing to setup our speakers somewhere.. I wouldn't mind doing it.. Good thing I have 5B's and not 6T's :)...

 

So we could setup a Demo place somewhere, like a magnolia type deal.  I would rather have that someone coming into my home...

When you guys were shopping for your speaker system, what was the biggest obstacle you faced and how did you overcome that obstacle?

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Cheers,

John Wanderscheid

Biggest Obstacle...To be honest and serious it was WAF, Budget, Speaker selection/research.
How did I overcome it...Income Tax returns and convincing the MRS. and research. 

Let's be honest...Aperion Speakers aren't cheap when compared to HTIB's..Most Wife's and many consumers don't understand the difference...A speakers a speaker right? So when you have your $1300 system compared to a $400 system it's hard to convince the significant other or people just looking to add some speakers to there setup..  Advanced electronics have more of a smaller niche following that are more dedicated to research.  I think you have done an excellent job however in getting your stuff into the hands of the right professionals..Sound and Vision, Audioholics, CNET...etc.  That's some sound decision making there.  And those of us interested in advanced eletronics can certainly appreciate the reviews of these sources.  The challenge is getting your products into the hands of the everyday people who don't necessarily seek out the more advanced/expensive systems... Partly because they don't know what they are missing out on (a speakers a speaker right), partly becuase some people are not about material things and partly becuase they don't have the monies...

Of course no matter what you do some people still aren't going to care. That's life. However, I heard word that Aperion may be partnering with Onkyo in some way.  If this ever happens maybe it would be possible for Onkyo to provide some type of Aperion Documentation in their audio electronics packaging?  This will get the word out to all the customers that buy their electronics retail..If you could get Onkyo to endorse the use of your speakers that will help.  Most people who buy retail are easy to brainwash.  You start telling them what to buy and they'll listen.  Offer an Aperion Discount coupon in, lets say an Onkyo SR 606 box.  Customer opens up the Onkyo box from best buy and pulls it out then they check you out.  Backed by your great reviews it's a no-brainer...Easier said than done though. But if I were in marketing and had a potential to partner with a name like Onkyo I would see a real opportunity there for brand recognition.

 In terms of motivating certain owners, it's plain and simple.  Incentives...Discounts on certain products, coupons (free Bravus's :) etc...You know what I want :)

Anyway, obviously you guys are doing something right with the way your demand has picked up.  Unless you guys have evil plans to take over the world I think you marketing model is working out OK...

Hope any of this was helpful.  Best of luck to you and your team at Aperion John!

 

My biggest obstacle was buying blindly.  What I mean by that exactly is buying the speakers without hearing them, and ofcourse that is why you offer 30 day trial but it was hard to shell out the money without even hearing the speakers first.  What made me take the plunge was hours of reading reviews and forums about the speakers, and then eventually breaking down just because I wanted just to hear them already..

Being recommended to other brands that are also ID companies didn't make the decision any easier for the same reason of not being able to compare myself without having to first shell out the money.  When I first started looking I had no idea where to start except for starting in the avsforum to see what other people seem to like. 

 Regardless I took the plunge with Aperion first and I haven' looked back, but looking back I could have easily chose another speaker company and stayed with them.  Unfortunately there aren't a lot of AV stores in my area, and I am forced to go to Best Buy or Circuit City and be forced to listen to what they carry and not what I want to listen to.

So how I overcame my obstacle was just pulling the trigger on a system and hoping for the best.  Admittedly not the best way to make a decision on such a big purchase, but I am very happy with choice I made and have absolutely no regrets.  So I could say that this time it worked out great.

 

I hope that the other owners and myself have been helpful to this topic of discussion.

I'm not an audiophile and I never heard of Aperion.  I was looking for speakers and went down the same road that I'm sure a lot of people travel.  The thing that nagged me the most was hearing speakers in a room clearly designed for listening to systems. But, they looked nothing like my room which has very high ceilings, is very open, and has tile floors.

Given that, I wanted to hear speakers in my environment. When I asked sales guys about that they said they were sure I'd be satisfied but if I wasn't they'd take them back for a store credit.  I didn't like that idea.

Then I found Aperion through CNet. Looked into it a bit more, spent some time here in the forum, talked to a guru. The 30-day no risk offer is what sold me, but it still wasn't easy. I parted with over $2,500 with a company I'd never heard of for speakers that I'd never seen! The uncertainty was the big obstacle.  Yes, I believed the 30 day promise but let's face it, that would still be a hassle - as I was unpacking them I thought, please sound good I'll never figure out how to put all this back together again.

So, big obstacle? I'd have to say it was name recognition. If someone like Klipsch offered the same deal I think I would have felt more comfortable. The problem is that to gain name recognition you'd have to advertise more (expensive) or be offered in higher end audio stores (not your business model) and higher end audio stores aren't going to install speakers and give someone their money back like you do.

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Joe
If you can't have fun doing it, it's probably not worth doing.

For me, it was the ability to do an A/B comparison of multiple different speakers.  There were some speakers I immediately dimissed, but I still ended up with a short list where I felt my sound retention was less than adequate to compare over extended periods of time (more than 1 hour).  There is nothing like being able to switch between speakers in real time to pull out the differences, strengths, weaknesses, and decide an overall preference.  And comparing multiple internet companies is challenging to say the least.

My approach, I purchased a pair of Aperions and compared at a friends house, people I met on other forums homes, and at a local retail store (if you can get them to do it (I played off of there own curiosity)).  Though it was a fair amount of work (up front scheduling, travel, set-ups), I enjoyed the process (the listening tests) and feel I definitely got the best speakers for the money  (I ended-up purchasing an Aperion 6 series system).

Everyone Hi!

It has been a long time since i have posted.  Hey!  I've been enjoying my Aperions! 

 My biggest obstacle bar none was WAF!  To keep it simple and blunt she did not approve at all.  I first saw Aperion in a Sound And Vision review.

I followed the website and the forum for many months and then something happened where i could make my play to momma.  Aperion closed out the previous model to the 532 (for those of you who have been around awhile you know of the 522 series) which of course now some of you are taking advantage of the current close out.  The speakers were still more than she wanted to here and i had to get a new S-10 sub and a b-stock 533 center but i finally convinced her that it would be vastly superior to what we had (she did not care of course) and we would never (dumby! don't say stuff like that) have to replace them.  Of course, I am envious of all of you who can upgrade or are just joining the family but i wouldn't trade my Aperions for anything......except new Aperions of course!

Aperion if anything appeal to the lady of the house.  I know there has to be a way to show them us guys are not all nuts that there is value and appeal in improved sound that somehow I can not get across to her!

 Thanks for lettimg me rant.  By the way I still regularly hear that we did not need the speakers.  She does seem to watch alot of TV and movies though!

 

Maybe you guys should start looking into making Pocket Books and Shoes..

I think i got it....a $100 gift certificate to Nordstroms. Is there any lady who does not love Nordie's?

And this is not a joke! Perhaps a choice of Best Buy or Amazon for those who don't have WAF, and Nordie's for guys like me with the WAF.

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Scottiemon

Scottiemon:

I think i got it....a $100 gift certificate to Nordstroms. Is there any lady who does not love Nordie's?

And this is not a joke! Perhaps a choice of Best Buy or Amazon for those who don't have WAF, and Nordie's for guys like me with the WAF.

 Great point... Banana Republic is my lady's fav...

The 30 day trial helped a lot with WAF.  I simply told her that it was just a tryout, wasn't going to cost a thing if we didn't like them.  After I got everything setup I got a Phantom of the Opera DVD (her favorite) and let it rip.  She heard that DVD on the old Bose system a number of times and was blown away at how much better things sounded. 

A few nights later we were watching something on a high def. channel with 5.1 audio. It had a lot of explosions, bullets flying, etc. She looked at me and said, "you may have done too well".  Deal done.

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Joe
If you can't have fun doing it, it's probably not worth doing.

Biggest obstacle for me wasn't WAF, I've been looking at speakers and reviews and forums for almost 2 years now, so she knew it was coming (once we finally got out from under 2 mortgages). And I think WAF is also covered as others have mentioned by the 30 day return policy with paid return shipping. I spent a good part of today with my wife doing a blind listening test between Cambridge Soundworks Tower II's (my old speakers), a pair of 6T's, and a pair of Axiom M80's. She pretty consistently preferred the 6T's the most. If she can notice a difference, it's an easier sell...

My biggest obstacle- is what do I compare? What brands? From where? How much does it cost? How do I get them? Most high end audio stores are  well over 20 miles away one way, and most of them are custom installers with not much for inventory- and I'm close to St Paul, kind of, about 30 miles away. Point is it's not as easy to audition in stores any more, and I've seen more than a few people who live further out than I do from larger cities.

Places I did go to to audition didn't offer for me to take anything home, and Best Buy and Circuit City are useless to me for this. I need a center that fits a certain area. I want speakers that will look nice, not plain black or covered completely in black cloth. So that left me looking online for places where I could audition 21-30 days and return them with no restocking fee, and free shipping to me at least- I can handle paying return shipping for the convenience of listening in home. The problem is I can't afford to pay shipping for more than a few sets of speakers. So I ordered the 6T's, M80's, and was going to order a pair of Energy RC-70's that were on sale, however the sale ended the day before I went to place my order. I thought about Swan Diva's, but those speakers are heavy, and I would have had to pay shipping both ways. So I just did the two sets. It's still early, so if I come across a good deal somewhere with free shipping to me, I'll maybe try another pair. But as of right now I'm probably going to keep the 6T's. Which means I'll have to box up the M80's to return, in a box that barely made it to me no less, there is no way it's surviving a return trip...

Which brings me to my idea, which I'm not even sure how you would do it or how it would work. But what if you offered to pay return shipping for another company's speakers? If someone is looking to audition speakers and think they would prefer AV123 or Axiom, but they found out if they tried Aperion, which they could return on Aperion's dollar, that they could also return the Axioms or AV123s on Aperion's dollar- would they be more likely to try Aperions then? And are there people now who order Aperions and something else, and the speakers end up being very close performance wise, but they don't have a lot of money to spare so they return the Aperions because that's free to return whereas the others aren't? I'm not sure how often that happens, might not be much, but I bet it has (heck, I've thought about it, but I'm going to stick with the speakers I like best).

That's all I got for now...

Been over a week since the last post.. Just wondering if any of the things that have been talked about here have been at all useful.

 By the way.. Thanks for the T-shirt, bag, pens, and flash drive...

 

rockarruda

Yes indeed....the Aperion swag went right to the wife! Thanks indeed.

Maybe the swag package can be included with 5.1 systems?

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Scottiemon

Thanks for all the great feedback. We will certainly keep these great ideas in mind as we move forward. We will leave the string open for a few more days and close it at the end of the week.

Thanks again!
 

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Cheers,

John Wanderscheid