Blog: Why AV performance is as important as system control

The day to day business of most CI companies is about integration and control, so it’s understandable that great audio performance is often over looked.

Clients who can afford smart homes are the perfect audience for sound systems but mostly this opportunity is missed. Very few projects leave the clients with anywhere to enjoy music, film and TV at its best. This is a shame for the owner and a real lost commercial opportunity for the installer.

One of the biggest barriers to the sale of great audio is a lack of confidence in how to deliver it. Many installers have installed expensive equipment or heard it at shows and been unconvinced by what they heard.

Until you have heard superb performance and understand why you can be certain you can deliver the same quality, why would you recommend it to your clients? Gecko provides the installer everything needed to demonstrate, specify and deliver truly world class music and home cinemas.

When exceptional audio performance is required, the room and the equipment must be considered as one. While CAD drawings may look professional they rarely translate to good audio. Steinway Lyngdorf provides complete music and home cinemas that deliver truly accurate sound first time, every time. A range of patented technologies and pre-determined speaker placements bring a level of quality and consistency that has never existed before. For the first time this means the specifier can be 100 per cent confident that the systems they design will truly exceptional sound quality.

Our clients do their research and are very well informed. Steinway Lyngdorf music and home cinemas are the only systems that satisfy their standards. With clients flying in from around the world, we simply could not promise something that we cannot deliver. When you consistently meet with musicians who are dumbfounded by the quality of the systems they hear, it inspires a confidence that is infectious.

Home cinema versus music systems
The most expensive audio systems that many installers have heard will be surround systems. These systems simply aren’t accurate enough to reproduce music faithfully.

While many installers don’t consider themselves expert in audio, when they hear real quality, we find everyone appreciates the difference. Music is the most challenging content to reproduce and the equipment found in commercial cinemas and most home cinemas simple isn’t sufficient quality to reproduce it. When you regularly install systems that satisfy professional musicians, your confidence soon grows.

One huge barrier for the Hi-Fi industry has always been the struggle to reproducing sound quality consistently. Unless you can perfectly replicate the acoustics of the room you heard a system in, you won’t be able to reproduce the same sound quality.

This is the perhaps the biggest attribute of Steinway systems. What you hear demonstrated is precisely what the client will enjoy in your home. We always stress this when demonstrating Steinway systems and make sure we play the exact same content to the client when installing the system. Dealers and consumers are amazed that the same fidelity, power and envelopment that they heard in our showrooms is exactly what has been delivered in their home.

Removing objections in sophisticated homes
The final barrier to the sale of many audio systems is their appearance. Home owners spend a fortune on the design of their homes and want systems that will complement their décor. Cinema seating and popcorn makers may work for a handful of people but most people with the budget for high end systems are looking for something more sophisticated.

The tiny speaker that many Steinway Lyngdorf systems use and the fact that no acoustic treatment is typically required for best sound makes them perfect for music and home cinema in luxury homes. Steinway & Sons is perhaps the most respected name in musical instruments. Their music and home cinemas are now gaining the same unrivalled reputation.

Gecko maintains Europe’s finest listening rooms for their trade partners and distributes Steinway Lyngdorf, M&K Loudspeakers and Lyngdorf Audio. For more, contact Rob Sinden at Gecko on 0845 262 2882 or go to www.geckohomecinema.com