Dé Durob Audio blog – Le Blog de Durob Audio

To be honest, it took me some time to remember who was one of the first manufacturers I was dealing with who I could rate as always serious and pleasant. In fact in the beginning I was not directly dealing with the manufacturers I represented (from USA). I made a contact with a certain Mr. Thomas Della-Rocca. Now unfortunately the late Mr. Thomas Della-Rocca. He represented a number of high-end manufacturers as being their export agent. Think of companies as Audio Research, Martin Logan, Grado, Dahlquist, Sequerra and more. Thomas was in fact one of the partners in the original Marantz company. Saul Marantz of course, Sidney Smith, Dick Sequerra and Thomas. I must say that I always had a most pleasant relation with the man and through him I met a number of interesting people. Who can say nowadays to have been drinking tea with Saul Marantz? It brings not one penny, but it is one of the big values I care. Or having met John Dahlquist. Great speaker designer. Dick Sequerra, Sidney Smith, Joe Grado (the last one I in fact never met and circumstances made me think he did not even exist … so I wrote a letter to ask him that and the answer was that … he DID exist). Most of these high end companies were growing larger and started to handle their exports themselves. What a disaster … Is The Netherlands in Denmark? Of course you can sell as much as Germany? Do you hear the transformer hum when the music is on? Maybe here the problems started? Someone not (cap)able to do the export job doing the export job …

In UK we were dealing with a small company called AUDIOLAB. They made a nice and serious integrated amplifier (Model 8000A). The owner, Philip Swift, was a gentleman, and he and the company was a great pleasure to work with. Unfortunately we could not sell under the name AUDIOLAB as that brandname was registered in Europe by Mr. Ton Dunnebier from … AudioLab in Holland. He was not a problematic man, but had his cable brand AudioLab and of course did not want confusion. So we joined the German distributor and distributed the products under the brandname CONCEPT.

All was going well, the line was growing … 8000C, 8000P, 8000M, 8000CD, 8000DAC etc. And then suddenly … the news that the company was bought by an investor … And not a small one! A very pro in fact. To be continued tomorrow …

You might think I have huge problems with investors. No. Basically I have problems with nobody. Unless the situation creates problems. I see a clear and correct function for investors. Also in High End. But in a correct way, not the Monopoly way.

However before going to sleep I want to write about a High End manufacturer who is famous for never ever having enough. Just read on.

I remember we started representation of him, his brand and his products in BeNeLux. Of course it takes some time before you see any actual results, but when finally the first sale was made, both the dealer and I were very happy. You don’t sell every day a preamplifier of (at that time) 35,000 Dutch Guilders. We were happy, we were proud. So instead of sending a fax (at that time) to order the preamplifier, I decided to call him to tell him about our first order for his (very expensive) product. I expected a very pleasant discussion with “Thank you, very much appreciated etc, etc”. Well to make a long story short … within 15 minutes we had a large fight on the telephone. “How could we sell only a preamplifier, how could we not sell a set of mono amplifiers in the same deal. We had Rembrandt, we had van Gogh, we were a rich country, with rich people …” At that moment I regretted so much that I ever started with that brand and I wished we hadn’t sold that preamplifier.

The manufacturer, or at least the person, is still around. Had a range of bankrupts and still succeeds to find every time someone who invests money in his projects. He even sometimes calls me to ask if I am interested in … No, the answer is always No! No! No!

A little joke going with this person … How to become a Millionaire? Start working with this guy as a Multi-Millionaire … Good night!