AUDIO CONNECTION’S HALF-MILLION-DOLLAR SYSTEM
Sydney hi-fi destination store Audio Connection is celebrating a full store makeover, with a redesign that has been years in the making. The revamp covers the whole store in Sydney’s Leichhardt, and transforms its top floor in particular from a large open space into a series of dedicated rooms, adding to those already on the ground floor, and providing more opportunities to discover and audition its wide range of audio and AV in relaxed surroundings conducive to a full appreciation of the level of music such wonders are able to deliver. We asked Audio Connection Director Nigel Ng what had been the overarching goal of the redevelopment.
“Really just to uplift the presentation of the shop,” he tells us. “We don’t sell cheap stuff here, so the kind of presentation should suit that! Joe [Audio Connection’s founder Josef Riediger; see panel] and I had been talking about this for three or four years, and of course it takes a momentous occasion to put plans into action. We already had various rooms, but none of them had a bespoke purpose, so we wanted to make sure that now each room had a real function.”
It was also an opportunity to make visitors and their partners and families feel more at home. The former entry area, for example, was previously masked from the street by giant blue Audio Connection stickers, the front doors opening into a large and occasional chaotic space where staff at desks were seated directly opposite the entrance. Now this space has been divided by some stunning custom joinery into two separate spaces where stylish display speakers greet the visitor; on our visit these included the stunning Forza floorstanders from Estonian brand Estelon,
