History
It’s true that my surname (Popeck) is somewhat unusual and I'm not surprised nor irritated when people seem quizzical when they hear it. To many, the name rings a bell and so yes, just in case you’re curious, I am the founder of Subjective Audio.
Subjective Audio
Subjective traded first from our small flat in Palmers Green (North London) from October 1976. Our first suppliers were Meridian, Gale, Lecson, Lentek, Fidelity Research, Micro Seiki, Michaelson/Austin and Michell Engineering. Quite quickly we became the most successful representatives of all of those famous brands. We moved to our current house in Palmers Green in 1980 and quickly became the UK’s most successful representatives for Krell, Magneplanar, Oracle and Apogee too.
We had no high street presence. We became known for quirky advertising and eccentric friendliness – and that led to word-of-mouth, and it just grew and grew.
If a demonstration coincided with our family lunch or dinner, the potential customer was invited to join us. Invariably they did. If Play-Away was on television and my children wanted to watch it, we paused the demonstration to let the children view their programme and when it finished, the children left and the demonstration picked up where we left off. Our demo room was our living room, and vice-versa!
Things were looking rosy. It should have been sufficient. However I insisted we move the business to lavish (recklessly extravagant really) custom built showrooms at the south end of Camden Town, a stone’s throw away from Mornington Crescent tube station. I thought I could walk on water and somewhat unfortunately, others thought so too.
So how could it fail?
Anyway, a grand opening in 1982 actually, although none of us knew it at the time heralded the demise of Subjective. The sales grew and grew and so did the apparent success story. Still the biggest for Meridian, Krell, Michell, TDL, Beard, Pink Triangle and so on. Number 4 for Linn, etc. How could it fail?
Behind the scenes though a rot was setting in due to a combination of over-ambition on my part, increasing sales and unsustainable overheads. Worse than this, my commercial inexperience was making matters bad. It couldn’t last like that.
Retreating to lick wounds, although financially solvent, we relocated to fresh premises in Palmers Green having sold Camden. It was however too little, too late and as my staff who had been utterly loyal (as indeed had the customers) began to find new employment I found myself one morning completely on my own, surrounded by magnificent equipment – and memories – and debts.
On that morning a destructive legal document from one of my largest and my first supplier arrived and, well, that was it really. No stomach left to fight on.
Another naive decision, but this time the right one I think
I deliberately chose not to go down the bankruptcy route although strongly advised to do so. Possibly I was naive, but I was holding customer deposits and it just didn’t seem right. I closed the doors after the final customer got the final piece of equipment they were owed.
The future was very bleak indeed and without the strength of my wife Christine, personal friends, friends of the company and, strange to relate our bankers who gave me a hassle-free 12 months to clear the six-figure debt, the outcome might well have been shorter, dramatic and very different.
Reinvention
Anyway, with no prospect of employment and with repossession of the family home an ever-present and very real threat for my young family (it got as close as a 28-day eviction order), I had to reinvent myself. So I did.
In short order I passed myself off as a journalist, a features writer, a sales effectiveness consultant, sales trainer and subsequently an author of sales and marketing training manuals for EMAP's business to business automotive publications. This last occupation was surprisingly lucrative and led me down a series of extraordinary paths. Those paths are far beyond the scope of the page, which is why this story moves rapidly on.
Eventually I ended up, albeit without any experience whatsoever as a software ‘architect’ or conceptualiser. My eldest son David was instrumental in bringing my software invention to market and it turned out to be a global success. My invention is today used by many blue-chip organisations including AstraZeneca Plc, BBC, BP Plc, Coutts & Co, Daihatsu Motor Company, EMI, Ernst & Young, Ford Motor Company, Heineken, Johnson & Johnson, Mars Inc, Nestle, Shell International Exploration, Standard Chartered Bank, Sun Microsystems and, Zurich Risk Services.
Without David there would have been no recovery, no reinvention and no future.
Anyway, being involved in software organisation that I jointly founded was for me dull to the point of despair and so I resigned. I subsequently sold my majority shareholding. I'm not a corporate man. I’ve hardly worn a suit since then.
In 2004 I stared simplySTAX and ..
Within 11 months from start-up had become, according to STAX Japan the number #1 STAX retailer on the planet. Needless to say that although anticipating success, I knew from experience that I had to take steps to minimise failure too. The ghost of Subjective Audio is, even today, ever present.
In February 2007 , and despite the success, I got fed up with running simply-STAX.
You can read about it here: http://blog.listencarefully.co.uk/?p=683
The response from people can be read here: http://blog.listencarefully.co.uk/?cat=65
In for a penny - in for a pound, I decided to shut down Listen Carefully too, for similar although not identical reasons.
That's not the end of it though. Meanwhile, let's return to the 'back story'.
The ghost of Subjective Audio is a little more benign.
With the passing of years it’s easier now to look back on Subjective Audio in a more objective and rational frame of mind. The early days were undeniably fun for all concerned. You’ll perhaps understand now why Listen Carefully was run in this unusual way and why its 'child' –Stereonow – will continue in that way, only better. Yes, I'm aiming to recapture as much of the early days of Subjective Audio as possible.
Having said this, Subjective Audio was much more than me. My wife Christine of course was a continual support. The sales team, including Graham Mitchell (a friend to this day), Keith Field (now with Unilet), Mark Benson, Olaf Blance (sadly deceased) and Vincent "the shirt" Jacobs helped make it what it was. This wouldn't have been possible without Christine, Dee, Linda "He says he's not in" Thatcher and Jen – the backroom support crew. And last but by no means least, our engineer Dunstan Nelson – a truly great guy.
Despite the traumatic ending, some of this magnificent team have subsequently told me that it was the best employment they ever had. Well ... so much for nostalgia.
Returning to the roots
So anyway, I set up both simply-STAX and Listen Carefully to be debt free and with no fixed overheads. This meant I could be genuinely relaxed – because there was no pressure on me to make a sale. Stereonow continues that approach.
At Stereonow , it’s the visitor who decides if they want to become a customer, not me.
Meanwhile, this site is built and maintained by my older son David.
Stereonow has been designed by me not only to produce the most enjoyable music reproduction at mid to high budgets but to be the most pleasant buying experience that can be achieved. Not the flashiest, not the most dramatic and not the most pressured buying experience. No, I want my visitors to have the most pleasurable buying experience.
Could all be just spin though
True. It could be – but it isn't. If you’d like a glimpse into this world before spending some time with me, just click the ‘experience’ button on the left of this screen.
Through choice ...
I have no staff – and I probably never will.
This means that the ultimate size of Stereonow is limited by the care I can offer my customers – and by the increasing power of my Apple Mac G5. If there's a danger that I'm spreading myself too thin, then I'll put the brake on expansion and I may even contract back until it becomes relaxed again. Fine. I'm happy with that possibility.
This is because I want every aspect of the demonstration and installation to be taken care of by me personally. I want to be personally and utterly accountable for your total satisfaction. I wouldn’t have it any other way – and neither would my customers
Thank you
Howard Popeck
Founder & proprietor
October 2007