Just reading the FT the other day, as one does....

There was an article about the Swiss watch business. Actually there were several articles. Something to do with Hublot  and how they've grabbed all the juicy bits from their failed movement supplier. So now they are doing it all in house. This supplier it seems supplied a wide range of brands. many of which are blitzed all over the FT's own, 'How to spend it' magazine. The interesting thing to me is that many of these brands, including the current incarnation of Hublot, are less than 10 years old. A lot of their strength is built on the heritage  that Switzerland as a country has for making watches. Since most of them use the same engine, admittedly crafted by high calibre Swiss watchmakers, they are basically gifted marketing vehicles taking a ride on the greatest brand bus there is; 'Swiss Made'. I wonder how strong the 'British Made' brand is?

The best job in the world

We had the pleasure of driving around an almost empty Heathrow area yesterday. We were there to pick up Vicky, my partner's, car from Business parking. She has just concluded a 27 hour train and ferry trip from Madrid under beautiful, blue yet volcano ash stricken sky. We arrived at the gate of the Parking area to be greeted by by a Gentleman who welcomed us and and advised us that the 3 days over stay was free and that we could enter with my car and drive the 500 metres or so to collect the car and both leave for free.

We were, of course, fully expecting to pay for the overstay as companies all over are invoking their 'act of God' clauses to plough back money into their coffers. Business Parking at Heathrow clearly had other ideas and I imagine everyone who arrived that day to collect their cars left happy.

So why the best job in the world? Well the Gentleman who greeted us has one job and one job only all day and that's to make people happy. Yes he has his Saturday blown out, a beautiful sunny day, but hey; everybody was smiling.

The second best job? The guy at the other end writing off the charges and raising the barrier for us to leave.

Montreal Show in the -12 degree spring time

I almost look respectable, as my mother would say!

New Suite, new shirt and new product. It's bee beautifully sunny and as cold as -12 degrees centigrade here in Montreal and it's Spring!!!!  I've got some pics and more to say, but right now I'm late to meet my public! As they say. Think French!

Brand loyal...until I got in a pickle at Sainsburys's

I am partial to lime pickle as nothing spices up a bit of grilled lamb neck fillet on a skewer better. I had dinner all planned. I just needed to pop into Sainsbury's(my closest local supermarket, others are available) to get the lamb, some salad and, of course, Sharwoods finest lime pickle as I'd gobbled up the last jar. Shriek! The shelf in the store was empty! It seems I am not the only fiend.

Now I knew that they sometimes keep a stash next to the Indian foods as well as with the pickles so I marched over to that isles. Aggghhhhh! None there too. Oh what to do!? Vicky, noticed I was in a fluster and pointed out that there was another brand available on the shelf near by. A little uncomfortable, I was, until I noticed it was Pataks. Now until I'd seen their advert on the television (yes i sometimes do watch commercial television) I'd never heard of them. Suddenly I felt a little more at ease and willing to put it in the trolley.

The verdict? Not bad at all. More lime than paste compared to the Sharwoods version which gave it a stronger sense of freshness. It was also hotter! So be warned. Would I continue with it long term? May be. I'll keep you posted. I might even buy both and mix them. I mean they are like having two different pickles.

GadGET Junky: Had the Morpheus Server round for new year. What a party!

To make sure all is running well and to get used to the unit I had one of the demonstration Morpheus Servers at home for the holidays. I didn't get much time to play with it as we were up north in Yorkshire visiting the in-laws to be. Well my in-laws to be, Vicky's mum and dad. Had my first white Christmas in ages and some lovely food and company. Might need spikes on my tyres next time though.

When we got back, Vicky bought me a copy of Tori Amos Midwinter Graces CD as an anniversary gift as we met 15 years ago this New year and got togther 14 years ago. (I think I got the numbers right? I am sure Vicky will make me edit the blog if wrong).

Got home, switched the server on and popped the CD in. Oh, I have to say the server is so quiet, it makes my Buffalo Linkstation sound like a vacuum cleaner!

Where was I? Oh yes; as the CD was being consumed by the server, I popped down stairs and switched on my Morpheus music centre and then My iPod Touch which has the Plug Player installed (about £3 from Apps store). All this took about 3 to 4 minutes.

As you can see in the picture, by the music centre was switched on in our living room I was able to start playing the (ripped and stored) CD from the Server.
The Morpheus music centre was  singing through my loudspeakers and I had full control via the iPod Touch. Oh I made cup of tea at the same time  and my other hand was holding it!  yes, I hear some of you shouting, I should have left it brew for longer to get that fuller flavour.

I have a brief story to tell about the server concept and how we came about to make one. Next blog!

Neglect, all for agood cause

I have been midful,of my recent neglect of this blogging area, but as most of you make your way here via the Sonneteer website, you will have noticed why. The Sonneteer News Blog has been refreshed more often than normal of late and Sonneteer mansionshave been a hive of activity.

Off to CES next week, where my mind may turn to more interesting things. Every self respecting writing fiend has a review of the year of some sort. It is not my intention to not deliver. The year started by someone saying that it would be two thousand and fine. Well I know of a few great and good things that have happened and they alone would qualify the entire year. Also having seen her book we should be glad that Sarah Palin's bottom is nowhere near the Oval office. That's as political as I will allow mmyself to get on this blog.

Colours

It's all colour here at Sonneteer.

I am at our stand at Selfridges Oxford street

It's a busy saturday afternoon here at Selfridges where I am stood at the Sonneteer Morpheus dispaly.

Manic is not astrong enough word.

Come pester me.

Big in Japan..again

So the Japanese have seen fit to acknowledge us with an award again. We are of course most grateful. Following in the footsteps of the Sedley, SedleyUSB and the Bard system, Morpheus has hatched a place on top of the podium to receive an Audio Excellence award from our very good friends at the Pacific end of this planet. Apparently this time a dealer decided he liked the product so much that he would nominate us. Thankfully, the awards board agreed with him.

I'll write this up as a news piece for the site news pages very soon banners etc.

A peacefull day.... I left my phone at home

Today has been exceptionally productive. It's only 9.30am, I have been in the office since 8 and it feels like I have done a days work already.

Analysing it is simple, I forgot my phone at home. So no checking emails on the hoof i.e. while not at my desk, no skyping and definitely no text. I also no longer leave my Skype on all the time(on my desk PC) and when I do the sound is OFF. This way I check messages when I am good and ready. In all an efficient day..so far!

Technology killed the radio star or something!?

Now all I have to figure out is how to stop turning the kettle on and Utopia.

LinkedIn

Just introduced Remo, my esteemed friend and colleague(he'd never imagine me saying as such) to Linkedin and apparently, due to this and not long since introducing him to Facebook, I have ruined his life!

hehe!

Life update...found it!

Yes, my calculator! It was on the sofa under a cushion. I swear I looked there two weeks ago!
Bit twittery this. Promise I won't do it again.

Serious tweet, I mean post, later.

Oh and we have run out of coffee in the office so it promises to be a productive day.

Technology delivery mechanism.......on a silver tray with a rose and a hot cuppa!

I see gadgets of green and thorny issues too and I think to my self, what a complicated swirl. Bedside radios with twits twittering and gadgets with big colour displays, reinventing laptops and selling them for double! Ok, ok, I mean that's all we do really isn't it? Repackaging technology in a way the end user..erm..can use it?

With the exception of us gadget junkies, i strongly beg to differ (with myself). Technology shouldn't be about just bells and whistles as fun as they are for the first five minutes of a purchase, but something that makes life simple and more comfortable. I want it to make my life better without me feeling the pain of getting there. To coin a Meerkat, simples! As in keep it stupid!

Still looking for my calculator!

The Harvard Business Review and the Sonneteer Morpheus.

I had some time, as one does, at the airport so I popped into WHSmiths's to buy some magazines for the beach. Time, Newsweek, Stuff, T3; all the usual’s and then the Harvard Business review caught my eye. To put this into perspective, I also had a book on branding, as well as another on entrepreneurs with me, so I was in that frame of mind. Anyway, the Harvard Business review: I had a flick through and I stumbled upon a report on consumerism post recession and quite interesting too, it was.

Before I elaborate too much, I need to go back a couple of years or so when Credit Crunch was just a little sub-prime bother in the colonies(America) and S&P ratings were still sky high on many a now defunct establishment. In those happier times of consumer madness my business partner and I were crunching over some figures that reflected our own market, the high end hi-fi separates one which we resided and that most of our products under the Sonneteer brand serviced. Although our sales at the time were creeping upwards, the market as a whole was in decline and the new products being touted by our competitors were not growing the market place one jot. It was time for a rethink. No time to panic however and the cause was worthy of some serious thought.

The first couple of things that came to our minds were: 1. Neither of us had any of our own equipment in proper use in our houses anymore and 2. Why were the new integrated products(amp, CD, radio in one) touted by the competition, not actually growing the overall market whilst starting to dominate its turn over?

As you may have noticed, I digressed a little from the Harvard Business review report so I'll get back to that now and here's the link to the full story on our rebirth http://haiderway.blogspot.com/2009/09/you-mean-like-b.html which is just below

Except to say the product that materialised some two and a half years later reflected an important assumption we made: that customers want high quality, ergonomic, sexy, and green (credentialwise) products.

Ah yes, the report! You still with me?

My own interpretation of the review's report was that the post exposure to credit crunch consumer would be a more savvy one who would be thrifty but not afraid to spend money on quality. The report also placed a closer eye on the now under 35s who would be the next drivers of the global economy in this so called post consumerism age. The characteristics I just described, again according to the report's projections, would be more subconsciously ingrained as well as a more natural leaning towards greener, more environmentally aware products and where apt, fair-trade ones. The growth of thrifty brain cells would be counterbalanced by the willingness to spend more on products with all or some of these features.

As I was being hurried out of the newsagents about to miss my flight I breathed a small sigh of relief and allowed myself a gentle smile of satisfaction. Until, that is, I saw the price on the front of the journal! FIFTEEN QUID I gassped. So I paid for the stuff under my arm and ran for the gate. I am writing this after a week of reflection on the beach and I think as soon as I get back I will pay for a copy.

Oh and the product; the Sonneteer Morpheus music centre. Code named project BORO at the time. Hand made in Britain from as many locally resourced, high quality and recyclable bits and bobs as possible and when it works it uses the minimum amount of energy possible for the highest quality performance possible. Easy to use and looks damn sexy to boot.

You mean like B&O?

[The title] The answer I get everytime I say I have a high end luxury hi-fi company!! Yes, it happened again yesterday while at a presentation! Sigh! Anyway:

A couple of years or so ago when Credit Crunch was just a little sub-prime bother in the colonies(America) and S&P ratings were still sky high on many a now defunct establishment my business partner and I were crunching over some figures that reflected our own market. The high end hi-fi separates market in which we resided, to be exact, and the one that most of our products under the Sonneteer brand serviced. Although our sales at the time were creeping upwards, the market as a whole was in decline and the new products being touted by our competitors were not growing the market place one jot. It was time for a rethink. No time to panic however and the cause was worthy of some serious thought.

The first couple of things that came to our minds were: 1. Neither of us had any of our own equipment in proper use in our houses anymore and 2. Why were the new integrated products(amp, CD, radio in one) produced by some of our competitors, not actually growing the overall market whilst starting to dominate its turn over?

We then had a more detailed look at the market overall and particularly in the so called high ticket price items sector. Our attention was grabbed by a little company in Denmark called Bang and Olufsen. You may have heard of them?! And that became just the point! Go out to dinner, attend a party or bump into anyone in a nice English pub in surrey and they ask, ' so what do you do?' and I reply, ' I have a small high end hi-fi company' and nearly every time they say,' oh you mean like B&O?'. Never do they mention, Arcam, Meridian, or even Lynn or Naim for that matter. This was surely a sign. So we went digging deeper.

The numbers game tells a story. At the time, back in early 2007 B&O were turning over approx £450m and growing the hi-fi separates electronics market was a fifth of this at best and declining. We already knew the heyday had long past in this area, but it was also clear that there was still a solid market for people buying expensive music systems. So what was wrong?

To our minds, it was obvious really and it goes back to the point the, we no longer had our own products singing and dancing in our own homes. We were starting to reflect the wider consumer rather than the hi-fi enthusiasts which were and still are deep down, the drivers of our thinking. We wanted all the performance and purity of sound etc. But we also wanted it to compliment our lifestyles. This translates to I want it to grace the living room and not disgrace the wife's mood towards me..ehem.

Back to the integrated products, that were steeling market share from the amplifier and CD player market. Now a strong argument could have been made to simply jump into that boat and shove a whole load of features into a box we already made and hey presto! This would definitely give us a faster time to market. A couple of reasons why not:

1. All these products are, as mentioned already, only replacing market share and not in any way growing the overall, still shrinking market.

2. These products do not fulfill the criteria that bring B&O customers to buy erm, B&O.

So, two or so years down the line and the Sonneteer Morpheus music centre is the result. www.sonneteer.co.uk/morpheus.htm

Diapason Magazine reviews the Sonneteer Morpheus music centre and they love it.

Sonneteer Morpheus reviewed by Diapason, the high brow French classical music review magazine not unlike Gramophone magazine in the UK.

A had a call from our man in France 'Danny' and he said I am about to fax you over the review. He said little else as he was in a hurry, he always seems to be trying to do five things at once. Naturally, moments of anticipation followed with my heart beat fluttering like a drunken sparrow. Moments later it popped up on my screen (fax to email) and my schoolboy level French kicked into overload. They like it. No, they love it. Phew! like I had any doubt!

Well I can't print the whole review out here for copyright reasons but I can give you a few snippets so here goes:

They started by saying that the sonneteer Morpheus is, "a unique 'media centre' that lacks nothing in charm or seductive qualities and is very ergonomic and easy to use". I am translating, you appreciate, so hopefully I have not lost too much of the French eloquence.

They went on to say that the Morpheus was, "a digital amplifier of audiophile quality". Well of course, it's a Sonneteer, what did they expect! And that it was, "a very Avant Garde product in the manner of Sonos" and needless to say a lot more expensive which readers would have noted as it was reviewed on the same page in the magazine which seemed not to detract from the reviewers praise for the Sonneteer one bit.

The reviewer, in summing up also wrote, "it's reproduction [of music] demonstrates an incontestable transparency in the true spirit of digital amplification". Which should have been no great shock as Sonneteer pioneered the adoption of digital amplification into the audiophile arena late last century. Then in conclusion the article ended on saying the sonneteer Morpheus was, "an intelligently conceived product that is very attractive". Well I think I'll pop over to Paris and spend some euros to say thank you for their appreciation. Not too many though. I mean have you seen the exchange rate!

www.sonneteer.co.uk/s-news.htm

Find us on Facebook, Sonneteer that is!

Oh nearly forgot. Sonneteer are now on facebook. Please go have a look and by all means become a fan.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sonneteer/109476999491

it is updated regularly and has only been going for a short while so there is a lot to put up.

Pictures of a very special red Morpheus can be seen today.

Sonneteer s-news page

Hi if you've come here from the Sonneteer s-news pages then welcome. Hopefully it wont be the last time you pop in and have to tolerate my brain dumps.

I have been quiet for August mainly because so many things to do and so little time. I could go on about the Americans and the NHS as well as what staycationing is doing for the economy, butthere is plenty of that elsewhere. Muse yourselves on what I have written before and argue with me please. Keep it polite and clean, I beg of you.

Morpheus in Deutsch

First Morpheus landed in Germany yesterday care of our friends at UPS and our new friends at Design and Sound. We had a call to say thank you and how they were smitten as soon as they opened the box. They had some friends pop over in the evening and they all seemed to want one and the luxury price tag was clearly no barrier.

As I was having the conversation with a clearly very pleased customer, I was reminded of our experience when showing the Morpheus in Las Vegas for first time in a beautifully laid out suite at the Venetian Hotel. Imagine a split apartment set out with an elevated Dining area and a lower level living room. The Morpheus was set out on the Side board with a pair of beautiful Penaudio Rogue loudspeakers and the machined aluminium handset astride.....Now where was I going with this? Oh yes, the experience: Well as people started to stream through the corridors and snifffing their way around all the show bits and pieces as they stumbled upon us the reaction was quite extra ordinary. We in the hi-fi trade are more used to afictionados dissecting the sonic reproduction of their favorite CDs and records as they sit for lengths of time, very seriously, critiquing the products. This time the experience was quite different, more instant , and very pleasing. Almost without exception as eyes locked onto the first Sonneteer Morpheus in the room, they all said:"Oh that's beautiful, I want one" then they said, "oh what is it?". It may as well have been a toaster, we got them at, erm, hello! That's sort of what our friend Christian experienced yesterday at his place.

Now, I am one the two guys who designed the Campion, Alabaster, Byron, Bronte and Sedley as well as one or two non Sonneteer things we will not mention and I am quite fussy about sound qulity and am rarely happy if its not spot on. rarely do I think we've got something spot on as there is always room to improve. Of course if I didnt let go then the campion, 15 years on, would still be on the test bench and in the listening room and Sonneteer would never have come to be. I digress! What I was trying to say is that I have Morpheus in my living room. It is my main system.

Oh I still love the natural stress reliving sound of the Byron through an Alabster and I have as pair sitting to the side begging to take the Morpheus's spot in the corner of the room. Aint gonna happen!

Smelling mistakes!

I just read down and noticed quite a few typos and spelling errors. I'll get round to sorting them out.

Must use spell checker more often, must use spell chocker mre oftem, mist use smell cheker more opten, must use....