Aural Hi-Fi in Denver began its life when owner Jeremy Irwin took his love of music, and combined it with his hobby for refurbishing vintage speakers and amps. A few years later, he is running a thriving business doing what he loves most and enjoying an on-going partnership with Bluesound Professional.
A veteran of the advertising world, Irwin spent over two decades building and running creative agencies, and music always played a part. From DJing and producing electronic music to working on soundtracks for TV and radio ads, his creative work was always infused with sound. However, it was in the quiet solitude of his home studio that he discovered his true love for Hi-Fi systems.
“I always had a studio, and one day I found an old pair of RS2 speakers that caught my eye. I stripped them down to their bare wood and rebuilt them, and that’s when I fell in love with the process,” Irwin explains.
“I saw a gap in the market. There were a lot of online sellers and shops, but many didn’t present Hi-Fi gear in a way that showed passion for the craft. I wanted Aural Hi-Fi to be more than just a shop—it had to be an experience. My goal was to create a space where people could discover the magic of Hi-Fi without feeling intimidated or lost in a sea of technical jargon. I wanted anyone who came in to feel comfortable, be guided, and get excited about diving into this world.”
Today, Aural Hi-Fi is far from just a showroom. The thriving business has expanded to a 4000 square-foot space with a separate 2000 square-foot dedicated electronics restoration shop, woodshop, and even a shipping facility. But the real charm lies in their innovative approach to mixing high-end vintage audio gear with the convenience of modern technology, courtesy of Bluesound Professional high-efficiency streamers and loudspeakers.
“Our partnership with Aural Hi-Fi really shows off what our products can do,” says Craig Cooper, North American Sales Manager at Bluesound Professional. “Whether they’re playing vinyl in the shop or maybe streaming music, what we are essentially doing is working with Jeremy Irvin’s vintage or new showcase pieces and adding Bluesound Professional technology to fill the space with music.”
Working together to give the Aural Hi-Fi space the best sound coverage, Cooper and Irvin chose Bluesound Professional BSP200, BSP500, BSP1000 and BSC300 loudspeakers. All have integrated streaming capabilities designed specifically for use in either indoor or outdoor commercial installations and all use Power over Ethernet (PoE), allowing a one-wire connection for both power and audio. To complete the setup, a B100S Network Music Player and the Bluesound Professional HUB were added. The B100S is purpose-designed for commercial installations while the HUB is a versatile network accessory that allows the connection of both analog and digital audio devices to a BluOS ecosystem for networked streaming.
“My entire showroom is flooded with music and thanks to the BluOS technology from Bluesound Professional, 90% of that time, it’s being streamed. Everything is synced and the fact that it’s all hardwired to just one network cable with PoE, means there are fewer dropouts,” Irwin says.
“It’s so exciting to have all of this vintage equipment, all lovingly restored and refurbished, playing music using modern technology from Bluesound Professional. It puts a modern twist on a classic set-up, it’s Hi-Fi with wifi!”
But Jeremy isn’t just focused on selling Hi-Fi equipment, he’s dedicated to educating his customers, particularly younger audiophiles who are just beginning to explore high-quality sound systems. “With the resurgence of vinyl, many younger enthusiasts are becoming interested in how to take their music experience to the next level. “It’s exciting to see how many people in their 20s and 30s are coming in and discovering this,” Irwin says. “They get it, they want to create an experience, something that enhances their space, and they see Hi-Fi as part of that.”
Irwin has enjoyed taking his Aural Hi-Fi customers on a journey to discover what they can build in their own homes but he’s now expanding, taking his partnership with Bluesound Professional and his passion for combining old with new, to a much wider audience.
“We’ve had a lot of calls from restaurants and Hi-Fi bars,” Irwin says. “They’ve seen what we have at Aural Hi-Fi and the installations we’ve done at record shops like In Sheep’s Clothing in LA and Dante’s. They’ve seen how we can refurbish classic horn speakers and tube amps and want to build similar showpiece systems in their own spaces.”
To help him extend his reach within the hospitality sector, Irvin is adding another 2000 square-foot space above the existing space to incorporate commercial installations. He hopes that this new space will allow customers who own restaurants and bars to come in and see what an installation might look like – and more importantly sound like – with lots of different types of speakers, vintage and modern, all streaming music with BluOS technology. Irvin wants Aural Hi-Fi to be the place that helps the professional market build that ideal system. “We’ve got a wide-open showroom, and this means we are uniquely positioned to be more like the space they’re building than almost any other Hi-Fi shop. It means I can share my knowledge with a wider professional market now and take my partnership with Bluesound Professional into a whole new sector.”
Craig Cooper of Bluesound Professional is joined by Jeremy Irwin, founder of Aural HiFi, to discuss how Bluesound Professional products are used as a commercial audio solution for his business.
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