Signature Sound - Who Are We?

20 Questions With Signature Sound's Owner, Engineer, & Consultant, Richard Brkich.

How long has Signature Sound been in business? We (my former partner and I) registered Signature Sound with the county and state in April of 1990. For the first six years my former partner and I ran the business on a part time basis from our homes while we worked full time as engineers (we are both degreed Electrical Engineers and long time audio nuts) for GE Aerospace in Syracuse, New York. As I worked on and finished my masters degree in Engineering Management during 1995-96, I took over full ownership and operation of the business. Though still home-based, Signature Sound (along with some other work in the audio industry) is a full time occupation for me and one of the main High-End audio shops in the Syracuse, New York area.

Why did you start Signature Sound? Here in the Syracuse, New York area, HiFi pickings are mighty slim, plus in our region of the USA a number of really super HiFi products are not available at all. This combined with my fascination with HiFi which started in my early teen years, some available cash on hand, and some urging by Merlin Music Systems President, Bobby Palkovic lead to Signature Sounds founding. We also had dreams of the money we would make at it (in hindsight, not anywhere near as easy as we thought it would be) of course, and started off just selling Merlin, Cardas, and PS Audio products. From there it was all downhill!!!

So why do you work out of your home and don't have a "store"? There are a number of reasons why Signature Sound does not have a "storefront" and most of them have to do with money (overhead costs to operate a storefront vs. total profits earned) and the nature of the (small) market in the Syracuse, New York area were we are located. Given these issues and that this year (2000) will only be our 5th year of full time operation, home based operation is the best way to go right now. I also must admit that I prefer doing business this way because I can set up and demonstrate (in our two demonstration rooms) systems that better reflect the real world environment of a customers home and spend as much time as necessary with each customer.

You say you worked as an engineer? What kind of engineer are you and what type of work did you do? I started out actually only wanting to be a Radio.TV service tech when I enrolled in a vocational ed program in High School. At that time I was fascinated with computers (read Byte magazine cover to cover though at the time I'm lucky if I understood a quarter of what I was reading) and HiFi gear at that time. You see, my dad was a audiophile and I went to my first HiFi show when I was around 11 or 12 years old with him and my older brother and read those issues of Stereophile and Audio magazine that were lying around. Anyway, the more I got into things technical, the more I wanted to learn. So from high school, it was off to Ward Technical College at the University of Hartford (2 year technical degree and Electronic Engineering Technology), then to the University of Hartford College of Engineering to get a Electrical Engineering degree (BSEE with honors) with as many computer courses as I could cram in. Summer and semester breaks during this time were spent working as AV Technician.

Finally out of college, I started out doing Systems Engineering work (essentially determining specification for hardware and software systems and documenting them, then supporting their development, text, and implementation) for GE Aerospace (now Lockheed Martin) when I graduated from Engineering School in 1985. I worked on parts of a rather complicated simulation/stimulation system for a Anti-Submarine Combat System that went aboard US Naval ships (AEGIS Class CG and DDG ships). The simulation/ stimulation system allowed us to test out the Naval equipment on test beds to make sure the SW and HW worked properly before installing it aboard ship. I also did Project engineering work on further evolutions and production of these million dollar plus simulation/stimulation systems. Our system was built to best commercial practice standards so I got to get involved in HW, SW, integration, customer, subcontracting, and other fabrication issues.

Your name has shown up in some interesting places? Why is that? I guess you must be referring to my involvement with the high end audio community on the net (first on the original audiophile community, the TAN BBS system, then on various places on the internet) and my involvement with a "underground" HiFi magazine called Positive Feedback. I was quite fortunate to stumble upon some good friends that introduced me to these areas soon after starting Signature Sound. I learned much, talking about HiFi with many folks inside and outside of the industry as well as the happenings on the magazine side of the HiFi industry. I even did some review/writing for Positive Feedback magazine as well. This was a fantastic experience for me because there is such an incredible amount to learn about the HiFi industry in all its aspects (retailing, manufacturing, reviewing, etc, etc).

Why "By appointment Only"? Since we operate from a residence, so as a courtesy to our neighbors and to ensure you receive our undivided attention, we operate by appointment. We found it quite interesting that some customers were skeptical about the value of evaluating equipment in somebody's home. However, once they arrive, customers immediately realize the following benefits: one on one consultations without interruptions in dedicated listening rooms; the ability to fully evaluate a component in an environment that is much more close to their own home (single speaker, single system demonstrations) than most stores can be; and most importantly, the ability to take your time in fully evaluating and comparing products. It is not unusual for a Signature Sound customer to spend two or more hours here. We also encourage customers to bring over their own equipment to see how it will work with that new speaker, amp, etceteras they are considering before they make their purchase. Please note that whether or not you are interested in making a purchase, we are more than happy to demonstrate the products we carry.

What is a "Single speaker, single system demonstration"? To allow you to hear an audio product performing at its best, we only have one system (set of components) operating and one set of speakers in our main listening room at any time. With demonstrations performed in this fashion, any possible degradation in performance caused by such factors as possible electrical interference and the acoustical interference caused by having multiple pairs of speakers in a room is eliminated. This allows you to hear our products to their best potential. Careful attention is paid to room acoustics and speaker placement as well to further wring the best performance possible for the equipment under evaluation. Just take a look at some of the pictures of our listening rooms to see what we mean.

How do I make an appointment? Just give us a call (You can E-mail or FAX us too!). Let us know what times you will be available so we can arrange for your appointment, and give you necessary directions. We are less than 10 minutes away from the New York State Thruway (exit 38) in the Syracuse, New York area. PLEASE NOTE: With other consulting work and demos done in customer's homes, we are not always available to take your call. So, as much as you may hate it, please leave a message on our answering machine with a time that is convenient for you and we will gladly return your call.

What is your businesses attitude: We try to be very low key. We don't qualify people and let them listen to whatever they like for as long as they like (it is not unusual for a appointment to last 2 to 3 hours). We give you the straight scoop. If we feel we don not have the equipment to meet your needs, we will often recommend the product we think is right based on your feedback of what your needs and desires are. We'd like to have you buy the right product the first time.