Tweeter Founder to Become ZVOX Audio Partner

It's easy to associate Sandy Bloomberg with Tweeter.

But now, two years after he sold Tweeter to Schultze Asset Management and one year after it shut its doors and is brand is being auctioned off, Bloomberg wants to be associated with his current venture: ZVOX Audio.

Bloomberg says he’s about to become a third partner in ZVOX, teaming up with president and product developer Tom Hannaher, formerly of Cambridge SoundWorks, and speaker designer Winslow Burhoe, formerly of Boston Acoustics.

ZVOX makes simple audio solutions, accessories, cables and connectors. ZVOX's audio solutions, which range from $199 to $699, are marketed as easy add-on audio alternatives for flat-panel customers. The company's real bread-and-butter, Bloomberg says, is its Audio Z-Base products, which connect via one wire to a flat panel.

"This is not for the No. 1 TV in the main family room because dealers are rightfully looking to sell a 5.1 system there," Bloomberg says.

Instead, ZVOX says its nitch is relatively good-sounding audio solutions for TVs in rooms where customers don't want full-blown audio.

"It's simulated surround sound and good bass," says Bloomberg. "Flat-panel [built-in speakers] sound awful, and that's a good thing from our standpoint."

Applying Lessons Learned

Few people know better than Bloomberg the difficulty dealers face contending with low flat-panel margins. Diminishing video margins are among the popular theories behind Tweeter's collapse.

Bloomberg emphasizes that specialty electronics retailers should be trying to sell full-blown surround sound systems with flat-panel TVs. However, it's not appropriate for all customers and all TVs. Bloomberg says ZVOX provides a good margin on nice-sounding alternatives.

"I saw a real need after leaving the retail work, knowing that margins on flat panels are shrinking violently," he says. "I believe it's the perfect product for the brick-and-mortar channel."