All Articles Tagged Abt Electronics

Julie Jacobson | 08/09 09:35 AM, 4 Comments

MK Sound 950 speaker system gives consumers a taste of professional-grade surround. Feb. 22, 2007 was a sad day for M&K (Miller & Kreisel) fans. That's when the company closed shop after 34 years of building audiophile-grade speakers and subwoofers. Although it was founded to serve the pro audio market M&K, now MK Sound, anticipated the home theater movement early and pioneered the satellite/sub design concept that is today's standard in residential surround sound. When the company folded in 2007, Abt Electronics was the second largest MK dealer in the… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 07/28 05:13 AM, 1 Comment

Earlier this year, the Consumer Electronics Association delivered some bad news for specialty retailers: Their stores aren't fun. Obviously, the respondents in CEA's survey had never been to Abt Electronics. This Chicago-area store makes a great destination for abstract art aficionados, exotic fish lovers, coffee snobs, kids of all ages, even brides and grooms -- several of which have been married in Abt's sunny atrium surrounded by a fountain and gardens. Oh, yes, there's a stunning array of electronics as well. "We're the Bellagio of the industry," says co-president Mike… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 07/28 04:54 AM, 2 Comments

When you talk about Abt Electronics, it's hard to know where to begin. You don't even know what to call the place, which is located in the Chicago suburb of Glenview. It is just as much a recycling plant as it is a store. And the store sells everything from dishwashers to iPads to watches to almost every popular home control system. The décor is one part nostalgia and one part Vegas. Most of all, though, Abt is a destination. "We're the Bellagio of the industry," says co-president Mike Abt,… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 04/22 10:14 AM, 2 Comments

And you think you run a green business. No other specialty A/V retailer in the country runs a greener shop than Abt Electronics in the Chicago suburb of Glenview, Ill. First of all, the 350,000-square-foot namesake store is “completely off the grid,” says principal Mike Abt, a self-professed hippie. During a recent tour of the store, Abt showed off power central. “It’s like a nuclear facility back here,” he says. Biodiesel fuels the facility, but Abt nevertheless has a couple of wind turbines and solar panels for good measure. The… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 04/14 08:34 AM, 2 Comments

It wasn’t mentioned in a presentation today by CEA analyst Chris Ely, but it did show up in a survey: Do people prefer specialty A/V retailers because they’re fun? Nope. In a long laundry list of reasons to shop at specialty retailers, the “fun” factor ranked just about last, after pricing, knowledgeable staff, etc. Ely presented the study at the Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA) spring meeting. Come on. This industry was founded on fun, so if your place isn’t a great place to hang out … how about… View this story