BOSTON AUDIO SOCIETY
May 2013 Meeting

Date: Sunday, June 2, 2013
Time: 6:00 PM
Place: Boston University, Life Science & Engineering Bldg, 24 Cummington Mall, 1st Floor
Conference Room (Room 103), Boston, MA 02215, (617) 271-6588

Featured Guest: Stephen Hluchan
Topic: Physics, Perception, and Price: wow and flutter in the audio business.

In other words, we will examine Audio from a business perspective, an insider’s view of what's outside the gadget in black box.

For example, what do Acoustic Research and Thomas Edison have in common in their approach to selling High Fidelity? What does market data from the early 1970s tell us about the great Speaker Wars? How did Mark Levinson and Amar Bose position their products? What worked, how, and why? Where will you find the magical Acoustic Lens? What does The Business Plan tell an investor?

This is not exactly an HBS Case Study; rather it is a patchwork of opinions and observations by an audiophile who left a responsible position in a major Manhattan corporation for the dark, unexplored interior of New Hampshire to an aging warehouse seeking Hi-Fi’s El Dorado, an expedition in search of the legendary, absolute sound of the Golden Ears.

Steve Hluchan was a senior executive at a Fortune 500 corporation, played a major role in a successful IPO on the NYSE, and has consulted for a number of start-ups in the Boston area. He worked in various roles, including creating investor presentations and business plans for Red Rose Music, Fried Products, and Sausalito Audio; in addition, he developed a purchase/sale proposal for Platinum Audio. He holds a degree in Physics from the University of California, did advanced studies in Solid State Physics at MIT, followed by research in dielectric materials, before crossing the Charles River for an MBA from the HBS.

There will be refreshmnents at 5:30.