Meet Grizz Archer, Soundstream’s Archdeacon of Cool

This is about the dealer training day that new outfit ProPlus Audio held yesterday in south London to get the new Soundstream story across to their guys at the sharp end. Top bloke at PPA, Krups, organised a really excellent room above a pub – with parking in out back, a seriously tasty fusion lunch of Chinese, Indian and Malaysian dishes and limitless coffee. They even had the bar open for those who felt the urge.

But maybe it was because they are a new outfit that they were not quite on the button with quite how much you have to really nag dealers to get off their butts and attend such thingsand only a few showed up. But We all got to meet the inspirationally cool Grizz Archer of Soundstream, who is their speaker designer and specifies what’s wanted with the rest of the tech. We also got to meet Anna Dimitrova, who is in charge of international sales and was presenting details of the new pro-audio P.A. equipment and the new Soundstream DJ and even lifestyle home audio kit.

The parent company, Epsilon, has the Precision Power and Soundstream brands and they are very proud of their history and what they have managed to achieve with the recent revamping of the lines. In fact, at the last Spring Break Nationals (the biggest and most prestigious sound off in the whole of the continental USA year) the Soundstream brand won what they call the Triple Crown of being top dog in RTA (Real Time Analysis – to see who has the ‘flattest’ response from their system) as well as Sound Quality and even in SPL, which is an area they have only got into relatively recently versus their thirty year history.

Anna is an enthusiastic ambassador that I have known via email for years and only met for the first time at the training session and was even more impressed. She knows her stuff and clearly enjoys the kit as well.
Grizz Archer is a powerhouse. I have met some goodly few training guys and have found that by the time they get to do the job they will be impressive dudes. Carl and Steve, who I met through Celsus are bloody cool blokes and Grizz from Soundstream is just a star. Shooting from the hip, if he didn’t like something, he told us – he hates cap banks for bassheads, only any use for rhythmic musical use – and if he likes something, he can infect with enthusiasm like a Pied Piper.

But it wasn’t just the chap, it was also the equipment and I can tell you that the 2012 Soundstream line up is going to scare the opposition. It is well supported by the USA outfit and the keen thrusting new UK distributor alike and they have a wide range of stuff that goes from a 22 kilowatt (yes you will need ten batteries) absurdo-amp, to the top end of SQ, complete with a challenge laid out to me to test a Reference amp against ANYTHINGexcept perhaps the Audison Thesis!

So PPA, a new distributor but one to be reckoned with, that can offer a slew of kit from a mad range of brands and has real support for the end user in mind.
Any dealers looking to learn more, or you guys wanting to find what they have can call 0207 993 8889 – their own website is under construction.

And for the record, here are the sites for all TEN PPA brands!
HiFonics link
MB Quart link
Crunch link
Autotek link
Cerwin-Vega! link
Diamond Audio link
Cache Car Audio link
Soundstream link
PPI link
Power Acoustik link