About Chris Trojnar

Chris Trojnar is an industry veteran with over 22 years experience in both the retail and manufacturing side of luxury audio. After graduating with a degree in music, Chris found his calling in consumer electronics.

Chris currently works with over 80 dealers throughout the southeast US. He prides himself on providing excellent product-specific sales and technical support to his dealers.

Chris’s current brand responsibilities at Harman include Mark Levinson, Revel, Lexicon, Arcam, and JBL Synthesis. Chris strongly believes selling luxury audio is all about selling performance.

Interview Recap

Here are some of the topics Ron had the opportunity to discuss with Chris:

• How to properly prepare for a sales' demo
• The importance of highlighting the differences in products to a customer for them to hear and see themselves
• Finding ways to demonstrate high-performance audio
• Differences in listening to vinyl vs. digital sources

SEE ALSO: Home Automation Podcast Episode #43: A Custom Integration Industry Q&A With Brian Jones

Transcript:

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Ron:  Hello everybody. Ron Callis here, CEO of One Firefly. Very happy to bring you another episode of Automation Unplugged. This is episode 44 for those of you that maybe are watching the show for the first time. You know, I've been producing these shows for a little over a year now. I started in April of 2017 and I attempt every week to bring in a guest that are either owners of integration firms, reps, manufacturers or different consultants, people that are bringing a unique perspective as it relates to the custom integration marketplace. And I interviewed them so that we can learn about their background and kind of what makes them tick. And then I tried to bring up you know, topics that help us all understand where they're coming from or what their take is on the current marketplace. So today is May 23rd. It's Wednesday. I was actually not recording last week. I was out in Las Vegas and it was out at The Palms Casino and Resort. I was there for the Bravas Group bi-annual meeting. So I was out there with a bunch of vendors that were supporting that group and about 20 integration firms that are some of the firms that are getting together to ultimately do a reverse merger and become a much larger entity. So that's a very exciting effort that's taking place. But anyway, let me bring you our guest today. Let me go ahead and bring him on. I'm bringing you Chris Trojnar and Chris is the Sales Manager for the southeast US for Harman Luxury Audio. Chris, how are you sir?

Chris: Good afternoon. Happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Ron:  Oh, no, I appreciate, I know we've been trying to coordinate getting you on the show for some time now. You are a fellow Floridian. You're here in the sunshine state. Where, where are you based right now?

Chris: I'm based in Tampa, Florida. Been here about 32 years.

Ron:  No kidding. I did not know. Where are you originally from?

Chris: From upstate New York, been down here when I was a teenager.

Ron:  Okay. And you're enjoying Tampa?

Chris: I love it. It's a great city up and coming city, just, you know, and we have all the benefits of living in Florida. It's just fantastic.

Ron:  Amen. Minus the hurricane season, which is fast approaching, right?

Chris: Yeah, it was a little scary, sketchy last year. So let's just hope we dodge the storms this year.

"I was recently at one of the tech and business summits and an individual pulled me aside and tells me he watches every single show and and he always does it in between trips between job sites."

Ron:  Amen. So for those actually, you know what, I'm going to do, Chris here, just so I don't get this, sometimes I can get caught up in Q and A and I forget to do this. So let me jump real quickly into our company Facebook page. Let me make sure that we actually have an audience forming. Let's see here. Yeah, there we go. So we are live. If you are out there and you're watching us, number one, thank you for watching and listening. If you're watching after the fact and you're, you know, say listening, but you're driving, please do not watch, only listen. And that's important. I was recently at one of the tech and business summits and an individual pulled me aside and tells me he watches every single show and and he always does it in between trips between job sites. And I was like, Oh God, you're scaring me, but just tell me you're listening. You're not watching. That could be bad for your health. But anyway, if you're out there please like, or comment we'd love to hear from you. If you have questions about high performance audio from Chris or any of his brands or perspectives, we'd love to hear those and I'll do my best to read those off to Chris and get his feedback. But Chris, let's just go ahead and jump in. Can you help my audience understand kind of where you're coming from, what brought you into the CI space? And maybe just walk them through some of your background. I know you've been in this industry for over 20 years.

Chris: Yeah. So it all started back in my college days. I was actually studying classical percussion at the University of South Florida. And you know, at the time I was just trying to get by, you know, pay my tuition and pay my rent and I had some jobs busing tables and just trying to work my way through music school. And I had an opportunity to work for a firm here in Tampa called Audio Vision South and you know, one thing led to another with my passion for music and it led me to a passion for high performance audio and it was a perfect fit. So after I graduated I continued full time at AV South and was there for 18 years. You know, it was great because there we had kind of the best of both worlds. We were a big automation house, big Crestron house, but we also specialized in high performance audio and video. So that's really where I cut my teeth.

Ron:  Got it. And you're obviously now with Harman Luxury Audio. How did that transition happen?

Chris: Well, you know, Harman's been been a big part of my story my whole career. You know, brands like Mark Levinson and Rebel. Back in the day, you know, I've been selling that all my life. So it was a perfect opportunity and a perfect fit and there's some great things happening here with Harman Luxury that I'm very excited about and happy to be part of the team. I've been on board with Harman now for just over a year and a half.

Ron:  Alright, so Harman Luxury tell us a little bit about what that is and then specifically what your roles and responsibilities are.

Chris: Yeah, absolutely. So I am the Regional Sales Manager of the southeast for the Harman Luxury Group. Those brands include Rebel, Mark Levinson, Lexicon, Arcam, and JBL Synthesis.

Ron:  Okay. And you are working and traveling around the state and interacting with integrators and showrooms to help them learn about those products.

Chris: That's correct. I wear a lot of hats. A lot of it's very product-specific direct for all of my dealers. I'm a phone call away, an email away from support, whether it's sales support, whether it's technical support, I consider myself from a technical side of it. I've been doing this a while, but I'm more like the librarian rather than the library. So if I don't know how to get an answer, I know I know where to find it. So you know, I help out on many fronts and I worked directly with dealers and I have about 80 dealers throughout the southeast.

Ron:  Now you having been a dealer and now calling on dealers, do you find that that perspective is helpful in your day-to-day interactions?

Chris: Absolutely. I think from my experience, it was just imperative because you know, I've been in their shoes. You know, this is a rapidly changing industry, but the challenges that we face in our industry and the day-to-day don't change. So I know the luxury customers, they're demanding and they're paying good money. They want a good product and they want a good response from the dealer. So I try to give that same level of support to my dealers, understanding, I've walked in their shoes.

Ron:  Sure. So why should an integrator or someone listening to this show, why should they pay more attention to audio or the audio side of the equation?

Chris: Yeah, great question. You know, I really see this industry, you know, with everything. We saw it with video 15, 20 years ago. Everybody was selling big plasma TVs and it was very profitable and fun and exciting. But what quickly ended up happening was, it was the race to the bottom televisions and TVs became very inexpensive and now, you know, they're really a commodity. And there's still some great companies out there, you know, making high-performance quality product. But you know, a television nowadays, a flat panel TV, it's a giveaway. It's a commodity. What I really kind of see trending and happening right now in our industry is, we're kind of seeing that on the automation side, you know, with lighting control and voice control. And these big integration systems are slowly kind of being taken away by what's happening, you know, with the Amazons and the Googles of the world. It's exciting, but it's a little scary in our channel because that's a big part of our business. Where does audio fit into that? Well, I mean audio there's a lot of emotion tied into selling audio, and audio is based around, luxury audio is based around selling performance, and selling performance is something that never diminishes and it's important, does that make sense?

Ron:  No, I get it. And I've seen, I've witnessed, you know, over the last couple of years, an increased focus on audio. We do marketing for a lot of integrators around the country. I think now we're, maybe the numbers over 300 or so. And so we're seeing the requests come from them to us to better help them promote the category of audio and specifically high performance audio. And so I'm imagining from your position in your seat, you're trying to get them perhaps help them, those that are raising their hand, asking for help that maybe they already know and observe that they need to add that category or grow its focus. And, or I'm assuming sometimes you have to put the hat on of educator and you have to tell them that they should care.

Chris: Yeah. Yes, absolutely. You know, the first thing is caring about it. And I mean, even if you're not an audiophile, even if that's not your passion. People can hear the difference. And I think fundamentally the most important thing for dealers and integrators out there to realize is that you can demonstrate product or a customer doing an AV comparison very effectively and you know, that customer's gonna want to end up owning better sounding, better looking product. There's just no question about it. But the key element there is the ability to demonstrate that.

Ron:  I was just about to touch on that. So, you know, there's always this discussion and I was actually just in a discussion with one of my customers yesterday and he was, you know, spending big bucks on a showroom and not going to lie. I was a little concerned of those of us that have been around the industry long enough. I've seen some ups and downs in the economy and you know, I've seen some challenges around people building big showrooms only to have the economy turn and then they're stuck with this big anchor. But I do think there's a balanced point where the appropriate amount of show space is really necessary to help demonstrate the given technology. And I'm imagining if you could help enlighten me further around audio, I mean, do you really find the demonstration is critical to selling the nicer gear, the more expensive gear?

Chris: Absolutely. It's imperative because if you can't show the difference. Take in ceiling speakers for example, right? An eight inch in ceiling speaker, they all look pretty much the same. They're round. They have paintable grills, you know, we install in ceiling speakers because they're hidden, right? They're not big boxes in the room. But again, a $100 speaker looks the same as $1,000 speaker, right? So unless you have the ability to demonstrate and show somebody the audio and the sonic differences, that's where the real advantage comes into play. Now, you know, I manage a large group of dealers throughout the southeast and some of them are large retailers that have massive showrooms. They have everything on display and it's fantastic. But I think from an integration standpoint where somebody maybe doesn't have the real estate or the showroom or the location to show this stuff. I've had several dealers, many dealers you know, just simply have an effective good, better, best demonstration of in ceiling speakers. And you'd be surprised how often they would have success with taking somebody from, you know, what they would put on a standard proposal. You get the customer in to sit down for 10, 15 minutes. You do a comparison between a good, better best speaker. They end up on the better speaker. Well, now you're not just installing one pair of speakers throughout the house. I mean, you could be, you know, 5, 10 pairs of speakers. So, you know, profitability went up, customer satisfaction went up because now they have a product that they're proud of, that sounds good, that they're gonna demonstrate for their for their friends and family and it's something that differentiates dealers when they can sell better performance audio.

Ron:  Now you're in the Harman luxury Group, you have five different product families.

Chris: That's correct. Yes.

Ron:  You have a reseller. Do they are a dealer or a retailer? Do they by default get all five lines or do each of those lines discreetly get distributed in the marketplace?

Chris: Yeah, so each brand is treated individually because you know, one brand may or may not be a fit or for another. We do have, you know, many dealers that carry all of our brands and we're thankful for that. But it's great to have such a variety of products, you know, from electronics to home theater systems and to credible loudspeakers, both in the custom installation and floor-standing range as well.

Ron:  We just had a question posted by Deborah. And this is not Deborah Smith that you and I were talking about offline. This is a different Deborah and she says, is there any specific type of content you recommend using during demos? And I'm assuming during, you know, high performance audio demos?

Chris: Well that gets to a larger issue, Deborah, and yes, the short answer is yes. There is material that you want to use. But most importantly, it's material that has to be recorded. Well, it has to be on an, at least CD quality recording. So we don't want to stream or play anything that's MP3 quality. Now, some of these streaming services like Title that stream in high res at least CD quality are perfect for that. But then you get into the issue of choosing the right demo material. I'd say probably the most important thing and the most fundamental thing for, you know, dealers that haven't done many demonstrations. You control the demo and you don't let the customer dictate what they want to play cause immediately they're going to take out their phone and they're going to want to play you know the song that they just heard. Taking a pretty big gamble there because you know it could be a poor recording, it'd be a bad recording quality and you put all this hard work and into your showroom and setting up the demo. You obviously want to take control. My suggestion is this because the follow-up is going to be, well you know you've got all this audio file material that you use to demo but I don't listen to that, you know that audio file stuff. So you know, my strategy would be to play two, three, maybe four cuts of material that you've hand selected for that particular demonstration and that particular client and then let the customer play a material that they want to listen to. Even if at that point, it's a bad recording or an inferior file, what they'll come to understand as well, it's not the gear, it's not the speakers. It must be this recording. So hopefully that answers that question.

Ron:  I see. So do you find in a typical, let's say presentation where the salesperson is trying to educate the customer and then ultimately sell them some gear. Do you find that the selection of audio material and then the education through that material is really a key component of that sale cause you teach? Do you have to teach now, assuming this is not an audiophile that already knows what they know most other mere mortals.. Do you find that it is necessary to teach them what to listen for in good quality audio?

Chris: Very basically, you know, the myth about high-end audio is that it's for audiophiles and that, you know, I'm a classically trained musician, so I have these somehow golden, amazing ears. That's not the case. Anybody can hear the differences. It just takes what I recommend is just giving somebody some cues to listen for. And they can be basic things like we all know what a piano sounds like or how a guitar is supposed to sound when it's plucked so you give these customers cues to listen for. So you know they're engaged, but you don't have to get technical and you let the demo do the talking because I promise you after 5, 10 minutes of an effective demo, that customer is going to hear the difference. How it's been tried and tested, you know, not just in my circle but in, the audiophile circle for the last 50 years.

Ron:  How should someone, and I'm assuming some of those listening already know you or know your brands and, and or they know luxury audio, but for those of us that are a little greener, how do you prepare prior to that demo? How should a salesperson prepare adequately or effectively so that when the customer does come in or when they're going to set a space up and provide a listening experience that would be demonstrating, say, a given set of electronics or speakers or AV comparison. What is the Q and A or what's the data you'd want to collect from that customer so that the sales experience is as effective as possible?

Chris: Sure. I think you want to have a couple options available. But I think one of the mistakes a lot of salespeople make is trying to get that budget for that customer first and then doing the demo based on that budget. I think that's a mistake. I think you want to show somebody the, you know, the best that you can possibly show them and if it's not in their budget you know, you can, you can take them down from there. But I think you know, I think a common mistake is to, is to set the demo up based on, you know, asking somebody budget because until you've done that demo and blown somebody away with what the differences, you don't know what that customer is capable of doing or spending.

Ron:  Got it. No, I think, and we did just have another great question come in and so I'm going to read that here in just a moment, but I'm curious because I've seen this big boom in vinyl now moving back so many stores. You know, you actually can go to a downtown now and see vinyl shops again. It's so surreal. I'm curious if you've seen that same trend or if we're just looking for it because we're in this industry but does vinyl really provide such a positive or a better source than say a digital source?

Chris: Well, yeah, we can get into a long argument, a discussion about that. I think it's a very viable source. There is something about hearing analog that you know, I think our kind of dinosaur brains, we can kind of hear that, you know, digital artifacts. So I think there is something kind of primitive that makes vinyl so delightful to listen to. But I think also from a histologist standpoint people are consuming music in different ways. And the great thing about vinyl is when you sit down and you put a record on and drop the needle on that record, you're listening to an album and you're listening to an album, the way the artists recorded it and wanted you to listen to it. You know, so much,digital technology's gotten really good and I talked about streaming high resolution with Title. It's so good, but we get so distracted by what song is going to play next. Oh, what do I want to hear? With vinyl, it's a different experience because it gets the customer, it gets us engaged and people are actively listening to the music content and that point, you start forgetting about the gear, you start forgetting about everything else and you just let the music take over. So I think from that element alone you know, vinyl is awesome.

Ron:  So within your product lines, do you have a, and I'm going to show my complete ignorance here. I know they're not called record players, but what do you call it? What do you call the super nice things that play vinyl?

Chris: Yeah. We call them turn tables.

Ron:  Turntables. There you go. So now everyone's laughing at me that's watching. Guys, I never claimed to know this stuff. I just ask the questions. But do you have turntables within your product lines?

Chris: We do. And I'm I'll probably shock you by saying that we have, we have one turntable, made by Mark Levinson. So the shocking part of that is that turntable sells for about 12 thousand dollars.

Ron:  12. So I wanted to get into this conversation cause I've got buddies and friends all around the industry and I've seen them sell, you know, the maybe the less expensive, maybe something I would buy right now. And then there's up to the 5 and 10 and then, you know, $30,000 and $50,000 players, turntables, $150,000, $200,000. What are you paying for when you pay for that spectrum? And I don't mean to ask you to talk about other people's products or anything, but I'm just curious, what's the difference in all those turntables?

Chris: Obviously what you're trying to do with turntables, it's an analog source. You're trying to minimize and eliminate vibration, electromechanical, vibration distortion, you know, caused by the physical nature of a diamond needle hitting a vinyl roof. So there's a lot of engineering that has to go into it. It takes a lot of material to make a turntable that's very stable. And noise free. So, you know, as you go up in the chain, obviously you get to a point where there's diminishing returns, but the more you spend and the better the product gets because the more expensive it gets because of the engineering the materials needed for that product. I want to say this, Ron though, it was amazing. We launched this turntable just over six months ago. And as a testament to how high performance audio, how important it is. You know, we've had trouble keeping this thing in stock.

Ron:  I was going to ask you about the historical data around sales of your turntable. I was just going to make the assumption it's gotta be doing red hot

Chris: It's incredible. We partnered with VPI on the table and, you know, they're just a fantastic company to work with. But the Mark Levinson table has very things that are very characteristic to what we do and Mark Levinson. So it's a great partnership and it's been, I mean it's surprised us even out of the gate how successful..

Ron:  All right. So what is that model number? Cause now I'm going to Google it and I'm going to post it down in the notes. So when people want to go, what the hell player are they talking about or turntable, how do I find me a $12,000 Mark Levinson turntable? It's the number 515. All right. Levinson 515.

Chris: 515 is the model number. Yeah. And that's available with a Brown's cartridge or without, so you can, you can choose to have it with or without a cartridge mounted. Some people you know, they like to, play around with cartridges and you know, use their own cartridges based on their taste.

Ron:  Got it. And I'm online I do want to go back to Ben's question here, but I'm online. Where's the best place to get information on that? What's coming up immediately? Are all of these review sites? Is there a Harman homepage or Mark Levinson?

Chris: Yeah. All of all of our brands have homepages. So MarkLevinson.com is a great resource, beautiful imagery. You can learn a lot about the product and the technical side of it.

"Big retailers like Best Buy have stepped up their high end audio in some Magnolia stores, but smaller audio dealers are hard to find these days."

Ron:  Got it. Okay. All right, well I promise everyone, whether I do it right this moment, I'll do it afterwards. I'll get that posted. So Ben posted a question and he says especially for so I'm assuming this was tagging onto something you and I were talking about a few minutes ago. He says, especially for the high end products, given that so much audio equipment sales are going online, how do you meet the challenge of being able to demo the products for customers? I know big retailers like Best Buy have stepped up their high end audio in some Magnolia stores, but smaller audio dealers are hard to find these days. Are they hard to find these days?

Chris: You know, it is a challenge. You know, a lot of companies you know, the industry has certainly changed even in the last 10 years. And it's hard unless you're going to a big chain store to find, you know, a good brick and mortar store that you can get a proper demonstration. That said you can just about every market in every city you can find somewhere to go and, you know, get a good audio experience. I think the challenge and the challenge to this industry is to get creative and find good ways to demonstrate performance audio, right? Because you don't need a 10,000 square foot showroom to show somebody what a good system sounds like. You need a good amplifier and a good pair of speakers at the end of the day.

Ron:  Do you find that most shops that are demoing gear need to have a good, better, best in amplification or in speakers or is just having one good set? Is that good enough or what do you consider best?

Chris: Yeah, I think the ability to show people differences, however you want to take that. I think that's imperative. Because when we listened to music our ability to recall the sound quality, it happens. It's a very short window. So the ability to show someone, somebody the differences I think, you know, it has to happen kind of on the spot. And that that can mean a lot of things, but it doesn't necessarily mean you have to fill up your showroom with a bunch of gear in that respect.

Ron:  Do you find that the resellers that you call on Chris, are adding or have added audio because it's bringing in new types of customers? Or do you find that it's an add on sale to their existing maybe automation customer or lighting control customer?

Chris: Yeah, I think dealers that are not traditional, you know, high performance audio dealers. I think it's bringing them you know, an additional outlet to their existing customer base. In a lot of cases, especially with integrators, people aren't going out looking for them. They're typically referred to these people. So I think yeah, having some specialized brands will certainly bring some awareness to those dealers. But I think the success that I see that my dealers are having is you know, adding that extra performance, that the extra money of the sale in having luxury audio in your portfolio.

Ron:  Without disclosing anything that wouldn't be appropriate for a very public channel, that this is, are the margins in audio and the gear that you represent, is that usually on the better side of margins for an integrator? I mean, I'm making that assumption. I don't know that.

"The beauty about audio is in its simplicity and the fact that it's just so reliable. I mean, speakers hardly ever break unless they're abused, you know?"

Chris: Traditionally, yes. But I would say even more importantly than this one, it's not a yes, but it is. Yes, the margins are very good on this side of it I think more importantly, and I go back to my experience in the integration days and you know, to make money in this industry, we have to be professional, we have to do things the right way the first time. But unfortunately, the nature of electronics, it doesn't always work in our favorite. We can have the best practices, have the best programmers, but you know, stuff breaks. The beauty about audio is in its simplicity and the fact that it's just so reliable. I mean, speakers hardly ever break unless they're abused, you know? And so the customer satisfaction, again, going back to my retail days. The guys that would write, the guys and gals that would write me thank you letters and then refer me. They were always talking about their audio system and it was, thank you. You know, I've never heard music sound like this. You know, of course when we completed a big integration system, it was like, yeah, great, but can you come reprogram this scene for me on the lighting control system? Cause it's not right. I think the customer satisfaction side of it and the reliability side of it, that alone you know, should have most dealers thinking about how to incorporate that into their business.

Ron:  That's great feedback. In terms of success stories or strategies that you've witnessed, maybe you've practiced when you were on the retail side or in the integration side or that you've witnessed with some of your dealers. I've heard of like listening parties or wine and cheese sort of, you know, catered events where you bring customers in and they unveil some set of gear. Can you maybe talk about that strategy? Is that a successful strategy and how does that typically work?

"Get audio sales, get the big automation sales, you get customers that come in and sometimes that's just the spark to get a customer to spend some money with your company. It's a great idea."

Chris: Yeah, it is a successful strategy. And again, we want to make the experience about the music. And you know, just not really make it about the equipment for dealers entertaining that idea. It takes some time to get it right. You want a good turnout. You know, you want to go the right way, but you gotta go about it carefully. I have a dealer coming up on their 40th anniversary and they've hosted an event like this on an annual basis. They will get hundreds and hundreds of people through their door in the two nights that they host this. And you know what that leads to, right? It's, you know, just get audio sales, you get the big automation sales, you get customers that, they come in and sometimes that's just the spark to get a customer to spend some money with your company. So it's a great idea.

Ron:  And if anyone watching or listening wants to get tips or ideas on how to do that, can they reach out to you directly?

Chris: Absolutely.

Ron:  Okay. Awesome. We'll make sure if you're out there watching or listening now or later, we'll make sure we will put all of Chris's contact information down in the comments. Chris, with the brands you're representing, are you adding any dealers? Is that something, if somebody is in the Southeast and they hear, they listened to you and they want to ultimately learn about carrying a said product, is that a door that's open or is all your distribution already set?

Chris: Absolutely. Some exciting things happening in the Harman world. We've recently we acquired Arcam, which is a company that's been around for over 40 years now and they're based in the UK. Arcam is a fantastic addition to our family because it offers affordable electronics that can power our great loudspeakers. In addition to acquiring Arcam, we've recently really relaunched the brand Lexicon in the consumer world. Back when I was selling, you know, audio, video Lexicon was always our go to as far as audio, video processers, and you know, over the last, you know, 5 to 10 years, this has kind of fallen off. Well, it's an exciting time because Lexicon is coming back now with a processor and two audio video receivers that are just outstanding. So yes, we're, growing our line and you know, in that respect, growing our dealer base as well.

Ron:  I've got Lexicon, digital amps running my outdoor and my garage, my patio and my garage speakers. I don't know if that's a common thing. But I've got a Sonos preamp and so all I ever listen to is Pandora. So I'm rather boring. But I'm driving that through a Lexicon amp and I love that piece of gear.

Chris: Well that's great. And I think you bring up a good point too about how dealers can get creative because, you know, the Sonos world, I mean, Sonos has become a household name. I mean, my mom tells me, Oh my God, I love my Sonos system. And it's..

Ron:  By the way, I think my mom and dad say the same thing.

Chris: It's just a wonderful, reliable product. And I'm having dealers that are taking that and you know, they're able to kind of hot rod that, that Sonos system. So you add, you know, a really good pair of Rebel loudspeakers and a Lexicon digital amplifier. And maybe that's your AV comparison. Maybe you show somebody, okay, you can have Sonos in your house, you can have a Play One Play Five great product. But let me show you how we can take that experience. You integrate, you experience it exactly the same, but let me show you how we can take that to a different performance level. And let me show you what adding a Lexicon amp and a pair of Rebel speakers can do to your Sonos system without you having to relearn how to use the system at all, it's the same interface.

Ron:  Yeah, no, I agree 100%. I think it just takes a little bit of creativity. Oh, we just got a love somebody just posted a love on, I guess whatever you were saying right now. Someone just said, I love that comment, Chris. That's pretty cool. Well, Chris, I wanted to believe it or not, we've been going almost 40 minutes. Didn't I tell you we'd blink?

Chris: Yeah. I literally blinked and we're wrapping up.

Ron:  That time would pass, but I did want to learn. So you studied music in school and you said, are you still a musician? Do you still practice? And if so, what do you, what do you play?

Chris: I am I still actually very recently joined a band called The Heart Weights and it's just an element that's kind of been missing from my life. Not, you know, not to pile, one more thing on top of what I do, but you know, I do play music now actively. My wife and I, we traveled to hear music. I mean we've gone to South America to see music festivals. So I'm very passionate about seeing, experiencing and playing music.

Ron:  Well, that's awesome. Chris. I think I along with my audience have had an a great opportunity to meet you and learn more about you and your thoughts and ideas around high-performance music. It's been a pleasure having you on the show. And I know we had to do a bunch of scheduling and logistics to make it ultimately happen, but I'm glad you were able to join me here.

Chris: Yeah, this was great. Let's do it again. Or we'll pick a different subject material and this is fantastic.

Ron:  Well, I will definitely do that. My team will be in touch to get you scheduled and it was it was a pleasure having you on episode 44. Thank you. All right, ladies and gents. Ladies and germs. That's a Tim Ferris reference for those of you that listened to Tim Ferris. So it's about about 1:15 almost, but here on May 23rd. Well thank you for watching and, or listening and commenting to this episode of Automation Unplugged. If you want to learn more about One Firefly please go over to our website onefirefly.com. I'll put the website and phone number up here on the end. Sign up for our newsletter. If you want to hear more from us or follow us, go over to Facebook and if you're watching us live, you're already on Facebook. So make sure to like the page. And we're going to be back in pretty regular succession here with new guests. All my travel, Spring travels now behind us. We haven't been as regular with Automation Unplugged episodes the last three months as I would like. But we should be pretty regular now through the balance of the year. So on that note, make it a great day, a great week, and I will see you next time. Thank you so much.

Show Notes

Chris Trojnar is currently Sales Manager for the southeast US for Harman Luxury Audio. His brand responsibilities includes Mark Levinson, Revel, Lexicon, Arcam and JBL Synthesis. Chris Trojnar is an industry veteran with over 22 years experience in both the retail and manufacturing side of luxury audio. After graduating with a degree in music, Chris found his calling in consumer electronics and worked at AV South for 18 years before taking a position with Harman Luxury Audio.

Ron Callis is the CEO of One Firefly, LLC, a digital marketing agency based out of South Florida and creator of Automation Unplugged. Founded in 2007, One Firefly has quickly became the leading marketing firm specializing in the integrated technology and security space. The One Firefly team work hard to create innovative solutions to help Integrators boost their online presence, such as the elite website solution, Mercury Pro.

Resources and Links from the Interview:

• Mark Levinson
• Lexicon
• Arcam

You can also learn more about Harman Luxury Audio at https://www.harmanluxuryaudio.com/