For local business owner Shayne Tenace, it is not about the price tag or brand name, it is about the quality of music his customers experience at Tenacious Sound.
“It is all focused on products that can reproduce music and help people really reconnect with music,” Tenace said. “That’s what we do.”
Photo by JoAnn DeLauter.
Tenacious Sound opened on Nov. 5 displaying a relaxed, cozy storefront located on 270 W. Jefferson St. in Armory Square. What used to be a clothing boutique now retails a variety of audio equipment from headphones and speakers to stereo systems and projectors.
Leaving his engineering career and putting his hobbies up for sale, Tenace decided to follow his passion for music.
With a motto like: “your music, your ears, your choice,” Tenacious Sound started based off with the idea that some things don’t translate well from ordering online or from a catalog, and that customers will benefit from hearing and seeing the equipment first hand in the store.
“It’s like going to the Louvre, the art museum in France; if you go and look at art in person, you can appreciate its scale, its textures, its colors, and it’s the same thing with music,” Tenace said. “Trying to determine how that will reproduce the passion, the soul of the music, from a catalog is like trying to appreciate art from a picture book.”
Prior to opening Tenacious Sound, Tenace chose the compact size of the store on purpose. He wanted to make sure it felt personable and comfortable, not like a department store.
Tenace tried to incorporate a blend of brands and a variety of equipment fit for every age and lifestyles in order to provide “the best quality of sound.”
Headphones start at $29, and the store includes brands such as Grado, Opera, Quad and AudioQuest.
“Typically, performance is driven by passion,” Tenace said. “I am absolutely after the best performance possible and these smaller companies that have that passion for performance and that passion for product quality shows and that is what I am really after.”
The store front showcases a headphone bar, speakers for customers to test out, as well as a back room that will soon display a home theater and more high ticket items.
In the future, Tenace hopes to expand his business and have a mobile lounge to sell on the road at events and in time, opening multiple stores in other New York cities like Binghamton, Ithaca, Albany and Rochester.
As of now, Tenace wants to focus on Tenacious Sound and always keep in mind what his business is really about.
“Technology has done a lot of wonderful things for us, but it has also made us artificially busy,” said Tenace. “Yes, I sell headphones and stereos, but I ultimately sell that relaxation at the end of the day.”
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