Tom Tom Audio on Kudos Audio – The Interview

Over the past few months, we’ve used the chapters of this blog to lift the lid on Kudos Audio – covering in detail our engineering philosophy, our commitment to music-first listening, and our deeply held belief that masterfully simple loudspeaker designs render remarkable results from your audio experience. 

Through our Listeners series, we’ve also introduced you to the music lovers that trust Kudos Audio to reproduce their cherished collection on a daily basis.

However, we figured there was one avenue we hadn’t yet covered. How about the businesses and individuals that believe in Kudos Audio enough to stake their hard-won reputation on the performance of our loudspeakers? 

We wanted to speak to one of our retailer network, and find out what it is about Kudos Audio that really matters to them, and in the process, unearth exactly what their customers enjoy about our loudspeakers. 

To do this, we simply couldn’t think of anyone better suited than James at Tom Tom Audio. We had the great pleasure of spending some time with James last month – our conversation spanned everything from the origins of his business, to the fundamental question of what draws us music lovers into high performance audio in the first place. 

TOM TOM AUDIO – A QUARTER CENTURY OF EXCELLENCE

Based in St Albans, England, Tom Tom Audio nears 25 years of trading, with the big anniversary in the next couple of years. Over the last quarter of a century, it has come to embody the almost spiritual essence of British HiFi – defined in the 1970s and 80s, and perhaps best personified by the iconic Naim Audio suite of products. 

Growing up very much in the throes of this revolutionary HiFi movement was a big part of what brought James into the industry. He explains; “The 70s and 80s were a very exciting time for British HiFi. Companies like Naim Audio were sort of changing the world, you know, doing things very, very uniquely with a new energy and a new approach.”

Starting his career in marketing, James’ lifelong love of music slowly led him on a path towards HiFi, even if it wasn’t entirely clear at first. “Around that time, a lot of dealers were becoming more generalised with the rising popularity of AV systems…while I was looking for specialists, people like me who were passionate about two channel audio, about music.” 

This desire to see music at the core of the buying experience slowly came to overtake him. “I had this idea which was, rather than being a general HiFi dealer with countless brands in store, we might be more focused than that. My passion was Naim Audio, and I wondered if I could start a business that initially specialised in this one brand, but to incredible depth, right?”

With a singular vision, James was keen to create a name for himself that felt distinct from anyone else operating at that moment. It took a certain amount of bravery to test this theory, however, with no one else at that time specialising to this particular degree. But James was confident there was a sizable market crying out for a fastidious level of expertise and careful focus on the brands they loved.

“The idea was not one of going to a dealer to listen to lots of different brands…the idea was to create a place for those who were really into Naim Audio. If you wanted a sympathetic ear, someone who knew what your system was about, what you were about, and how best to develop that system, we would be your first port of call”. 

This dream was realised in Tom Tom Audio – a specialist haven for lovers of British HiFi. A place to seek expert knowledge on the products you loved, and share that love with people who were just as passionate about those products as you were. Once Tom Tom Audio launched, and quickly established a firm foothold in the market, the next question became; what additional brands will complement their exhaustive suite of Naim Audio products, and capture the imagination of Naim Audio aficionados? 

TOM TOM & KUDOS AUDIO

“Speakers are very subjective,” says James. “For any dealer, even if you specialise in Naim electronics, you need a number of different options on loudspeakers to be able to tailor the system to someone’s taste.” This is where Derek Gilligan, Kudos Audio MD, enters the story.

Derek and James had already known each other for a number of years. Around 2006, Derek mentioned to James that he was looking to cultivate his own loudspeaker brand. James was immediately interested. 

“We were the first people to ever play a kudos loudspeaker in public”, James tells us. “It was the eve of the old Heathrow HiFi Show. We’d already decided what we were exhibiting and playing…then fairly late in the day, Derek told us he had this prototype ready…I think he got it down to the show the day before we kicked off. It was beautifully finished, but completely unbranded. That was the original Kudos Audio C10 loudspeaker.”

This became the moment that Kudos Audio launched into the consciousness of British HiFi enthusiasts. Although James recalls it as a fairly humble introduction. “It wasn’t really a launch event. It was more like, ‘the speaker is ready, and we’ve got this room booked, let’s see what we can do with it, and see the reaction we get.’ 

“And of course, it created a lot of interest, because A, it sounded fantastic. And B, it was beautifully unassuming and maybe even a bit mysterious. With only a prototype, with no branding or anything. That caused lots of interest and excitement.”

James smiles. “So I think it’s fair to say we’ve been involved with Kudos Audio since before day one”. 

James and Tom Tom Audio have been proud to stock and champion Kudos Audio ever since. They have played an important role in raising Kudos Audio’s profile industry-wide, and helping to cultivate what was, at launch, an unbranded loudspeaker into a serious contender in the British high-performance audio industry. 

James is only too pleased to have witnessed this process. “From that initial prototype to where Derek and Kudos Audio are now with the Titan range – this very well respected, very serious, high-end speaker offering…it’s been a deeply satisfying journey to be involved with.”

THE JOY OF DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY

“Something I’ve always liked is that Derek and Kudos aren’t afraid to take risks”, James explains. “The original T88 for instance, that was kind of audacious at the time. As were the Titans. He’s always pushing the envelope and looking to re-establish what is possible, performance wise, with these new ranges.”

This commitment to ‘doing things differently’ meant Kudos Audio and James’ beloved Naim Audio inevitably shared a natural sonic affinity. “There needs to be a kind of symbiotic relationship between the brands. As Kudos’ loudspeakers have developed, Naim has been an ideal partner.” 

The same can be said of James and Tom Tom Audio, of course – that their commitment to doing things differently has brought them a self-selecting yet deeply loyal fanbase of committed customers. “We’re not here to shift boxes, you know?” He tells us. “ We are passionate about the products we sell. We spent time selecting products and we put them together to make some remarkable systems.”

“We have a focused range of brands that we’ve worked with for a number of years. We know them intimately. We know how to set them up properly. We know how to get the most out of them. We’ve installed them in enough rooms, in different rooms and different acoustic environments, to understand how they go together and how we can optimise them.”

At the heart of this system-building is an overriding philosophy – seen throughout every brand that Tom Tom Audio stock. James explains; “These are incredibly capable products…kind of the vision of one individual, if you like. Visionary designers who have put their heart and soul into this and dedicated their life to it. From that, you get amazing products.”

SIGAO DRIVE – RAISING THE STAKES

“What we find with Kudos, which is always gratifying, is the retention; how loyal customers are, how you know the products will deliver year after year”, James explains. 

“It’s very rare for our customers to come out of Kudos once they’re in it.”

That’s where SIGAO DRIVE, our new, unpowered active crossover, comes into its own. Of course it offers an exciting opportunity to Kudos Audio dealers when it comes to upselling products, but for James (and many committed dealers like him), the advantage is much deeper and more gratifying than that. 

“A classic scenario in your audio system is you find a speaker that you know you love and fits the room acoustically and aesthetically, but then you want to go further. With most loudspeakers, your only option is to get a bigger speaker. And of course, that can bring more problems than it solves.”

SIGAO DRIVE, however, affords James and Tom Tom an opportunity to offer customers a substantive and seriously rewarding upgrade path for their system. “What active operation does is just unleash greater performance from the speaker that you know and love, that we know works in your room, that we know works for you as an individual. We have this opportunity to take your system even further.”

“We’ve always been very, very passionate advocates of active loudspeakers.” This is a position James shares with Derek Gilligan. During SIGAO DRIVE’s development, James became naturally intrigued by what to expect from this enticing new Kudos product. 

“I would check in with Derek fairly regularly, saying, Well, come on, then, how’s it going? And then as the details started to emerge, you know, he told us he was working with Roy George, who’s kind of a hero of mine.” That of course, is ex-Naim Head of Engineering Roy George, who partnered with Kudos Audio to help bring SIGAO DRIVE to life. 

‘A SENSE OF PALPABLE REALISM’

“We’ve activated a lot of systems, and not one of our customers has ever gone back to a passive system, which, I think, says everything.” So what is it about active listening that makes the experience of listening to music so much more gratifying? 

“There is a sense of palpable realism to the music. This is something fundamental about being able to feel, to understand the music, you know, to understand why that artist got up on the stage in the first place.”

The capacity of active listening to reach into the listening space and grab our attention so explicitly is brought to life in wholly new and unfounded ways with SIGAO DRIVE. And whilst Kudos Audio designs, in James’ words, ‘excellent passive crossovers…the best you can get’, there will always be some form of compromise with a passive system. That’s what makes SIGAO DRIVE such a powerful upgrade. James explains;

“SIGAO is game changing. It’s fundamental. We would say, in terms of upgrading a system, that it’s a priority. It’s a fundamental change in the architecture of the system, and it brings such meaningful musical insights.”

“In your HiFi journey, there are moments of joy where you can move the system on in terms of performance. And then there are some fundamental points where you just think, ‘Wow, this is taking the system to a different level completely’. SIGAO DRIVE is absolutely one of those.”

From a business perspective, there is also the added benefit of SIGAO DRIVE opening up active compatibility between Kudos Audio and a vast suite of electronics brands. “There’s very few things in HiFi that are genuinely new. But this represents a different way of approaching active operation. It is unique. It has a universal quality.” James elaborates further…

“We’ve used it with Naim amplifiers. We’ve used it with Chord amplifiers. It does the same thing. SIGAO DRIVE works its magic in any context. It gives us and our customers a huge amount of new opportunities.”

How about the experience of selling and demonstrating SIGAO DRIVE? “It’s a fantastic demonstration to do. As a dealer, you know that the success of this product isn’t defined by opinion. This isn’t ‘you might like this.’ or ‘let me play you this option’. It’s a case of ‘we’re going to play the Kudos loudspeakers passively, and then we’re going to play it actively with SIGAO DRIVE, and then we’re going to change your life.”

“We then have the opportunity to then go and install it in their home, which is even more exciting. We do our utmost to deliver special moments on that journey. And with SIGAO DRIVE this is a really special moment.”

“There are good upgrades. But then there are the real game changers. And SIGAO DRIVE is unequivocally one of those.”

We would like to take this opportunity to thank James at Tom Tom Audio for generously donating his time to help us assemble this piece. If you enjoyed James’ passion for all things music and HiFi, we cannot recommend a visit to his showroom highly enough. 

Find out more about Tom Tom Audio here: https://tomtomaudio.co.uk/.

Article and interview by Lee Broderick.