Fan Letters

From time to time we get unsolicited letters and e-mail from our clients. We have published a few here.

About the People of Goodwin's High End

Alan Goodwin
Owner / System Designer

In his earliest years Alan Goodwin was surrounded by music. His parents played classical and folk music on their mono audio system and his mother played classical piano with an emphasis on Bach. At the age of 5 Alan started taking piano lessons. Since then he has also played bass viol, bass guitar, acoustical guitar, and MIDI keyboards.

After 3 years of apprenticeship in high end audio, Alan Goodwin founded Goodwin's in 1977 at 33 Newbury Street in Boston to sell high end audio systems by appointment (left). By doing what he believed in and by treating his clients the way that he would wish to be treated if he were a client, the business naturally grew. And each year his loyal clientele expanded.

Within a year of opening, Alan invested in a state-of-the-art recording system and made a series of on-location recordings at venues including Boston Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, Paine Hall, Brown Hall, and Emmanuel Church. It was a tremendous learning experience: there is nothing like making a live master tape and then bringing it back to the showroom and playing it over the finest playback system then extant to learn about music reproduction.

The Newbury Street location was succeeded eventually by locations in Cambridge and in Brookline over the years. But according to outside observers, the newest Goodwin's High End location which Alan custom-designed in 1995 is the finest technical facility in New England for the demonstration of high end audio and video.

(Longer, more detailed biography of Alan.)

Malcom Becker
System Designer

Encouraged by the musical results from constructing very early Dynakits, Malcom was smitten with audio mania from an young age. After graduating RPI and following a stint as a research biochemist, the call of audio proved too strong and the retail career began in 1978. As a co-founder of AudioVision in Arlington, MA in 1981, the commitment to providing better sound through careful room design and well matched systems began in earnest. By 1982, one showroom was already dedicated to high performance home theater. In 1995 sought to make the integration of traditional high end audio and custom install his priority. He began a venture with a small staff and a group of dedicated subcontractors.

By 1998, local industry contacts made it known that there was a need for experienced, multi-disciplinary professionals to contribute to the growth of custom installation in existing establishments. Having followed the growth of the local companies for many years, Malcom perceived that Goodwin's High End shares the same passion for performance and attention to detail. As a key member of the Goodwin's High End team, he wears many hats as he serves custom, home theater and high end audio clients.

Paul Chambers
System Designer

First, there was Basie, Ellington, and Henderson. Then the diminutive Richard Penniman made his presence known, followed by some folks from Memphis, Chicago, Detroit and England. But when Jimi and the Airplane landed it became obvious that the Magnavox console in the living room was woefully inadequate.

This is when the slippery slope we know as audio reared its head. After a brief stint in the live music business as both a performer and a roadie, the audio world beckoned in the form of an audio store called Tokyo Shapiro (yeesh). Cleveland however was losing its appeal, so off to the west coast Paul went. Fast forward to 1975 where a trip to Boston to visit old friends turns into a permanent move and the beginning of a life in audio, starting at Eardrum. During his eight year tenure at this Harvard Square store Paul first met Alan Goodwin (at his famous Newbury Street location) and Malcom Becker. After the closing of Eardrum, Paul took a break and got into the Asian grocery business. But audio would not let go. 

Paul joined Malcom and his partner at their Arlington store in 1984, where Paul stayed for 17 years. He practiced system design with an emphasis on carefully selecting products, pursuing the best interests of each client and, above all, reproducing music.  However, all things must change and when new ownership redirected the energy of that company, Paul made the move to Goodwin’s High End where the passion for performance and attention to detail are at  same level that he has always strived for.

Al Moulton
System Designer

As you might guess from the occasional "eh", Al relocated from Canada in 1998 expressly to work here at Goodwin's High End. Al is truly driven by his love of many diverse musical forms and his passion for high performance music reproduction — a passion given unique perspective stemming from baccalaureate and masters degrees in Philosophy. He is a sensitive listener -- both to people and to music. His extensive knowledgebase includes a wide variety of audio components, interior design utilizing acoustic treatments, lighting and video systems. He is a firm believer in the idea that all aspects of system design (aesthetic design appeal, room acoustics, product performance, ease of use, etc.) be closely aligned with a client’s living environment. In other words, he encourages music and video system designs that will be regularly used and enjoyed. Al's interests include speaker building, recording, and sports car driving. He's pretty good with a pool stick too! He is the owner of a limited production open-top sports car called a Maxton Rollerskate shown here.

Dana Ente
Senior Technician

From an early age, Dana Ente has had a connection to the consumer electronics industry. He got his start at his father's Brighton TV repair shop. He spent time learning how to repair TVs and radios, as well as installing antennae and sound systems. This was followed by two decades of experience in the car audio business, including installation and management positions at several retail specialty stores. Experience in residential and commercial alarm installation taught Dana not only construction techniques but also instilled the patience and attention to detail to successfully install complex wiring schemes and properly integrate equipment into any environment. 

A former motorcycle hill-climb racer, Dana enjoys spending time with his family while camping, practicing cross-country and alpine skiing, biking and especially fishing. When not picking rocks up around the yard he can usually be found canoeing around a nearby pond with his dog Kate

Jarrod Gilman
Senior Technician

Jim Payne Fuller
Systems Engineer and Turntable Specialist

Jim joined Goodwin's staff in December of 2003 and is our systems engineer.  He analyzes whether proposed systems will work as promised and then drafts a detailed system schematic.  Jim also handles turntable issues, in-house electronics repairs, and onsite system setups, including a recent one in Switzerland.

Jim's Grandfather made clocks and rifle stocks in his spare time and considered technical precision and aesthetic flow inseparable.  He insisted that a young, tinkering Jim pay strict attention to detail.  At the same time Jim learned the trumpet and baritone horn and played for a decade in various bands, immersed daily in the sound of live, unamplified music.

Floored by all music and mystified by the hi-fi gear specifications advertised in Rolling Stone magazine, Jim applied to the Air Force at sixteen to attend FM radio repair school specifically to learn which audio "specs" were important and why.  Stationed on the central coast of California for his entire tour, Jim's spare time was spent tweaking audio components and attending as many live concerts as possible.

His first civilian technical work was at the Hi-Fi Clinic in West Virginia in 1984, hiring onto staff just one day before his first daughter was born.  In 1986, Jim completed an electronics engineering associates degree with high honors from the National Institute of Technology and accepted a position with Bill Case Sound in San Antonio as head of technical sales and service.  Simultaneously moonlighting for Mark Heaston and Creston Funk of Concert Sound, Jim learned Linn turntable setup. In 1988 Jim briefly sold gear at Bjorn's Audio/Video in San Antonio, intent on learning new home theater philosophies.

In 1991 Jim co-founded Absolute Sound West Virginia, a high end audio/video shop, but eventually sold his interest in that enterprise and by 1997 had returned to his alma mater to teach amplifier theory, AC theory and semiconductor physics.  In 2000 Jim earned an FCC class one radiotelephone license with radar endorsement, the highest possible U.S. government rating in his field, taking a position with Verizon as a network services tester.

Jim has built, repaired, or modified amplifiers, speakers, disk players and most other audio components for nearly 30 years, specializing in turntables.  Vinyl is the primary listening source at home and he owns about 30 linear feet of records.  Jim often joins his wife Thara for walks at nearby Walden Pond.  Eldest daughter Rhiannon is a May 2007 environmental science graduate of Marshall University, son Trevor studies art at West Virginia State University, and youngest daughter Emma was born in November of 2006.

About those abovementioned hi-fi specs, over the years Jim has gradually unraveled the mystery.  There are four technical specifications that actually provide insight into any piece of audio gear: they are height, width, depth & weight.

Josh Palmer
Project Manger

Josh relocated to Boston in 2005 from snowy Rochester, NY. Josh has a deep love of music and worked for several years in a cool record store. He is accustomed to working in very high profile home, including those of Fortune 100 CEO.

(more forthcoming...)

Matt Guilbert
Software Engineer  and Computer Specialist

Matt started making his parents feel technologically inept at a young age. He was only about 8 years old when he explained to his parents that they were setting up their VCR the wrong way. Okay, so maybe it wasn't a complex whole-house audio system, but, hey, he was just a little kid. It must be tough having a know-it-all as a son.

He grew up in New Bedford, MA and attended Brandeis University here in Waltham, MA. After a stint as a Biology major, Matt received his B.A. in Computer Science in 2002. Upon graduating, Matt spent a few years traveling the world working as a professional sailor. Things have come full circle for him since Computer Science has brought him back to Waltham for a second time.

Besides making his parents feel foolish, Matt also enjoys skiing, sailing, cycling and camping.

Amy Moolten
Accounting

History of Goodwin's High End

Goodwin's was founded in 1977 by Alan Goodwin at 33 Newbury St. in Boston. The showroom was set up to showcase the finest in high end audio by appointment. In 1978 a high end recording system was procured in order to have the ultimate reference possible: live master tapes. When you have the opportunity to go and hear a live acoustical event, then record it and play it back over the finest system possible, it is a tremendously powerful reference tool. With the reference of live music, judgments as to the accuracy and musicality of playback systems can be made far better.

Over the years the business grew and moved first to Harvard Square in Cambridge, subsequently to Brookline*. In 1995 the current Goodwin's High End location was opened at 899 Main St. in Waltham. This is the largest high end facility in New England. But more importantly, both clients and people in the audio industry consider it to be one of the finest demonstration facilities in the country from a technical point of view.

(Click here for a longer, more detailed history.)

*A store in Brookline which Alan originally founded bore the Goodwin name for a number of years after his departure. That store has since been renamed to avoid confusion. Alan is no longer associated with it in any way.

Goodwin's High End in the News

Architectural Digest, November 2006.   One of the systems we installed in Boston was photographed for an article in Architectural Digest.  The living room system of this fabulous Back Bay condo features a Spectral Reference system driving X-2's--and the Family Room utilizes another separate Spectral Reference system.  In addition, among other things, this home also features a home theater, a roof deck system, and a video screen behind a mirror in the guest bathroom--all controlled by a Crestron system with custom programming.  Of course the photography itself was up to the usual high Architectural Digest standards--simply beautiful!

The contemporary home features an extensive audio system with speakers in most rooms and high-end Dynaudio Confidence C2 speakers in the living room. Behind the speakers, stealthy CinemaTech Acoustic Room Systems fabric walls tame the lively acoustics. Between the speakers a trick Auton lift lowers a portion of a redwood wall (right; click picture to enlarge) into the basement (!) to reveal a glorious 61" Runco plasma. A REL Studio subwoofer supplies "ample" bass.

In the master bedroom, a 43" Runco plasma swivels on a custom cabinet. With 8 color touchpanels, 23 keypads, 5 video cameras, 8 Crestron-controlled thermostats, nearly 80 Crestron-controlled lighting loads, 3 miles of audio, video, and control wiring, and a huge 10kVA Equi=Tech balanced power conditioner, this is the most extensive and comprehensive automation package ever installed in a This Old House project. It even has a superb turntable for you vinyl lovers: Clearaudio Ambient with an Audio Research PH5 phono section.

The first of three episodes featuring Goodwin's High End aired in January 2006 on PBS.

"Please know that it was GREAT working with you and the Goodwin's [High End] team -- you guys are true pros with amazing dedication and talent.  Thank you for the very long weeks you put in leading up to the finale [video shoot].  We couldn't have done it without you." -- Deborah Hood, Producer, This Old House

Episode 2516: "... In the basement, Kevin finds master electrician Allen Gallant and Goodwin's High End installing a complex electrical landscape that employs over 6 miles of wire to support whole house automation and lighting control. ..."

Episode 2517 "... We show host Kevin O'Connor how he’s concealing a 61" plasma TV in the living room, and adding acoustical panels to enhance the sound in the room...."

Episode 2518 "... On the final day, minutes before the wrap party, we show Norm the finished media system and whole house automation...."

This Old House Magazine, April 2006. You can see our work in the Cambridge Project on page 74.

Inside This Old House, June 2004. Early in 2004, a This Old House camera crew visited our showroom. Show host Kevin O'Connor chatted with us about video display devices (CRT televisions, plasma displays, rear projection televisions, and DLP front projection). The show also discussed room acoustics, showing products from ASC and Goodwin's High End's own acoustic baffle system. We enjoyed the experience and found the cast, crew, and director a pleasure to work with. We were fascinated to see how unscripted, improvised educational programming is shot and produced.

The episode aired in November 2004 on the A&E network as show #60. Inside This Old House numbers it as show #160.

Steinway Magazine, 2004. A large photo of our high-end music studio was featured as an example of the importance and impact of acoustical design.

Boston Globe, July 21, 2002. Goodwin's High End was cited as an expert on the programming of control systems. The conclusion of the article is that the job of programming a control system is difficult for an end user and might best left to a professional. 

"The Crestron doesn't only run the machines. It can be programmed to light the viewing room, or operate window shutters to keep the light out. You -- well your programmer -- can set different scenes, for viewing, chatting, or whatever scenario you can envision. The one I saw modeled at Goodwin's High end wasn't set up to pop the corn, but it could have been."

Boston Globe, May 23, 2002. Goodwin's High End was selected to provide factual information about:

• home theater room construction (room dimensions, acoustic treatment, light control, speaker placement, electrical system, door location, control system), 
• home theater terms (aspect ratio, Dolby Digital & dTS, HDTV, interlaced & progressive scan, woofers & subwoofers), and 
• a typical $20,000-ish home theater system.

For example, in discussing the door to a home theater, the Boston Globe reported, "'Ideally you would have a trap door in the floor,' Goodwin says, almost with a straight face. Realistically, he said, the door should be located at the back of the room, so when it's opened, light spilling into the room won't fall [directly] on the screen or the viewers."

Listener Magazine, Autumn 1995.  Goodwin's High End was reviewed as the best audio store in the Boston area.

The following is an excerpt from the three page review of Boston area stereo stores:

"...Alan Goodwin is a calm, civilized fellow, deeply committed to the synergistic principle of system matching.  He...now has a brand new store in Waltham (781-893-9000), with five [now six] well-equipped demo rooms.  Goodwin's High End sells Audio Research, Theta... , MIT and a number of much more expensive brands.  Perhaps a little narrow in choice of products (itself a consequence of his "system matching" thinking), perhaps also a flutter obstinate in his embrace of the expensive "high-end" concept, I can nonetheless heartily recommend Alan Goodwin as a trustworthy, knowledgeable, and helpful dealer who will provide excellent service to the music lover. His is the best operation in town."

Boston Herald, September 25, 1992. Goodwin's High End was featured in the Boston Herald newspaper with more than a full page of coverage.  An excerpt follows here:

Audio Adventures -- by Larry Katz, Music Editor, Boston Herald

What had I gotten myself into?

You don't call a Rolls Royce mechanic to tune up your Pinto.  You don't need a brain surgeon if you cut yourself shaving.  You don't hire Alan Dershowitz when you get a parking ticket.  So what was Alan Goodwin doing coming to my house to check out the sound system I'd bought at Tweeter etc. 10 years ago for under $900?

Goodwin is New England's premier high-end audio dealer.  He's owned stores on Newbury Street and in Harvard Square, and Goodwin's' Audio on Commonwealth Avenue still bears his name, although he is in no longer officially associated with it.

In 1990, Goodwin decided to devote himself to offering the very best audio and video equipment money can buy and opened Goodwin's High End...

No sign out front identifies it.**   "People who are interested will find me.", Goodwin says.

While not everything Goodwin sells is outrageously expensive, much of it is.  A CD player for $10,000.  A tone arm for $12,900.  Speaker cable alone can run into the thousands.  If Goodwin isn't crazy, then his customers certainly are.  Or so you might think.

But it turns out Goodwin, a tall, thin, 39-year-old with a soft voice and casual manner is not an audio snob.  His interest in the ultra-costly gear stems from his love of great-sounding music.  But he believes you don't necessarily have to spend thousands to enjoy good sound in your home.   And he was coming to my house to prove it.

Thinking about it was making me sweat.  I feared humiliation.  I imagined Goodwin sneering at my budget-priced equipment and the tangle of wires connecting it.   I could hear him laughing derisively at what I, a music journalist, accepted as decent sound.

But I was the one laughing when I looked out my front window and saw Goodwin walking toward my apartment toting two speaker stands.  Speaker stands!  What a joke.   Was he going to tell me that lifting my speakers a few feet off the floor was going to make a difference in my listening life?  Hah!

To my surprise, Goodwin barely glanced at my Yamaha turntable and receiver, Aiwa tape deck, and the one addition to my Tweeter-bought system, a borrowed Musical Concepts CD player, (I'd recently killed my own by accidentally whacking it opened tray).  Instead, he immediately turned his attention to the placement of my speakers.

"They're buried," he said after listening to bit of guitarists' Strunz & Farah's "Americas," the CD I'd chosen as our test recording.  "They sound dead."

Both speakers -- Boston Acoustic A60s-- sat on the floor with their backs against a wall and with books piled on top.  One was partly blocked by a loveseat.

"Where do you usually sit when you  listen?," Goodwin asked.  I positioned myself on a couch opposite the speakers.  Goodwin removed the books, pulled the speakers away from the wall and placed them on the speaker stands. 

"You want air around the speakers", he said," at least the kind you have.  You want them at the right height, which is generally ear level.  Most importantly, you want to position them across from you to form more or less, an equilateral triangle.  If the speakers are too close together, they'll constrict the sound.  It won't be open enough.  Too far apart and you'll get a ping-pong effect, which can be fun, but you'll lose the center image."

Like any stereo owner, I'd heard about speaker positioning before.  This wasn't news.  I'd been hoping Goodwin would perform magic and instead he was telling me the same old story.

But the improvement in sound was magical.  The music pouring out of my speaker was more alive, dramatically so.  Certain sounds seemed to be coming, not from the speakers, but from between them...

Searching for just the right position for my speakers, Goodwin then "tweaked" the sound by having me shift my seat slightly and by moving the speakers an inch here and there.  Every change produced an audible difference.  As a further tweak, Goodwin removed the protective grills from my speakers, which literally uncovered more sound.

Goodwin wasn't through.  He then claimed he'd further improve the sound by changing the cables connecting my components.  The notion struck me as ridiculous.

"Just plugging and unplugging your connections is going to clean the contacts and improve the sound," he told me.  I tried not to giggle.

First he replaced the cheapo wiring connecting the CD player and receiver with a one meter-long pair of MIT interconnect cable (price $35).  To my amazement, the sound became noticeably more vibrant, the bass in particular.

Replacing the wires running to my speakers with 10-foot lengths of MIT cable ($80 per pair) produced another improvement.  It was as if Strunz & Farah had replaced dull old guitar strings with brand new ones.

Was I impressed?  You bet.  Investing time and not much more that $250, I was hearing what my system was capable of for the first time.

Later that day, I brought my speakers and receiver to Goodwin's showroom.  There I heard the kind of stunning sound that convinces music lovers with fat wallets to drop large sums at such high-end outlets...

First Goodwin hooked up my speakers and receiver to a Spectral SDR-1000SL CD player ($5795).  After a listening period, he replaced my receiver with a  Spectral DMC-20 pre-amp ($5395-6995) and Spectral DMA-180 power amp ($6495).  Let's just say my $150 speakers were sounding better than ever.

Then Goodwin hooked his ungodly good equipment into a pair of Win Labs SM-10 speakers ($6259a pair).  The richness and detail of the music was stunning.

"I call high-end audio the best-kept secret," Goodwin said.  "Most people don't even know equipment like this exists.  They certainly haven't heard it.   When you do hear it, you understand it's not just an expensive toy.  You're buying music."

To fully savor the high-end experience, a few days later Goodwin took me to the Brookline home of computer expert and musician Chris M.  In 1987, Goodwin designed a dream home-entertainment room for Mr. M., installing an audio and video system that cost upwards of $100,000.

The sound that emerges from the 6 1/2-foot-tall speakers is buttery rich, deeply engrossing and almost life-like.  Almost.  Reproducing music that sounds as good as live music remains the ultimate goal of high-end devotees.

But the goal of high-quality sound in your own home is obtainable -- and you don't need a ton of money to get started.  Before you spend a penny, start moving those speakers around and listen.  Better sound can be yours if you want it.

(**Please note:  We have decided that to celebrate the new millennium that in the year 2000 we will install a sign so that people can find us more easily.)

Arts & Entertainment Magazine, February 1992.  Goodwin's High End was one of three stores in the US featured in an article about high end audio.   An excerpt follows:

What Does a $300,00 Hi-Fi Sound Like? 

The Heavenly Choir Itself, the Author Discovers-- by Peter Jurew

In the beginning (for me anyway), there was a trip to Boston to catch up with Nick and Dru, old friends.  There was a bike ride with Nick on a glorious afternoon, leaves sighing in the breeze and the world pretending for just a few hours to be an orderly place.  Then we found what we were looking for: an audio showroom.  This particular one was sunny and filled with plush furniture, and, of course, electronics.   I wasn't aware at the time, but subsequently I came to see that we had entered a religious place: a temple that served the cult of the ear.

The wall nearest the street was lined with pairs of speakers of all sizes and descriptions: six-foot upright coffins, five-foot vertical hope chests, four-foot pyramids.  Between the speakers stood a wooden table holding large chunks of transistorized metal: amplifiers, preamplifiers, compact disc players, and a turntable.   A gilded couple from Florida sat on a couch facing the electronic "altar," while a young initiate ecstatically spoke in the tongues of the trade: "Refined" speakers with "dedicated woofers" had "dynamic range"; their sonic quality was "pure"; they became "transparent" and created "images" of the musician's locations.  But the woman from Florida was not as taken by the esoterica as was her husband.  She took one look at the two-inch thick extra-heavy speaker cables running along the floor and cried, "Honey, what're we going to do--I can't vacuum over those wires!".  The man ignored her, lost in the talk of transplendant sound reproduction.  Funny enough, once the ritual balms of demonstration discs were applied to our ears and we finally heard some music, Nick and I understood most of the private language immediately.  Every selection astonished.  Pianos were crystalline, vocals were filled with breath, and the first exuberant kicks of Art Blakey's bass drum exploded like a concussion grenade.   In fact, the system did seem transparent.

After his customers left without buying a thing I asked Alan Goodwin if he had an absolute all-star hi-fi system in mind for me--a "best of the "best" I might save and scrimp to buy some day.  An eager smile crossed his face.   "You mean no compromises?"  None, I replied bravely.  Without pause, he rattled off the name brands as if they were sitting in front of us (in fact, some of them were).  Curious about how many paychecks I'd have to fork over to own such a setup, I queried him on the do-re-me.  The whole system came in at (humina humina) three hundred thousand dollars.

Now I'd owned one stereophonic music-playing device or another since I was fifteen and am currently in possession of completely adequate, well-loved mid-quality products that cost about a thousand dollars ten years ago.  Nevertheless, I was aware of devotees whose motto was "only the very best."   I'd glanced into some of their specialty magazines, where the letter writers often seemed eccentric, cantankerous, or fanatic.  But I had no idea that they spent so much money on their pursuit of the perfect soundwave.

I left Boston  haunted by the thought that someone could sleep on a dark street somewhere while someone else could watch from behind a window, calmed by the "sonic purity' and "dynamic range" of this quarter-million-dollar sound machine.  Was it just plain ugly ostentation, or was there some kind of price/value equation that I was missing?  It'd already hit me that I'd never own that perfect system, but I also realized that I'd never hear recorded music sound better than what I'd heard in that room [at Goodwin's High End].  The "high-end sound" was different, very different.  But three hundred thousand dollars different?  (That is for you to decide.)

Audio Magazine, March 1985. [An audio and video system designed by Alan Goodwin was featured in Audio Magazine in a one-time-only special supplement printed on extra heavy paper stock.  Nine of the top US audio stores chosen--and each store had one of their high end system installations photographed.  The system from Goodwin's was prominently featured having been given a full two-page spread showing the system, and also showing how the system was completely invisible when not in use.   Alan's system was the only one selected from the New England area.]

DESIGNS FOR LIVING

Even in a world of few certainties, occasional statements can safely be accepted as truth.  One such maxim, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, has been borne out by centuries of changing taste, preferences ranging from the classical elegance of the Parthenon and other monuments of ancient Greece to the curvaceous architectural jewels of Vienna.  Just as one generation's collective eye exults in the swirling opulence of Art Nouveau, another era's vision is lured by Mondrian's linear austerity or the products of the Bauhaus, all based on a firm belief that less is more.

And consider this dictum, no less axiomatic if all too often ignored: A high-fidelity system is seen even more than it is heard.  This is why Audio, which perennially concerns itself with the sound of hi-fi components, makes this brief detour along visual avenues.  It is not our purpose here to evaluate the envelopes in which individual pieces of equipment are contained.  Rather, in the pages that follow, we present several systems in situ.  While designers of these rooms took varying directions, some celebrating the hardware while others chose to de-emphasize it, we feel all are exemplary. 

Some years ago, our Senior Editor Leonard Feldman, supervised the setup of a component system in Jimmy Carter's White House.  In the process, he had to convince the Presidential minions presiding over the event that the loudspeakers should not be placed behind the drapes.

The installations pictured on the following pages provide clear evidence that neither compacts nor curtains are the answer for people conscious both of what they see and hear.   While obviously expensive, some the visual ideas embodied can be scaled down for a long and happy mating of good looks and fine sound.  Such solutions are well worth seeking even for those who find the merest sight of high tech a low blow.  After all, as a poet long ago noted, "Music hath charms that soothe..."

[The picture of the Goodwin's system was captioned by the following:]

"A now-you-see-it, now-you-don't approach to stereo sound was taken in the above installation by Goodwin's of Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Built-in cabinets spell concealment for speakers and subwoofers not in use.  For music, one need only open their doors."

The Boston Globe Magazine, March 26, 2000.

We were the only high end store named in a feature article on high end audio. 

At the top of page 22 near the end of the article the following was written:

"...seven dealers in the United States -- one of them in New England (Goodwin's High End of Waltham)..."

[Copyright restrictions prevent us from reproducing the whole article here, but we were granted permission to excerpt the portion where we were specifically mentioned.]

Our Guarantee

We will do anything within reason to make sure that you are satisfied before, during, and after making a purchase.

We believe in long-term relationships with our clients, and we base those relationships on mutual respect and trust. If you have a special need or situation, we will tailor our policies for you. And of course each person needs a different level of attention, and so we will give you whatever attention you desire.

Component Trade-Up Policy
effective 1/1/04

Philosophically, we believe that systems are best built by carefully selecting components that will be satisfying and enjoyable in the long run. Sometimes, however, you may find yourself with a recent purchase that you wish to upgrade. Accordingly, we offer a trade up policy as follows:

• Within the first year of ownership, you may trade in a component for a new like component (e.g. preamp for preamp, speakers for speakers).
• You will receive a trade-in credit of 50% of the price of the new component, up to a limit of the price paid for the trade-in. This implies a full-credit trade-in when purchasing something of at least twice the price.
• The trade-in must be a current model, purchased as new, in excellent condition, with all packaging, accessories, and manuals.
• The policy applies to speakers, preamplifiers, amplifiers, digital-to-analog converters, CD/DVD/SACD players, turntables and tonearms, AM/FM tuners, video scalers, and audio cables/interconnects of typical length and configuration. It does not apply to phono cartridges, satellite equipment, video display devices, furniture, lighting, custom installation products, control / automation systems, universal remote controls, custom order products, products used in a non-residential application or any other product not specifically covered.
• Vacuum tube equipment is subject to an adjustment for wear on the tubes.
• Any premium finish / option upcharge is excluded from the trade-in credit.
• This policy is in addition to any upgrade policy offered by a manufacturer.

Canceling a sale: Money-back Guarantee and the Restocking Fee

We truly want you to be happy with your purchase. We absolutely never use high-pressure sales tactics to coerce you into buying something that you're not sure you want. Furthermore, should you change your mind about something that you have bought or placed a deposit on, we will cancel your sale or order within 7 days, and we will do so without pressuring you in any way.

If you have broken the seal on the carton containing the returned equipment, we must charge a 15% restocking fee. Similarly, if we have ordered equipment for you, and we cannot cancel the order with our supplier, we must also charge a 15% restocking fee. Special orders (including custom colors, special configurations, unusual dimensions, specialty equipment, and so forth) cannot be cancelled.

Prices in this Web Site

We have worked very hard to give you complete and accurate information in this site, but we're not perfect. Sometimes we make a typographical error. Other times there may have been a price increase. Please let us know by e-mail if you find an error, so we can fix it. Although we think it's obvious, our attorney insists that we actually say: we're not responsible for errors in this web site. There, we said it.

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