Hi-end audio is a suprise best seller as Covid keeps people home, by Micah Rubin

Satan worshipers, naked hoarders and a loaded handgun might sound like a workplace hazard. But for Red Hook’s Adam Wexler, these are just a few of the quirky characters encountered in the course of a day’s work.

Wexler’s business is sound and simplification. He is the founder of Stereo Buyers, High End Audio Auctions and Resolution Audio Video NYC. Since opening more than 10-years ago, Wexler has sold more than 30,000 pieces of stereo equipment. Everything from receivers, amplifiers and turntables to speakers of all shapes and sizes.

Stereo Buyers buys and sells high fidelity audio and video equipment within a 90-mile radius of New York City, Boulder, CO and the San Francisco Bay area.

On one buying trip, Wexler’s team was packing up a hoarder’s equipment while surrounded by security cameras. The gear’s owner, a morbidly obese man, was watching the feed and directing Wexler’s crew from the next room while lying naked in bed.

Once purchased, the gear is tested, cleaned and sold on eBay through Wexler’s High End Audio Auctions.

Wexler’s third company, Resolution Audio Video designs, sells and installs custom smart homes and hi-fi stereo systems throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan.

“We like to call ourselves the brownstone townhouse specialists,” Wexler says. “Most of our clientele live very fast-paced, complicated lives and the things that we do make their lives more convenient and enjoyable,” the 42-year old says.

Especially when it comes to fabulous sounding music.

Hi-fi audio is all about personal taste and preference. Some equipment sounds good to some and bad to others. “If you don’t hear a difference between the $200 cable and the $500 cable, it doesn’t matter. If you don’t hear it, don’t get it,” Wexler says.

That honesty is part of his recipe for success. Red Hook is another.

Wexler’s first Red Hook office was a closet in his friend’s woodshop (a step up from the storage unit he had previously been using). He outgrew that space and found a proper office in the same waterfront building near Food Bazaar. He’s been there since 2012.

Hurricane Sandy tore the office doors open, unleashing a six-foot torrent of water that destroyed everything. At the time, he did not have flood insurance. “It’s hard to dig yourself out of complete destruction and continue business as usual,” Wexler says.

Community support got him back on his feet and he was able to salvage and sell a few pieces.

Since then, business has grown – including during the pandemic – and Wexler recently landed multiple large projects, many focusing on hi-fi audio systems and improving home networks (to host 80-person Zoom calls). He’s also added more office space for equipment storage and his three full-time and two part-time employees.

While growing up in New Jersey, music was the heartbeat of the Wexler family home. Saturday mornings didn’t start until his Dad and switched on the family hi-fi. Wexler took the plunge into audiophile audio equipment while attending Ithaca College. He wanted – but could not afford – such a pricy purchase so he approached the local stereo store with an offer: let me sell your used gear on [the then fledgling website] eBay and keep a commission. They agreed. A hi-fi system was eventually purchased and Wexler’s audiophile trajectory was set.

After college, Wexler moved to New York City and continued to sell used equipment while working full-time at stereo stores including Manhattan’s Innovative Audio. Potential buyers would audition speakers or cables and other equipment and Wexler would spend hours setting up and resetting stereo configurations. “Fifty to seventy-five percent of it is just entertaining people for free. They want to come and listen to speakers, ask a million questions and then disappear,” he says.

After seven-years, it was time to move on. But not before his future father-in-law Alan stopped in to try out some speakers. He didn’t purchase anything, but a few weeks later Wexler got a call from Alan’s daughter asking to come by and audition the same setup. They got to chatting, lots of laughing, phone numbers were exchanged and a stereo was purchased. Within a year, the couple were engaged.

They still have that now hand-me down stereo. One of many in their Park Slope home.

While his companies sell a wide range of hi-fi equipment, Wexler’s personal taste leans towards vacuum tubes, turntables and a passion for experiencing – not just listening to – live music.

“I can’t go see Jimi Hendrix anymore but can get as close as possible to seeing or hearing him in my [own] room. I can try and you know, I do. It’s like time travel,” he says.

It’s that quest for visceral, evocative sound Wexler probes clients about when setting up their audiophile sound systems: “What’s getting your foot tapping? What’s getting your head shaking? What’s getting your blood boiling? What’s stirring up the emotions inside of you? That’s ultimately how you should make your decision.”