By Sally Gibb (Chord Company Owner & CEO)

In response to Nigel Finn’s article 24/7/14 [read the original here]

I am a woman and own a hi-fi manufacturing company.  I don’t like hi-fi as such – BUT I like what it does.

Naturally, since I own a company that makes the best hi-fi I cables in the world, (not biased) you would be correct in assuming that I like to listen to music.

Actually, I like to dance to music more than anything, preferable loud and alone.    I feel the music.  When I hear it, I hear it in my head, I hear it in my bones and I feel it in my emotions. It speaks to me.

Music tells me a story that cannot be put into words. For me it is a unique language of patterns and rhythms, all connected to the heart and brain and together I find it a powerful food. So taking all that into consideration, I would say that if I am typical of many women, I am only interested in the end result of a hi-fi; visually I would like it to disappear.

My hi-fi of choice would be the one that sounds as good as the one I have at home except doesn’t have to visually dominate the room. Having said that, I want the music to dominate the house, let alone a room.  So does it naturally follow that the vision of a hi-fi needs also to dominate the room!

I have always had a hi-fi system and I have also had many different homes, speakers are always a challenge since I never had a dedicated listening room.  Why would I want a listening room? I listen when I am “about the house” doing stuff, in the kitchen, dithering around being busy. My husband prefers to sit and listen – not me!  I like to “do” and listen.

With the advent of streaming we can partially achieve the illusion of no boxes by having all the electronics in the cupboard under the stairs. BUT I like picking the record, the cd and checking through its contents and tracks select my favourites and skipping over the others.
Mind you, back to streaming – there is some pleasure to be had through being the DJ and trawling through all those old tracks from my years of listening. Its sometimes a shock when I find something from the 70’s that I only ever listened to on the hi-fi I had age 17; that comprised two speakers that folded over the record payer (I was thrilled with that one) it sounds different. More instruments!

Back to our hi-fi at home; other than the boxes under the stairs, the rest is on a mix of special tables and mounts and other enhancements my husband brings home. The speakers stand like ghoulish spectres and frighten visitors who can constantly see these things out of the corner of their eye….

In fact, I did not choose them, but having been away for a weekend with a friend, I returned home to find them in my beautiful living room. Yes, two years later they still stand despite the threats -because I like what they do.

Would I compromise on the sound quality? The answer is no because having been availed of some of the best hi-fi products in the UK today, the only compromise is whether we can get it through the door and ultimately I have succumbed to the pressure- not of my husband, but of the fact that what the hi-fi does is in the end more important than the way it looks

I just wish that more women had the benefit of being involved in the hi-fi industry like I have, because if that were the case, I believe that more women would venture into the hi fi world and buy (and possibly sell) some great hi-fi.

Sally Gibb