Are the folks at Vandersteen ok?

I started accompanying a long-time Vandersteen dealer to the Vegas CES in the mid-90’s through early-2000’s, and one year Richard invited the dealer and his wife and a couple of the dealers staff to dinner. The dealer asked Richard if he minded if I and my girlfriend came along as well, and he said no problem. He paid not only for the expensive dinners, but for many bottles of real good wine, which he selected himself (he knows about wine as well as speakers). I kept my ears open as Richard spoke that evening, learning a great deal about many things. He is somewhat of a Renaissance man, yet a down-to-earth blue-collar fella, with no pretense or artifice---my kinda guy. I came away from a meeting with the head of the Wilson Audio Sales division with a very different impression ;-).

@bdp24 
I'd be interested in hearing what you think about the Sales division head.
PM me.
Though, to be fair, he wasn't the designer, like Richard.
I didn't know Richard was an oenophile, thanks for including that info.
B

PM sent Bob.

Look, RV is a master speaker designer and business owner.  He is not running for office.  His nature is to be succinct and to the point.  That said, he has never been anything less than pleasant and courteous to me whenever I have spoken to him in person or on the phone (a few instances of each over the years).  I would rather have someone like him running an audio company than some glad-handing guy who is all smiles but lacks knowledge or accessability.  My $0.02. 

Importantly, people are singular human beings, and their time is limited. They have to work, not just communicate.

Different mental states take time to switch between and doing so constantly is stressful....and time consuming on it’s own.

When I (Ken, not Taras) was involved in running Goo Systems every day, the phone calls alone would have amounted to 50 or 70hrs per day, if not more - if I let people talk to me as much as they wanted to. Calls which were about Home Theater, Home theater audio, acoustics, projection, screens, projector technology, making of rooms, isolation of rooms, contrast, realization of contrast, seating, electrical systems, the intricacies of eye and ear function in science and mental wiring, and a hundred other things they wanted help with or wanted to share.

When I finally quit answering the phone as I was going mad and had zero spare time...there were 56 unanswered calls on the system. This is with me editorializing in real time and keeping people on track and limiting or zeroing verbal digression. This is with me dissuading people from taking my time but trying to remain viewed and known as a good guy who helps out.

Audio conversations from customers are arguably worse than that. When one possesses answers to questions which can fill in the blanks for others and thus open up even more questions, people tend to want to stay in that mode and just eat it up. Then they want to go back and do it again. Audio is emotions so it’s a deep hook.

It’s great to converse with people who have a deep knowledge of the field but it can also be quite draining for the ’knowledge resource’ person, with regard to life that is eaten up. It has to be moderated by one or both parties in the given moment or overall scenario.