Sounds of service

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This article was published 18/06/2024 (469 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What started as a hobby has turned into a full-time endeavour for the owners of a high-end audio equipment dealer in the Wolseley neighbourhood of Winnipeg.

After years of setting up stereo systems for their friends, brothers Leonid and Viktor Yamborko started Altitudo Audio in 2019.

The brothers sell a variety of media players, amplifiers, speakers and accessories. They also build stereo and home theatre systems to meet an individual customer’s specifications.

“We’re like audio doctors,” said Leonid, the elder brother.

If that’s the case, the Yamborkos have been practising medicine since they were teenagers.

Born and raised in Shyrokolanivka, a village in southern Ukraine, the brothers were enamoured with their father’s stereo. They set it up for optimal sound while listening to music with their friends.

The brothers immigrated to Winnipeg with their family in 2001. Leonid had earned a law degree in Ukraine and Viktor was studying agriculture, but in Manitoba they found work in construction to support themselves.

In 2008, they started a spray foam and polyurea coating business. It was successful for more than a decade, but work started to dwindle when the COVID-19 pandemic started.

The brothers shifted their focus to Altitudo Audio, which they had started earlier on the side.

They set up two listening rooms in a North End warehouse to display their wares. When a storefront became available at 545 Telfer St. S., Altitudo moved there in early 2023. (A third Yamborko brother, Sergiy, also works at the store.)

The location is advantageous because it’s a few steps from Portage Avenue and because it can potentially catch the eye of people visiting Advance Electronics, which is less than 100 metres away.

If someone can’t find what they’re looking for at one store, they can look for it at the other.

“They do send some customers to us and we send some customers to them,” Viktor said.

When a reporter visited the store, the brothers played a 60-year-old blues recording on a $10,000 CD player hooked up to an $11,500 tube amplifier and a $120,000 pair of speakers.

While he once sold a stereo system worth $150,000, Leonid says he can put together great-sounding systems starting at $1,500. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to audio equipment — recommendations depend on what the customer wants.

To that end, customers are invited to spend as much time as they need in the store’s two listening rooms. The Yamborkos even ship equipment to people’s homes so they can try it out there before making a decision.

That dedication to customer satisfaction made an impression on Steve Lambert, a retired airline captain who has bought stereo equipment from Altitudo Audio for his cottage in northwestern Ontario.

The cottage can only be accessed by boat, but that hasn’t stopped the Yamborkos from bringing Lambert a variety of amplifiers and speakers and setting them up to demonstrate performance.

“Leo will go to just about any length he can to help you out,” said Lambert, who has been an audiophile for 15 years. “I’ve never experienced that before.”

Lorrie Kirshenbaum, a Winnipeg audiophile who has been an Altitudo Audio customer for a year-and-a-half, agrees.

Kirshenbaum is impressed not only by the amount of time Leonid spent with him while figuring out what to buy, but also with the way he followed up to make sure the customer was happy with his purchase.

“It’s nice to see a locally run business where the owners really take pride in what they sell and their customer service,” Kirshenbaum said. “That really is one of the selling features of that store.”

Due to the store’s online presence and the Yamborkos’ appearances at audio festivals in Toronto and Montreal, most of Altitudo Audio’s customers are from Ontario and Quebec.

Leonid hopes that changes and more Winnipeggers discover the store.

“To have the best understanding of what we do, come to our showroom,” he said. “Come and listen.”

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca