Full circle in Colorado

A hi-fi dealer's son, Matt Alterman has been in or near the business almost all his life. His dealership, Crescendo Audio, is coming full circle as he opens a new location in Boulder, Colorado, the town where he launched his first store 13 years ago.

- BY JULIE MULLINS

The Wheatridge store.

Matt's father, Henry Alterman, was the proprietor of Alterman Audio in their hometown of New Orleans. Henry got his start selling gear from his dorm room at Tulane University in the mid-1970s,¹ before “going legit,” obtaining a resale tax certificate and other legal documents, and setting up a store on Freret Street near Tulane. Matt helped his father with custom-installation projects, sales, accounting—whatever was needed. Matt formalized employment at his father’s business after graduating from college. “I got to attend CES in its infancy, and I got to see a lot of the exciting transitions in technologies that occurred from the mid-'80s to the early 2000s,” Matt told me.

The dCS Lina Lounge at the new Boulder location.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Alterman Audio was not affected by the floods; in fact, business boomed. “I helped out the city for a year or two,” Matt said. “There was a lot of equipment that needed to be replaced.” When the post-Katrina boom turned into a recession, Henry closed the store.