Underwood HiFi

Underwood HiFi Inc. is the home of Underwoodwally, a name very familiar to AudiogoN shoppers as the e-mail alias and user name of Walter Liederman. Walter is a 50-year industry veteran who spent 23 years as one of the partners in the 10-store Atlanta-based chain HiFi Buys. He worked as its Corporate Buyer for the home audio and mobile division while being intimately involved in corporate strategy sessions.

When this $100 Million/year operation sold to ‘The Tweeter Group’, in 1997 Walter worked as a consultant for Infinity speakers and Acoustic Research for 3 years. He also helped fund and became a partner in Perpetual Technologies, a leading player in DSP speaker correction and digital audio technology.

His 50-year tenure in the audio industry then led to home-based side business Underwood Hifi through which Walter marketed new products, closeouts, B-stock, discontinued products and other specialty audio items that manufacturers didn’t want to promote through their established distribution chains. Earning an enviable track record with AudiogoN’s savvy audio shoppers (over 2.500 points back then and now over 13,400 points), what had begun as a part-time side line soon developed into a full-time operation mostly selling new high-value high-end products.

Living in an Atlanta suburb, Walter then combined his exploding on-line audio sales venture with a small home-based retail operation to serve the local community by appointment to audition actual components and complete systems. Careful selection of a few chosen brands offering superior price/performance ratios led to such lines as Jolida, Emerald Physics, PS Audio, LSA, Gallo speakers, Music Hall, Carver amps & speakers, Quad and Peachtree Audio.

Walter remembered Chris Johnson with whom he had worked with at Sonic Frontiers as one of its largest dealers. Chris had left to start Parts Connexion, selling hi end audiophile parts to the industry. Walter had helped Sonic Frontier’s president Chris Johnson sell off most the remaining tube inventory. The two began a partnership doing modifications to Walter’s hi value products turning great value products into great products without regard to price. Walter would submit certain of his products for precisely predetermined upgrades. These products would, in many cases, retain their full original manufacturer’s warranties or be covered by an Underwood warranty. Walter would market them through his usual consumer-direct channels as fully hot-rodded, brand-new factory-sealed units. They would bear an attractive discount made possible by remaining a tightly-run home-based operation.

In 2010 Walter moved full time to Maui, Hawaii and changed the business to an Internet-only model. Products are still shipped from the Marietta, Georgia warehouse or drop shipped from the manufacturer.

After becoming a dealer for speaker pioneer Emerald Physics and witnessing their amazing performance and customer satisfaction over 4 years, Walter had the opportunity to buy Emerald Physics in January 2010. Over the next 4 years Walter and his design team totally redesigned and expanded the Emerald Physics line and added electronics. The goal being to sell a complete Emerald Physics systems at Internet Direct pricing offering state of the art performance at real world pricing. Emerald Physics is sold along with many other high-value high-end lines thru Underwood Hifi. Currently there is an entire new Emerald line being developed with 3 open baffle speakers, a hybrid amp and new state of the art DSP based integrated amp. Walter has also bought LSA speakers and Core Power Technologies A/V, a supplier of line conditioning products and now a line of cables as well. After PS Audio went factory direct in 2019 Walter decided to expand LSA into a full lne of super high value Internet direct products with integrated amps, power amps, preamps, music streamers, headphones, turntables and phono stages. All products are designed and priced to deliver very high value direct to consumer products at pricing 30-60% below typical retail products.