In the March 2025 installment of Stereophile’s excellent “Re-Tales” column, author Julie Mullins highlights Big Kids Toys — an AudioQuest Mythical Experience dealer — and speaks with its 29-year-old sales manager Luke Sumerford about what it takes to make hi-fi fun again.
Founded in 2002, in Greensboro, North Carolina, Big Kids Toys recently opened a second showroom in Covington, Kentucky. Mullins explains that both locations are home-based operations — a sales strategy that offers both practical and personal advantages.
“Big Kids Toys customers get a true in-home listening experience in a domestic setting,” Mullins writes. “Such dealerships are almost always appointment-only, which makes it easier to focus completely on one customer at a time and to play whatever music they want to hear.”
That last bit is especially important to Luke, who believes music is an essential ingredient in building strong and meaningful relationships. At Big Kids Toys, chances are you’ll hear the latest album from Maggie Rogers, A$AP Rocky, or The Weeknd as well as all the requisite audiophile standards.
“In the end,” Mullins writes, “hi-fi is — or should be — about having fun. Toys, but for big kids.”
We couldn’t agree more.
Founded in 2002 by Michael Twomey, Big Kids Toys has been in continuous operation for 23 years with outstanding flexibility and a realistic approach to system design serving as keys to their longevity and success. Their team embraces challenges and works to turn visions into reality, whether building a home theater, tweaking a stereo system, installing whole-home audio, optimizing video streaming technologies, or making network upgrades. No job is too big, too modest, or too exotic.
While some might reasonably be taken aback by AudioQuest’s uncommonly wide range of offerings, Big Kids Toys’ Michael Twomey has always been attracted to the breadth of the AudioQuest product catalog. Because AudioQuest offers solutions across multiple categories and prices, from the high-value Bridges & Falls to the world-class Mythical Creatures, Twomey calls on AudioQuest to address a wide range of his customers’ needs. The results are performance, reliability, and consistency that he and his customers appreciate.
AudioQuest products feature construction quality that is second to none, says Twomey, and sonic benefits that are easy to hear as one moves up any line. “We let our customers experience the differences for themselves,” he continues. “Our customers are smart people. They ‘sell’ themselves based on what they hear.”
AudioQuest simplifies the process with a generous loaner program. “Our customers can borrow the products, try them in their homes, and decide for themselves,” explains Twomey. Often, the products end up staying in his customers’ homes, easily justifying the program’s existence while representing AudioQuest’s commitment to fostering a strong and lasting relationship between manufacturer, retailer, and customer.
“We have a customer who’s very particular about his choice of products,” Twomey continues. “Winning his business has involved making multiple visits to his home and answering in-depth questions. Over time, we upgraded his Magico-based system to AudioQuest Mythical Creatures cabling with the help and guidance of AQ’s Regional Sales Manager, Tiago Da Silva.”
Tiago’s approach complements the Big Kids Toys ethos. He is eager to create rapport with the customer, answering any questions while maintaining a strong focus on enjoyment. “A great salesperson,” says Twomey, “is an advisor — not someone who pushes products to hit sales goals.”
Big Kids Toys is one of AudioQuest’s exclusive Mythical Creatures partners — a carefully curated group of retailers authorized to sell the complete line of AudioQuest products, including Mythical Creatures power cables, interconnects, and speaker cables. These dealers are intimately familiar with AudioQuest’s values and goals, fluent in the company’s ideas and technologies, and well-equipped to present the full Mythical Creatures Experience in a world-class environment.
Twomey concludes: “Being a Mythical Creatures dealer allows us to offer our customers high-performance products well-suited to the high-performance electronics and speakers we sell. That’s important to our customers.”
Follow Big Kids Toys on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram; visit them online at BigKidsToysAV.com; and give them a call to schedule an appointment for some serious fun.
Until then, check out our latest Qobuz playlist, “Serious Fun at Big Kids Toys,” curated by Big Kids Toys’ Luke Sumerford.
