The company started in 1995 under the present name "Blue Aran". Initially they were manufacturing their own small custom products used for hire/rental.Andy Kos the founder and owner of Blue Aran tells us: "We also started selling some of the speakers we built. As the business developed we expanded into a wider range of products within the sound and lighting industry. All along we continued with building and repairing speakers, and what we are best at which is selling lots of speaker components.
Over the last 4-5 years our focus has continued towards loudspeaker components and we are now the UK's biggest specialist component stockist with, (as far as I know) the largest range of products, the biggest stockholding backed with dedicated staff who have years of experience.
We have our own speaker paint – Tuff Cab – a brand which we have extended into a range of cabinet hardware.
We are also able to produce custom design crossovers and assist customers with speaker design.
We represent numerous brands, and each brand has their good points and bad points, as well as individual products that stand out as being particularly good or suitable for a specific design requirements.
We are a reseller, so we stock a selected range of FaitalPRO products to sell on to DIY cabinet builders, and small-medium OEM cabinet manufacturers.
We don't actually use any FaitalPRO products ourselves at this time as we are not actively constructing cabinets, but we may do in the future.
Our primary function is to be a distribution partner and dealer of FaitalPRO.
FaitalPRO offers premium quality, high performance products at a very competitive price, with reasonable lead times. That is why we are choosing their range.
Some of the lower cost products, such as the 10FE200, are of great quality and a price that rivals manufacturers in the Far East, but with much shorter lead time, and total reliability and durability.
We have everything needed to design, build and finish a speaker cabinet, and this is why we are so appealing to a huge range of customers who build their own speakers.
At the lowest level we provide single components for upgrading of existing speakers, or replacing damaged parts. Our biggest focus area is the DIY market, where customers build their own speakers. Beyond that we also have a growing market in small OEM cabinet manufacturers who build speakers for re-sale. Finally we also help to serve larger OEM manufacturers, often being able to provide samples for prototypes or rush orders for missing parts needed to complete an order."
Andy Kos recognizes that his company has ended up in a slightly different direction that originally expected. Through a passion for building speakers, there are so many cabinet manufacturers, and the market is so competitive it has been hard to find the right opportunities. They "ended up" being the UK specialist for loudspeaker components partly by accident, mainly because they have the knowledge and experience to give good advice, and have kept good stocks of the best products to ensure good availability.
They are still looking to grow bigger and hold more stock, and have recently started working on prototype speaker designs to show people that excellent high quality speakers can be built if you select the right components.
A final thought of Andy Kos on the Pro Audio Market: "It has changed a lot over the last 10 years, which is one of the reasons we have had to focus on what we are good at. Large parts of the Pro Audio Market are being controlled by industry giants, interested in shifting boxes at low margins, often having little or no understanding of what they are selling. We will continue to focus on customer service, great product knowledge and building a business to cater for the needs of customers today"
