Business notebook: Stereo One still making a beautiful noise

When John Selby announced he was going to close Stereo One in 2014, he told the Southeast Missourian there never would be another Stereo One in the market.

He was wrong.

Stereo One lives on in the same location, 345 S. Kingshighway, run by Selby's former employees Drew Balsman and Scott Starzinger, who also own HD Media Systems.

The store is one-third the size of the vast showroom of the past.

This, Balsman said, was by design.

Co-owners Drew Balsman, right, and Scott Starzinger pose for a photo Friday inside Stereo One.Laura Simon

"It's a much more manageable space," Balsman said. "Smaller rooms, showing all kinds of different technologies."

That same design also makes the shopping experience less overwhelming for the customer, who might walk into a big-box store seeking only the best price out of a giant wall of TVs, rather than considering how the product will fit within the home.

Though the size and ownership have changed, as well as some of the offerings -- car audio installation is a thing of Stereo One's past, for example -- familiarity remains. Many longstanding staff members have been retained. Even Selby continues to work there on a consulting basis.

Stereo One offers a broad but curated selection befitting the smaller space. And while Balsman and Starzinger's other Cape Girardeau business focuses on custom installation in commercial and residential spaces, Stereo One provides a customer with the opportunity to experience the product before purchasing it, Balsman said. Each room is dedicated to a different medium or a different technology. In one, in-ceiling speakers demonstrate indoor and outdoor audio systems.

"We can let you control your TV, your audio system and your thermostat all from your iPhone," Balsman said.

Nearby, a listening room allows customers to test the store's selection of record players. Another room sets the shopper in front of a 4k projection system.

Further back in the store is Balsman and Starzinger's work-in-progress: a room dedicated to the Dolby Atmos surround system "they're using in some of the higher-end commercial theaters," Balsman said.

The system also is available in home-audio systems, which is what Stereo One is showcasing.

"It's something you can't experience anywhere else in town. Even Wehrenberg doesn't have it," Balsman said.

Balsman said Stereo One offers an experience.

"What we do is an emotional thing. When you sit down and watch a theater and it's done really, really right, there is suspension of disbelief -- you forget you're sitting there watching a movie, and you're really taken in with the movie," he said.

This, he said, also is true of music and of television.

Though some of Stereo One's systems are impressive in experience and in price tag, Balsman said his store offers a variety. Technology, he said, continually becomes more affordable. What $1,000 can buy today, he said, is leaps and bounds beyond what it could buy 10 years ago.

"A lot of people think we only deal in the mid- to high end, but that's not true," Balsman said. "We are excited about anyone that's excited to be in the audio-video entertainment realm."

Lutheran Home given a high grade

The Lutheran Home has been awarded a five-star quality rating by the U.S. government through its Nursing Home Compare system.

Through this system, quality ratings are given to each of the nation's nearly 16,000 Medicare and/or Medicaid-certified homes. Facilities are given one to five stars based on health-inspection results, quality measures and staffing levels.

This rating places the Lutheran Home among the top 10 percent of homes in the state rated by Nursing Home Compare.

"Nursing homes vary in the quality of care and services they provide, and this quality rating system provides an overview of the individual care their loved one will receive," Teresa Brown, administrator of the Lutheran Home, said in a news release. "We have been blessed this year with having our Home Health agency awarded five-star and now the Lutheran Home as well."

She offered her congratulations to the Lutheran Home staff.

2 businesses moving

Angela Francis Interiors and Steel Concepts and Designs LLC, two businesses located at 272 S. Mount Auburn Road in Cape Girardeau and owned respectively by Angela and Rocky Francis, will be relocating.

The husband-and-wife team bought the office buildings at 1754 and 1762 Independence St. -- one formerly occupied by Shannon Kirchhoff Orthodontics and the other the previous location of Dan's Key and Lock -- and will move before the end of the year, according to Tom Kelsey, a commercial broker with Lorimont Place Ltd., who handled the sale.

Kelsey said both businesses will be headquartered in the former orthodontics building. The other building will be used for warehousing for the interior-design operation. Both buildings will go through extensive remodeling before move-in.

Business licenses

• Perfect Fit Bra Boutique LLC, 519 Broadway, is a retail clothing store owned by Kriste and Barry Martin. It opened Oct. 22.

bbrown@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630