K&W Audio is Calgary's premier high-end hi-fi , Home Theater and System integration shop. We offer a wide range of products and services. From fine audio reproduction technologies including exotic stereo separates, cables and all related music reproduction devices, to touch screens, hard drive based media servers and custom built electronic solutions. From our inception, K&W has been committed to providing the best service and advice - along with a complimentary mix of high quality electronic equipment.

Several of our staff members have been in this industry for over 30 years, and none of us are wet behind the ears. Our experience and dedication allows us to provide a solution that meets, and often exceeds you, our client's expectations. Our business has been built, and continues to thrive, on customer satisfaction and trust. We have a wealth of experience in designing automated home entertainment systems to fit your specific needs, while taking into consideration an individual's, and family’s, lifestyle.

Our business has changed dramatically over the years, reflecting changes in technology and the needs and desires of our clients. Today, we offer full range services, including consultation, design, build, fabrication, delivery, installation, programming, upgrading, and ongoing system maintenance services.

From control system programming, interior/acoustic design, and the latest in residential networking, to providing a really cool, class “A” amplifier based stereo system - we can do it all! One area we enjoy in particular is our home theater specialty. With a state-of-the-art product mix in projection technologies and related accessories, we meet and exceed our client's wildest wishes. We offer the finest equipment available in all budget ranges, along with expertise, advice and recommendations - at no additional cost.

OUR ELECTRONIC DESIGN CENTRE FOR DEMONSTRATION AND SELECTION

Our role is more than just supplying services and equipment. Technology changes almost daily, making it impossible for those not in it, to keep up with developments. Informing our clients about the possibilities of current technology is vital to ensure that you remain satisfied with your system. In that context, we take a consultative approach, determining your current and future requirements for technology and equipment; hence our Company slogan -"where design & technology meet". Lets take a tour...

On our main level, glass French doors invite you to enter the room. In this room, one discovers Totem loudspeakers with Arcam electronics shown off in a modern open rack. A Panasonic 65” plasma television is mounted above the gear, facing a burgandy colored curved leather Frontrow  couch. The system is controlled via a URC MX950 hand held remote, demonstrating a multi-purpose room that can be used daily as a living room, audiophile stereo listening space and also as a "knock out" home theatre, as required.

A dedicated home theatre resides in an adjacent room. Soft sponge-painted beige walls provide the perfect backdrop for a full high definition Sharp 52" LCD TV, with top of the line Yamaha 9.2 channel THX processing and Definitive Technology bipolar loudspeakers. A second hidden video system with a Sharp DLP front projector and power drop-down Stewart Firehawk screen provides a step up at the touch of button. A Niles IntelliControl, mated with a URC MX3000 touch screen on a custom built coffee table, effortlessly manages the system, including lighting control, with a single touch.

The third room on the main level shows off inlaid design in custom fabric walls, and is decorated in neutral colours using mostly greens and grays. A Panasonic Plasma screen-based stealth home theatre resides here, with the entire THX Ultra 2 Sound system concealed in the walls behind the beautifully acoustically modeled, and custom designed, fabric wall coverings. It offers the ability to play free-standing speakers as well, with a choice of electronics from Yamaha, Marantz, Kaleidescape and Arcam.

When proceeding to the shop’s second level, you will find a display of interesting accessories in a jewel case at the foot of the stairs. A 42-inch HD Sharp LCD TV, mounted on a power CLO wall arm, along with a wall mounted Crestron touchscreen, flank the display. The anticipation of an experience at the next level begins right here. You pass a variety of electronic candy on your way to “The Next Level”.

On the second level there are three additional demonstration rooms and a custom home kitchen area. Our master home theatre contains the finest home theatre components and accessories. A large Crestron touch screen control tablet (with biometric control capability) and Odyssee motion-simulator-equipped plush micro-fiber theatre seats put the viewer “in the action.” The quality components used in this room total over $250,000 and include:

•     Crestron Control with Vantage lighting
•     Front Row power motion reclining theatre seats
•     7 channels of Martin Logan speakers
•     Lexicon Processing and Amplification
•     Faroudja's finest  1920x1080 DILA projector
•     Faroudjas finest High Definition video processor
•     Stewart Filmscreen’s 4-way masking screen at 135”
•     3 Definitive Technology Referance sub-woofers
•     Totem Acoustics Tactile transducers
•     Monster power management and M Series cabling
•     Kaleidescape movie and music management system, and
•     High Definition TV and X-Box live complete the smorgasbord.

If there is a better home theatre in terms out right performance or quality of presentation, we haven’t seen it….!

Next door to this room is an audio listening room for exotic stereo electronics. Here you can listen to digital up-conversion, SACD, exotic separates and other high-resolution playback components. Among the equipment auditioned here are brand names such as Martin-Logan, Krell, Totem, JL Audio and Focal/JM Labs. Six flexible audio dampers, custom-designed and manufactured in house, "tune" the room to suit the current system in play. The room is decorated in neutral shades and uses track lighting, with the building’s automated lighting system providing the lighting control.

The third room, and second theatre on this floor, features another home theatre room installation to die for. It is decorated in bold sweeps of red and yellow with black accents and conveys a southwestern design flair. This room, which shows a quality fibre-optic star field ceiling and fibre-optic rope lighting, speaks to the high-end of digital home theatre systems. It features another Crestron control surface that converts the comfortable living room into a home theatre at the touch of one button by dropping the screen, turning on the Krell Home Theatre equipment, setting the heat, dimming the lights, turning on the fibre-optic star field ceiling and rope lighting, while picking up the latest e-mail correspondence. The room demonstrates DLP projectors including the latest Sharp, Faroudja, and Yamaha top line offerings. This room can be accessed and controlled from any PC in the building, via the web, or from wall-mounted Crestron touch screens, located at strategic points throughout the building. It accesses movies streamed over the LAN at HD resolution from a multi terabite Kaleidescape server, located in another area of the building. Just plain cool.

The kitchen area is an open concept, in cherry wood, stainless steel and granite. Noted lighting designer Paul Mercier provided the lighting design for the area. The area’s control system manages lighting, sound, video and heating, effortlessly changing the area’s ambiance with a single keystroke. The kitchen is often the center of home life and this area definitely showcases how life is made better with home automation! It even features a small kitchen home office.

This particular example shows an iMAC computer, with Focal loudspeakers (and sub!) to listen to the latest downloaded tunes - with incredible quality. The computer audio and video files are available to the different audio zones throughout the top floor, and show how easily your computer can enhance your multi-room audio and video system. It illustrates using your home computer as a music storage and playback device, and as a place to keep your movies and pictures as well.

The overall concept, is multi-room audio solutions, touch screens and other control options are all showcased in a manner that is easily understood and instantly conveys value to your home and life.

So, have a coffee and let’s roll out those plans on the kitchen table…

Located in downtown Calgary, our design center showcase's our ability to create and integrate whole house management systems. The building shows low voltage keypads and intriguing touch screens at locations where one would expect to find conventional light switches, Mac and PC-based media integration, and media server mated with security devices. These lighting and entertainment systems are all managed with a simplicity only recently made possible.

These simple, yet powerful, system controllers allow the entire building to go to an intelligent power-saving dormant state, in concert with heating, cooling, lighting, security and video surveillance systems with the press of a single button, labeled “good night”. And the systems we use and show are all applicable to our clients directly.

Other “macro-based” features, designed specifically for the company’s unique requirements include a “Staff Meeting” button and “Working Late”. These features show, along with other custom-to-the-application integrated system approaches, that K&W Audio lives what we provide…and we do provide the very best. Come by with your parameters and see what possibilities exist!