Enter to Win: 3-Play System from Impact Acoustics

[zildjian]

Things I like:
The layout of the site generally provides you with a lot of information without it being too cluttered (exception noted below), such as product lists, you can tell a lot about a product without having to necessarily click on it, so you can rule it out or in as what you may be looking for without having to read the whole product description.
The search engine worked well.
The layout of the home page is nice, you can direct yourself without having to read a bunch of text, but the text is there for more specific/quicker links to what your interested in.

Things I thought could be improved:
The "Other Helpful Items" box on the right side of the screen made the product pages a little crowded and cluttered.
Photographs could have been slightly better, zoom in option on some products (such as your switchers) would have been nice.

 

[JoeE SP9]

The look and feel and navigation are fine. I don't much care for the color selections. All the red reminds me of a fire sale. All in all not a bad site.

 

[Ziptree]

The Good:
The site is layed out well, contact info, teck support, etc. are easy to find.

You have included a large amount of info for the newbe.

The not as good:
Photos of products could be bigger

Knowledge base and drivers area could use dropdown boxes for easier navigation

 

[raf1005]

Sometimes picturing staff gives it a personal touch, like Joe reccomends this speaker cable because he is a sound engineer in the Dayton area...

 

[mdy]

Web Site

Two things I like about the site:
1) Top navigation bar
2) The shopping cart system is easy to use.

Two (or more) things that could be improved on the site:
1) The left navigation bar. The font is not sharp, hard to read.
2) The home page is a little cluttered.
3) I would consider dropping the blinking "Buy Now" buttons.

Here is an error I found...
If you go here, http://www.impactacoustics.com/results2.asp , you receive this error:

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a01a8'

Object required: 'objRS'

/search/results.asp, line 568


Mike

 

[TheLaw]

Two Things I like about the site...

1. The site is very user friendly. It is extremely simple to navigate and find what you are looking for.
2. The home page is setup really well. I like the hyperlinks to all of the most common products, as well as the clearly displayed tech support and about us buttons.


Two Things I think could be better...

1. When I did a product search for digital cables, your site listed many options but did not include pictures. I think some thumbnail shots next to the item would be great.
2. I wasn't real excited about the "what customers say" section. I think professional reviews would be better suited there and maybe a hyperlink to an entire article.

Overall, great site. It was hard for me to find two things I would change, and they are very minor at that.

 

[Daz3d&Confus3d]

2 things I like: 1st) warrenty info was easily accessible...I found it in less than a minute. 2nd) very well designed site....navigation was smooth and fluid, has a very professional feel and touch!!!

2 things I dont like: 1st) no toll-free number....I was glad to see that address and a phone/fax number were stated clearly along with business hours but I'd like to see a toll free number added....it tells me, the consumer, that you're interested in hearing from me if I have any questions 2nd) I honestly couldn't find anything else. It's a very nice site!!!

 

[squire.10@osu.e]

The site is nice--pretty easy to navigate. If I had to criticize anything it would be that the site is pretty busy visually. I like the "IA Knowledge" link that provides informational links for customers, but I think the title "IA Knowledge" is a little ambiguous. It's fairly easy to overlook that link and not no where to find such info. Good job overall, though.

 

[blownrx7]

I like the fact that you have an 800 # listed on the site (easy to find too!)
I also like the clearly stated and and also easy to find return and warranty policy
Pretty easy to navigate by the different categories.
Decent FAQ section as well.

Things to improve:
How about allowing to select a different length in the menu for an item rather than having to click on the idividual items?
A price/shopping list page that just lists every thing and allow multiple selections at one time would be very nice.
For the BULK cable, I know you guys hate this, BUT..
How about selling in any length rather than standard bulk lengths. A no return policy on cut legths would be ok in this case

 

[mpompey]

I just checked out the site.

Two things I liked. I liked the flash intro piece at the top of the first page, and the tabbed multi-layout design. Being a firefox user, that appealed to me.

Two things to improve upon. The links upon the left side seem a little "low tech" compared to some of the other ways to display the information. The flash animation at the top is nice. Maybe some way to display that in some kind of nested format. Second, I think the press releases section should be arranged by date. That way you can see how recently someone praised your materials.

 

[Bobby2x]

Your new layout!

Yeah the new look works well!
one thing I always like that was missing was you customer service phone number!
I alwasy like to make a call to the ccompany onlne I'm doing biz with...
just a suggestion, other then that! NICE! I signed up for newsletter on specials!

 

[Murrel]

I like the navigation, takes me right where I think I should be going.
It is nice to see the pricing right there with each Item.
I also like the contact us page, phone numbers are always a welcome sight!!

I dislike the look of the front page to busy and very generic.
Would also love to see better pictures front and back of the items.

 

[Exit]

Impact Acoustics Site + and -

Plus 1. The benefits of rapid run are explained well under "Imagine the Possibilities."

Plus 2. Including the specifications is effective.

Negative 1. Rapidrun - If I were running A/V wires through walls, I would want one or more HDMI connectors/cables. This is the future of high end A/V systems while the other connectors are the past.

Negative 2. Flying lead is not a well recognized term in general A/V forums and articles. This is the first time I have seen this term. I assume it means no wall plate, just loose ends, but I should not have to guess.

Negative 3. Under rapid run, "What Rapid Run Is" is the term "breakaway" as in breakaway interface connectors or breakaway wall plates. Breakaway needs an explanation and its features and benefits described. I thought it was a termination that split off from the main cable, but the HD 15 Male Breakaway has only single terminations at the end, so breakaway must mean something else.

Negative 4. If you don't have the PC "window" open full screen, when you click on a subject for details such as "Imagine the Possibilities", the explanation at the bottom of the screen may not show and you may not be aware that it has appeared below.

Negative 5. Rapidrun - "New Revolutionary Patent Pending Technology - That will Change our Industry Forever." This claim should be explained somewhere other wise it is just hype. I don't know the industry practices so I can't see the new and revolutionary benefits. Think, Rapidrun is new and revolutionary because of the following features and benefits (list).

Negative 6. General - the Rapidrun system target market appears to be professional contractors from the wording in the site. I think there are many DIY A/V enthuiasts who might be interested in this product if a little more were put into the presentation for laymen.

Negative 7. Why not include a few schematics of some typical rapidrun systems with parts and prices (including system price) listed so someone can see if they can afford the products and not waste time contacting your company if it is not in their ballpark budget. It should be easy for the reader to determine system ballpark ranges without having to study all the parts, pickout the right ones, then lookup all the prices, then add them up. Thats more work then most readers are willing or possibly able to do, so they might just think rapidrun must cost a bundle and move on to another site.

 

[cmossell]

Things I like:

1. I tried a search, and found exactly what I wanted the first time.
2. The professional look of the site and large number of products would make me comfortable buying even if I was unfamiliar with your site.


Room for improvement:

1. The front page seems a little busy. Less clutter always helps.
2. The navigation is a little hard to read. The gray lines behind the text obscure it a bit.

 

[10010011]

I like the colors. The site seems easy to navigate.

It seems to take a long time to come back from the shopping cart to return to shopping.

It took way to long and I just closed out the browser

 

[nhpm510]

Impact Acoustic Cables Rock!!!

2 things I like
-Hacker safe
-Quick buy

2 things you think could be improved:
-Larger, more detailed photos of the gear.
-More reviews recommendation on "reference material" to test the systems whether they be audio or video reviews.

Misc.
Fonts are too small making the site very busy looking.

Your low-end component cable blew away BBY's $85 cable! My projectors colors and PQ jumped when I installed it!

 

[expose11]

My first impression was that I liked the fact that your products are right up front without even looking you see what you sell. I always like etailers that have their products very easy to find.

I like that you have easy to find tabs at the top to take us to Tech support, KB, news, and contact info.

I like to see helpful links on the main page like ISF and CEDIA.

Something that could be improved is on my 21" monitor, the site is small. Only taking up a sliver down the center of my screen. All that needs to be done is have the site writen to support larger screen resolutions. High end audio is not the only place we spend money. We big screen owners like to see pages that fill the screen.

This may not be site related, but having a $20 minimum forced me to spend money on something I did not need. I wanted a product at a certain price, and yours was good, but by the time I added another product I really did not need my purchase was not that great. I realize that you want this to make more money, but this may keep me from considering you in the future.

On a whole, the site is good and easy to find what I want or am shopping for.

 

[G-force]

Good layout.

Excellent in-depth featured product articles.
Professional as well as consumer product reviews for a seemingly unbiased opinion.
A wealth of education for the new-to home audio user.
Nice bright screens, unlike some av-s-forums ;0

I'd like to see a possible user showcase, where members could display pictures of their set-ups, maybe choosing randomly a "member of the day" that could be showcased somewhere while you navigate the site. Just an idea.

Car audio/video section

 

[Babyface]

One of the good things about the site is that most everything can be accessed and seen on the home page. I also like that as far as I can see, everything has an image attached. I always like to see what I am buying, even cables.

On the other hand, so much stuff makes it feel a little cluttered. Maybe a products tab would be a better approach. Also, some of the images attached to items can be enlarged as much as I would like.

 

[eyeQ]

LIKE:
1- your mailing address is easy to find! (Not one of those fishy co's that hide behind a URL).
2- a lot of links to products, logically laid out, right on the front page.

NEED TO IMPROVE:
1- When I add something to my basket, then click "estimate shipping", it says "Enter Zip Code"; I'm in Canada -- there's no such term. Here we have postal codes. Plus, if I put in my postal code, it says I've made a mistake.
2- the image 'legs_banner-10.jpg' at http://www.impactacoustics.com/quality.asp? ! So cheezy/80's looking! Ha!