Say the word "JoLida" around Baltimore, and people may think you're talking about a new pizza restaurant.

Say it in Hong Kong, and audiophiles know you're talking about the reasonably priced hi-fi stereo equipment with an avid following in Europe and Asia, and more demand than it can meet.

For all its international reputation - about half of Annapolis Junction-based JoLida Inc.'s sales are in Europe and Asia - there is not a single store in the Baltimore metropolitan area that sells the company's vacuum-tube amplifiers and compact disc players.

But the tiny company, which has a manufacturing plant in China, plans to change that with a retail store at its headquarters - nestled amid construction-equipment companies and industrial complexes - in a few weeks.

The company plans to open a second, larger retail location in Fairfax, Va., by January, and hopes to raise $7 million over the next four years to develop new audio technology and expand its manufacturing capabilities.

President Michael Allen said his plans will help JoLida make a larger mark in the radio manufacturing industry, both with its vacuum-tube technology and an approach to retail that stimulates the senses.

"We believe, with the right product mix, what you end up with is an extremely satisfying experience for a customer," Allen said. "When you hear all the details, you suddenly become absorbed."

Plans for the retail stores - to be called United Home Audio - call for listening rooms with a variety of systems from different manufacturers, comfortable sofas and low lighting to encourage relaxation, along with candy and soft drinks.

Salespeople will help clients determine their sound preferences while deciding what type of system they want.

Allen said he hopes the stores will help introduce his equipment to the local market, providing nearby locations where customers can listen to a variety of equipment.

The stores also will be laboratories where the company can try a new sales approach that pampers customers and offers a customer-driven approach to building a system.

But by opening the stores, JoLida could run the risk of alienating its present retail customers, said Vu Hoang, owner of Deja Vu Audio LTD in McLean, Va., which sells JoLida equipment. JoLida's Fairfax location will be 20 to 30 minutes from Hoang's store.

"That could be kind of weird," Hoang said. "They're a manufacturer and they want to do a retail that may compete with us."

The market is warming up to equipment that uses vacuum tubes. Tube technology, which was largely abandoned in the 1970s in favor of newer, cheaper electronic equipment, is becoming popular again for home settings despite the comparatively high price.

One thing that has helped popularize tube equipment is the rise of home theater systems. The price for tube equipment becomes less of a barrier in that circumstance because consumers expect to spend large sums of money to outfit their audio-visual rooms.

But another reason that tube amplifiers are gaining in popularity is sound quality, said Charlie Kittleson, editor of Vacuum Tube Valley magazine and owner VTV Pro Tube shop in Lakeport, Calif., which also carries JoLida equipment.

"Tube amps just make you feel better," he said. "They smooth out the music and take off the edge."

JoLida is rising within the industry, Kittleson said, because it provides high-quality equipment at a much lower cost than its competitors and because the company's goods help introduce new customers to the high-end world of $85,000 compact disc players and $10,000 turntables.

Allen said he was not sure that he would want to expand his retail stores beyond Fairfax. The 33-person company doubled the size of its manufacturing plant in China over the summer, and it is expecting to hire another 40 workers there within a year.

The company also is working to develop technology that would create theater-like acoustics in any room.

Working with vacuum tubes was a natural transition.

Although the company does not make the vacuum tubes for its own equipment now, JoLida has its roots in tube manufacturing.

Allen, a former minister and director of technology development for Dome Corp., a subsidiary of the Johns Hopkins University, started the company in 1983 with his cousin, Henson Huang.

They concentrated on making huge, high-powered vacuum tubes, and named the company after their mothers, Lida and Joda.

Seeing that the vacuum-tube industry was declining, they decided to refocus their attention to engineering tube amplifiers and other high-fidelity audio equipment.

In 1994, they introduced their first line of low-priced amplifiers, starting at $750, at a time when the median price of a tube amplifier was $3,500. The company now manufactures more than 20 products, with the smallest one priced at $350.

Huang died in 1998, but Allen forged ahead with the company, creating designs for the amplifiers that won innovation awards in 1996 from the Consumer Electronics Association.

Revenue has more than doubled since May last year, Allen said, and the company expects to sell about 8,000 products this year, more than twice the 3,000 it sold last year.

If his company can grow by triple digits in a recession, Allen said he expects growth to continue.

"We are now starting to hit some momentum," he said.