Tremendous article on High-End Audio Industry

[Priaptor]

I think 90% of what is sold as audiophile gear is priced where it fails an economic sanity test for middle class audiophiles. So there's definitely some economic snobbery for target market by audiophile businesses

 

I agree that pricing in many cases is stratospheric BUT I remember going to all the "audiophile dealers" in NYC in the late 70s and early to mid 80s and guess what; the pricing was stratospheric back then and there was just as much snobbery as well.

[realhifi]

If the ultra high end luxury audio companies die off who cares? Too much angst and ink is being spilt on a tiny little market that frankly doesn't seem to be contributing to the overall health of the audio industry anyway so if they start dying off or the "sport" fails to catch on with new "players" then big deal. Let em die. Show me the uber expensive companies really making a difference in today's advancement of the art.

 

PS. Maybe then we won't have to suffer reading whiny posts from spoiled and coddled "journalists" about how their precious hobby (ie. gravy train) is dying.

[semente]

Speaking of hi-fi dealer snobbery...

 

[Blackstone]

That video makes this whole miserable thread worthwhile but it does not even come close to my experience with my dealer and I am not a big fish by any means.

[realhifi]

That video makes this whole miserable thread worthwhile but it does not even come close to my experience with my dealer and I am not a big fish by any means.

 

Good or not good?

(Not sure how things got turned to dealers but.....)

[joelha]

Ah- this I can agree with, but I am not at all sure it is what the article you posted was interested in saying.

 

Also, I will point out that a large number of very high end deals (not necessarily audio) are made in very informal settings.

 

It's hard for me to comment on that, Paul, as I don't know the settings in which most deals are closed.

 

But it's the professionalism piece that I'm emphasizing the most.

 

Thanks,

 

Joel

[joelha]

The KK article is exactly "why more women aren't into hifi."

 

I only wish that were true, charlesphoto.

 

Even if every article like Kessler's were to be banned from publication, I still think women would be rarely found in our hobby.

 

But another thread on this site deals with this topic, so I suppose more conversation about this topic could be found there.

 

Joel

[joelha]

Hi Joel - I kind think that facts are slipping by the wayside in favor of assumptions, so I checked myself by documenting the ads in Stereophile V38 number 8 (August 2016).

 

See attached PDF. It looks to me that if all the high end stuff walked away, the magazine would continue with products under $10K and mostly on revenue for Music Direct, Needle Doctor, cable retailers, and others.

 

As usual, what I expected to find isn't what I found at all. The third column would be better suited as "other".

Yours,

-Paul

 

[ATTACH]28421[/ATTACH]

 

You might be right, Paul.

 

But there are a couple of things I don't know.

 

One, how much revenue comes from the big guys vs. the smaller guys.

 

And two, if the big guys went away, how that would affect the vitality of either magazine.

 

If a company loses say (and I'm just making up a scenario here), 1/3 of it's sales volume, it may no longer be viable. I don't know in the case of either magazine.

 

Regardless, I get and appreciate your point.

 

Joel

[joelha]

The only thing I detest more than rich people who spend obscene amounts of money on high end audio are rich people who don't spend obscene amounts of money on high end audio. If you are rich and you aren't spending gobs of money on audio, what the hell is the point of being rich!?

 

Bless you, Blackstone.

 

Joel

[Paul R]

You might be right, Paul.

 

But there are a couple of things I don't know.

 

One, how much revenue comes from the big guys vs. the smaller guys.

 

And two, if the big guys went away, how that would affect the vitality of either magazine.

 

If a company loses say (and I'm just making up a scenario here), 1/3 of it's sales volume, it may no longer be viable. I don't know in the case of either magazine.

 

Regardless, I get and appreciate your point.

 

Joel

 

I did not include enough information for you to draw conclusions, but for example, those NeedleDoctor ads were all 1, 2, or 4 full pages. A. Lot of the high end equipment ads were 1/2 or even 1/4 page ads. None more than a single full page.

[joelha]

I did not include enough information for you to draw conclusions, but for example, those NeedleDoctor ads were all 1, 2, or 4 full pages. A. Lot of the high end equipment ads were 1/2 or even 1/4 page ads. None more than a single full page.

 

You're right, Paul. But it's quite a number of single page ads.

 

Joel

[semente]

Could KK's somehow be related with advertising?

Quite a few "journalists" have gone solo and perhaps they're not getting the "deserved" attention...

 

I wonder if a bit more "transparency" from the "press" would be able to restore some of the/my confidence in the industry.

At the moment it's all too "vague" and overly subjective.

 

R