Has the vinyl resurgence led to increased sales in the HiFi industry?

Do you have pictures of your setup?

 

There is one place he is wrong.

I know of one glaring exception to this

 

Pray, tell. Or art thou being coy?

 

Look for "won't break the bank" in my signature field

 

Got it, you are talking about Ham's views on budget phono stages. I thought you took issue with something else, as well.

 

I dub myself the "one glaring exception" who does NOT thrust

upon the world

 

I did talk with a store owner not too long ago and asked how is business. His response was mixed. He is not selling too many systems and big ticket items anymore, and in fact has cut back all the high end items he carries, he can special order them maybe but does not stock them. But he said headphones, dacs, powered speakers are flying off the shelfs in record numbers.

 

Yeah, I'd guess most people would think an iPod plugged into Audio Engine powered speakers is high end.

 

That makes intuitive sense to me. Seems like the growth market for home and personal audio is about portables and desktop/computer-based systems at the moment.

 

For budget phono preamps I was thinking primarily of the around $100 and below category. There's lots of popular but not very good preamps in that category. And some are just awful. $300 is only considered a budget component if you're already an audiophile.

 

I'm working on that!

 

this stuff is mostly packed away or on loan to friends. My dog ate the cables to my nice headphones (seriously) and now that I gave a listening room I haven't bothered with my headphone setup. I'd like to get my cans fixed and dust that off though.

 

There's a joke here somewhere, but I'm not going there....

 

Yep, but the brands who connect with that market and build trust today, will be able to move those customers up market as they roll out new product.

I look at a company like Sonos and see zero reason a more established brand didn't get in that market sooner. They will continue real easing better sounding speakers, but pretty much already own consumer mindshare around multi-room wireless streaming. They will be on Bose's level in 5-10 years.

Imagine if a more audiophile focused brand had gotten there at the right price points. Bluesound is trying to follow, but is maybe too late.

Point is, it took new companies like Sonos and AudioEngine to go after those markets when the established audio brands were too busy offering more of the same. Both of those companies are now thriving and will likely be enormous companies and growing players in the market for some time to come.

 

I still don't think an audiophile brand or audiophile sales pitch is all that attractive to most buyers. The number of people will be looking to move "up market" from current desktop Audioengines to more audiophile-oriented stuff even from brands they're familiar with will still be a small subset of the people buying Audioengines today.

 

That will be neat. Fortunately I've got the audiophile bug so $300 for a phono preamp is "budget" for me.

I am planning on upgrading my vinyl playback to get it up to a level where I'll be happy listening to it, instead of frustrated. Unfortunately I just spent $2K on a headphone amp and am in need of a good DAC to match it, and that was the new turntable budget. So back to saving up. I'll get the turntable setup upgraded soonish I hope. I'm buying new LPs. I want to be able to play them.

 

I think today there are fewer options for someone to be exposed to different equipment in an environment where they are permitted to hear the differences and to do so at an entry level price point. Most of what's left for electronics stores only have a few models and if they aren't just left in boxes on the shelves they only have a display model on the top shelf that you can only look at but aren't hooked up to anything. Hi-Fi specialty shops tend to only have equipment beyond the casual budget and can be intimidating for the first-time buyer especially when the shopkeeper sees that there is likely no sale to be made.

I remember when my only system was a Realistic receiver and bookshelf speakers that was a hand me down from my grandmother paired with a $100 Sanyo dual cassette deck. Within a month after graduating from college and getting my first real paychecks I went to the local hi-fi shop at the time to upgrade. There were several rooms of various components and speakers to choose from. Although I couldn't afford anything outside of the low-end component and low-end speaker rooms they still had equipment in my price range. After several hours of listening between units and speakers I walked out with a new Sony ES receiver and CD changer along with a set of speakers for my $2K and also the knowledge that there were better components at higher price points to aspire to.

I think in part that changing technologies, music tastes, and a worse economic situation has contributed in part to a decline in traditional Hi-Fi sales but in my opinion it is the absence of the well stocked and accessible showroom where folks can audition and hear the differences among a range of price points that is the biggest factor. I blame Internet retailing the most for this decline as brick and mortor type establishments struggled to exist in an environment where buyers could audition equipment using the resources of the store and then go on-line to find a cheaper price for their eventual purchase. Now we have much fewer of these stores and those that do exist tend to have a much smaller selection of the entry level gear as they are usually a commodity item that can be price matched on-line.

 

I guess my friends are just better people...

 

Agree, but the HiFi industry has to build a base. The way to do that is with wireless speakers, streaming and portable devices. Cover the basics, then get people on an upgrade path to MidFi. Maybe offer some real innovation through engineering at these levels.

I don't really care if 0.01% ultimately become audiophiles. Let's just keep HiFi alive!

 

Amen to that, Brian.

 

Seems to me that there is room in the plethora of problems faced by the HiFi audio industry for better marketing.

On my train rise yesterday, I peppered my buddy with more questions. We also skimmed through the ads in Stereophile. While that magazine is obviously geared toward hobbyists, I will say that when I was considering my first HiFi system, I picked it up along with some of the other audiophile mags. Point being, I suspect others do as well.

We looked at a dozen or so ads. None caught his attention. Most we're crappy or communicated zero info. When they did, it was overly technical and didn't explain why the technical achievement was valuable (basic marketing stuff).

Then I showed my buddy this DynAudio as and asked him to read the copy.



His response was, "This sounds awesome. How much is it? Does it sound good? Where can I hear them?"

Now, I'm not saying that this is a good ad. The way the as is designed, he probably wouldn't have bothered reading the ad. If I have some down time, I will redesign this ad and show what I think would convert better. But it starts by explaining what the product does and why it's valuable to the reader/viewer of the ad. Then answering the questions above.

Imagine if DynAudio closed the ad by saying something like, "Experience the music you've been missing with the flexibility your life demands for less than your spending on beer. Go to www.dynaudio.com/trial for a "no risk" in-home trial."

This copy is pretty pedestrian, but couple it with some bullet points from the copy already there around what the product does and put it in ads in places where the target audience actually goes and I guarantee it will create more business for DynAudio and their dealers.

 

Well, but you're already preaching to the choir if you're running an ad in Stereophile. Try a little personal focus group of high school seniors and college seniors and gauge their interest in all things audio. How many of them will ever become readers of something like a Stereophile in the first place?

I bought my first "real" stereo when I was 15. (It was a Phillips turntable, a Nikko integrated amp, and a pair of Ohm speakers of some sort.) I listened to that system straight through college, and when I was in college just about everyone brought a stereo system with them to school; it was almost inconceivable not to have one at least for anything but the poorest of us. 90% of dorm rooms probably had dedicated audio playback rigs of varying quality. Buying a stereo then was like buying a cell phone or a computer now. It was almost de riguer: if you had the means, when you reached a certain age, you got a stereo system. The a certain percentage of those people might become more interested in higher fidelity, and might wind up spending more on their gear as they began working. But you were starting with a baseline potential audience that equaled a huge percentage of at least middle class and up kids (even working class kids).

I think that baseline -- before you get to the point where someone might become interested in purchasing something like the Dynaudio wireless rig -- is what's shrinking and what's going to be really problematic for the future of dedicated home audio. It's like cable TV and landlines. Are any people who are now 18-24 going to install landlines and cable TV in their homes when they start nesting? Precious few if any.

 

Yeah that's true. I am not sure what people's general perceptions are. I am under no illusions though as I have owned systems in the $15k range and demoed things in the $50-60k range so I know it's not high end, but man it really sounds great for the price, easy to use and very flexible and affordable. In my office I have my laptop plugged into some Audio Engine 5+ speakers. I can't believe how good it is for nearfield listening. Very detailed, nice soundstage, etc. Certainly a big step up from an ipod doc or portable radio. I wish something like this was around when I was living in a dorm room and small apartments. Will people move up from this type of thing as they get older and have more disposable income? I don't know maybe. Perhaps there will be renewed interest in stereo systems at some point down the road.

 

this "ad" needs to run on facebook or something like that ( social media )
my teenage kids don't read newspapers, read magazines, or watch much tv
they are smartphone addicts ( i won't comment on this --- I get tired of repeating myself to my children enough as it is )
You want to reach this youngsters --- it won't be thru print media

 

Yes, I agree with some above that ads need to be placed in magazines that do not have anything to do with audio. Exposure will help. However, people really need to go somewhere to actually hear what this is all about. Target and the rest is a joke. I realize that is all most people know, and that's the problem. It really goes back to what I said in my earlier post: There needs to be brick and mortar stores that actually WELCOME people of all ages and incomes to hear different level systems. Hell, even most hi-fi stores entry level stuff will blow away the garbage at Target and such. Let the people hear. In my opinion, that's what happened with vinyl. People actually, finally, took the time to see what the "fuss" was all about and listened. Then they went, "Hmmmm, that DOES sound way better than my CD."