Singapore Audio Mall- Out of This World....

Brought to you by our friend Ian-

 

Asian nations are THE burgeoning hifi markets. There's nothing like this concentration of upscale components anywhere outside of Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and the upscale mainland Chinese market will follow, I'm sure.

 

Gotta luv Ian... his enthusiasm is genuine and infectious. Even his ‘Ian-isms’ wind up being endearing (always shouting, excessive waving, excessive use of the word ‘friends’).

But, sigh. There’ll never be a hifi mall like that in the US, will there now?
.

 

A sales report of Shops like Acoustic and Elusive would make for a very interesting reading, i wonder how much (percentage wise) is sold to non US markets.

 

Gotta love Singapore!

There's The Adelphi, and then there's the Four Floors of Whores. Everything under one roof!

Jeff

 

I remember Peter Qvortrup (Audio Note) noting that only 5% of his business in the US. Hong Kong and Singapore are the two largest I believe.

Here in Hong Kong the Audio Note dealer is parallel to the shops selling Maserati, Bentley, Lamborghini and that ilk of car. So you can buy your million dollar car, million dollar stereo and also parallel is the red light district - so you can get your woman too. Sex, drugs, rock and roll and a really nice car to do it all in.

Similar shops are in Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Hong Kong. Singapore and Thailand though - because they are in shopping malls have too much glass for my liking. I prefer the shops in Hong Kong in 20 story buildings with one dealer on each floor.

I think generally people in Asia have far more disposable income because there may be less billionaires but people aren't generally in debt - they have more cash. I would never own the stereo I own had I worked as a teacher in Canada.

 

Holy Audio porn Batman!

 

Ian is the greatest.
Kondo!

 

This is even more intense than the Akihabara district in Tokyo. I mean you have everything condensed into one building. Tremendous!

 

Wow! ...

I'd have sensory overload/'retail glaze' so bad just walking around in there, I'd never be able to do any actual shopping for gear. Compared to Asia, North America doesn't care for high fidelity at all. I wonder if there's that many dedicated audio shops on the entire West Coast! I now have the answer to the question I always ponder when looking at ads and websites for the thousands of companies making fine hifi: who buys all this stuff??

 

I spent a few happy hours in the Adelphi mall back in 2017 - picked up a few nice records and enjoyed looking at the hifi set-ups. One of the best parts of my visit but I lived close to it I would be skint!

 

Wow. Interesting that there's such an apparently thriving high street demand for it anywhere. Nice to see all those British brands too.

Must have missed than when passing through a few years ago (but do recall how weirdly hard it was to get some jeans that fitted... 'only' a 32" waist but it took ages to find any large enough...).

 

More quality Hi-Fi stores in one building than you can find in entire sections of the United States.

 

Ian is a great guy. I'd love to visit Singapore someday and check the Adelphi Mall.

 

a couple things that blew me away-

1) Brick and mortar mall of exclusively audio related merchandise that is thriving yet in US even the mainstream merchandising malls are rapidly becoming extinct.
2) NOS tubes! In a mall. I live in the third largest metro area in the US and can't purchase NOS tubes cash and carry.
3) Brand representation and available stock! Nearly every conceivable low, mid and high end brand appeared to be represented- and many stores had lots of stock ready to sell! Even brands like D'Agostino amplifiers!

 

Jeff you'd be disappointed to know that the four floors have moved out of adelphi!

 

Orchard Towers (AKA the Four Floors of Whores) has never moved from its Orchard Road location - across from the Hilton Singapore (to the front) and kitty corner to Muddy Murphy's Irish Pub.

If it ever does, I'll need to write a follow-up in my upcoming (some time) second book of short stories based on my life and travels: Most of These Stories Are Somewhat True Too!

In the meantime I encourage you to read the first one.

Jeff

 

Apologies for the late reply, you made some very interesting observations, not being in debt is certainly a key to be able to afford things, the problem is that lot people are in debt because they buy things they can't really afford, it's a paradox of a sort i guess, also staying single helps, having kids changes everything.

Anyway, that mall is audio nirvana and Ian is the sweetest, i just love his accent and body language, he's a celeb audiophile

 

It tells me that in Singapore, people have good priorities. They don't buy sound-bars and bluetooth speakers or crosley and sonos...the stuff that backward cultures aspire to.

 

LOL
Ain't it the truth!!

 

From my visits to that wonderful city-state I think the reality is somewhere in between: those that have the money will buy higher end stuff and those that don't will be no different than anywhere else.

There are however other indicators that point to a society/culture that is indeed much less "backwards" than most. Over the years I've developed what I call the "Idiot Index." It's easy to calculate / measure. Just go into any bookstore and measure the number of display feet of books for sale on the subject of "religion" (could be Bibles or other such books, religious literature, faith, spirituality, etc.) and then do the same for the "science" (include engineering, architecture, etc.) section. Divide the former by the latter. A low number is good (according to me). I've done this in dozens and dozens (and dozens) of cities around the world, but mostly in North America. Canada fairs pretty well. More northern/eastern US cities are so-so. As you get down south, and into the deep south, it's not uncommon to find an Idiot Index of 20, or even 40. (I once had one in Orlando Florida pegged at infinity, since it carried absolutely no books on science; and that store wasn't even labeled "Christian" - just a regular Waldenbooks.) But to get back to Singapore, I never found one that even approached 1, from the zero side of the spectrum! 0.1 or 0.05 was not atypical. And to see parents, sitting huddled in the store aisles with their kids, not reading kids' books to them, but rather passages from science books, and mathematics, and economics...brought a tear to my eye!

Jeff

 

Who are you to judge? Idiot index? Wow. Without judging or demonizing you I find your post tasteless and appalling.
Calling people idiots from a backwards culture because they wish to pursue due diligence about their purpose and what may be for them beyond this life? I think you have your ratio reversed. Nothing more perplexing than an atheist scientist who struggles his entire life to try and unravel and decode the infinite complexities of the world.
The fact is that the collective output of the brightest scientific geniuses in the history of the world barely scratches the surface- they are in full guessing game mode. Yet somehow they cling to the idea that it all happened by random chance. You tell me who the idiot are.

 

I don't think you understand science. It is not a guessing game. The idea that answers would be found in fantastical books about non-existent people and events is uh...

 

not in the least bit perplexing to rational people...

 

lol, this thread will/should probably get deleted--