A Hi-Fi Purchasing Theory?

Evening all,
As we all seem pretty open about this sort of thing, I was hoping I might be able to get some feedback on a theory of hi-fi purchasing I've been thinking about for a while.
Basically, it goes like this. In the US, it's all about money and showing off. People who don't realy care about music buy $100,000 systems to listen to nothing but 'Jazz at the Pawn Shop' and 'Famous Blue Raincoat', because they have $million houses, $megabuck cars, and see it as another thing to prop up their fragile egos. People like this fall into two categories:
1. The 'don't give a damners' - they'll but the top of the range Krell or similar system, chop out components as soon as they're replaced with a 'better' model, but be generally totally averse to anything technical.
2. The 'audio-tweak-freaks' - people who sped $485 on a volume knob, because their search for ever greater levels of fidelity (and show-offishness) have been taken over by an obsession about the stupidest levels of high-fidelity (seeing if your imaging is so good you can count the number of nasal hairs Miles Davis has).

However, in the UK there is a different trend driving the second type of consumers. Really, it could be called the 'grey factor'. I see the perfect example of this in my (dearly beloved and all the rest) grandfather, who convinced himself he needed a new TV, went to the local electrical suppliers who convinced him he needed the 2K top of the range jobbie. He brought it, got them to plug it in and everything. Now, he could have saved £400 if he'd told us, because one of us would have ordered it online. More than that, however, he told the installers he didn't need all the additional speakers because they'd only clutter up the place, and he only switches the built in "woofer on during Songs of Praise, we don't want all that bass the rest of the time".
Now, I see a similar thing with Russ Andrews. I don't know, but I'd be willing to bet the demographics of his average customer is rather old and with a rather chunky pension / savings. They recieve the catalogue and see that XYZ component will massively increase their fidelity, so they buy it, and then convince themselves they hear a benefit commensurate to the cost. Reading the letters of praise in the magazine would seem to bear this out, the language is that of the older generation. Does anyone have anything to back up/ refute my claim that, in essence, the main buyers of stuff from mail order companies like HiFiForSale and Russ Andrews is retired old men, probably putting Kimber Select and Torlyte isolation platforms on their Audiolab 8000A's?
Simon

 

Interesting hypothosis Simon, I don't have any evidence to back up your claim, although I feel more than a hint of turth in there sir. Wm

 

I didn't think he had nasal hair. Didn't he have a man come see him twice a week to sort out that situation

or the anally retentive

 

:lol:

Classic!

I'm sure not all americans are only after good kit as an ego prop. Sounds as good a stereotype as any though

 

Well Simon, IMHO, maybe a simple rule that can be applied here for the "tweak freaks"is if the tweak really works, then they are no freaks.
Just about the same thing for Russ Andrews: he's a businessman and he sells products. He'd make some claims about his products, whether they are true or not, that's for anybody to freely decide. That's why IMO, he's honest enough to offer a trial period.

As for the grey factor, IMO, if you have lots of cash to burn and have only a few more years to live after having spent most of your time trying to earn them, what would be the best way to spend them? I guess on whatever would float your boat
just to make the most of your remaining time. Besides, it's also what money is for :make our grandpas and grandmas retire in comfort and be happy

regards

 

The Americans have more money, bigger houses and better hifi, so what... :SLEEP:

 

The americans also have bigger egos, bigger gun crime and a smaller grip on reality!!

 

And a one-track minded sense of purpose and mission which sometimes makes it dangerous for other people's interest.

 

OK, all that, but why bother with their hifi purchasing criteria, we also have show-off brands, B&O, Naim, B&W, etc...

 

Tag McLaren

:duck:

 

I forgot that one...

 

there was a travel program on telly last night (BBC) with a chunky yank and his campervan. It had everything; home cinema, reclining beds, Mickey Mouse pllows the lot. It was worth $1.3million, according to the well-fed, shameless owner.


This sort of image of Americans can only help reinforce a foreigners perception that they are consuming loonies, hell bent on oil and burgers.

 

I spent over two years travelling Africa, Asia, Australia, India and Indonesia amongst other places. I never realised how universally disliked the Americans really were. In Asian countries, where manners, politeness and general quietness of nature were the norm the yanks stood out like a sore thumb. Loud, brash and always moaning. It made me laugh when I met a bunch of Canadians that had the maple leaf flag stitched on their bags. I asked them if they really were that patriotic and they replied “no, it's so we don't get mistaken for Americans†(made me chuckle)

I also lived with a great American guy in a shared house in Sydney. He didn't realise, until he had travelled and spent time with other nationalities, just how self obsessed and naïve Americans are.
I remember having a big discussion with him about how, in baseball, it can be called the World Series when only American teams were involved. Even he conceded that most Americans view America and it policies as 'the World'

Another guy I travelled with in Vietnam was in tears when we went to the War museum in Saigon. He couldn't believe, how even now, the horrors of the Vietnam war are still told one sided, and what's more, most Americans believed the hype.

Don't quite know how this relates to this thread, but in defence of some individuals, not all Americans should be tarred with the same feathers as the Nation as a whole. I just wish more Americans would escape the clutch of Uncle Sam and spread their wings and see that they are a small part of a bigger picture.

IMHO.
Greg