State of the Hi-Fi nation?

There's an interesting thread over on the wam about dealers and the future of hi-fi:

http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread.php?50962-It-s-not-just-dealers..it-is-greedy-old-us

I noticed Keith has contributed. I was wondering what you folks think?

Could Audiosmile produce an affordable active speaker for the kidz ipods/pads that would blow away the competition in the apple i store?

 

There's not much new on this thread. Dealers are struggling, in no small part by their own hand. Hi-fi is not trendy anymore and few people with their original hair colour are interested in it these days.

A load of people saying 'what they need to do is...' (which basically means 'what they need to do is make things that I like, only cheaper') with no real direction.

There's a lot of this going on in the UK right now, and not just in hi-fi. My barber summed it up perfectly; "Business was dreadful last year, but fortunately 2011 looks like being much worse!"

 

Affordable in terms of what most kids/teens could afford, sadly not.

Product going into that market is mass produced in low wage labour markets. High volume sales and what is regarded as adequate, but not excellent performance are the dominant factors.

if you shift the goalposts and say affordable as in entry level audiophile, perhaps yes though that still remains difficult.
Companies like Cambridge Audio, some of the IAG brands and perhaps one or two others such as Arcam might succeed.

Very small companies really need to identify a niche and be focussed - go for all-out quality in a particular area and, well it costs what it needs to cost in order to compete and ensure that the company remains viable.

 

Apple are beginning to stock some HiFi other than iPod docks, perhaps there is a slim hope that some Ikids wil grow into decent sound!
Keith.

 

To build a pair of cheap but not too bad active speakers one would need:

Amp PCB x2 - £2
Stereo amp chip x2 - £10
Op-amp for filters x2 - £2
Caps, resistors, etc.. - £3
Power supply - £8
Connectors - £3
Cabinet x2 - £20
Tweeters and woofers x2 - £30

Total built cost ~ £80 Now I need some profit So do the distributors and retailers.

 

The thing is, a really good iPod dock - and some do have meaty amps and decent diameter speakers fitted - sounds pretty good for about £100-200.
Doesn't do stereo but does that actually matter to the target market?
They actually compare very well with the cheaper mini audio systems of the 90s, the big CD based boomboxes of the 80s and the cassette bases equivalents of the 70s.

A really nice dock can beat them, and the horrid small record players if go go back a couple of decades.

I confess to buying a Sony iPod dock for my Sister this Christmas. She loves it andI was pretty shocked that it went loud, stayed clean and actually had bass!

 

These look good though, I know the guy who engineered the BMR drivers.- http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/content.php?COID=242

 

+ your time + the need to build hundreds and perhaps thousands in one go!
So add a workforce, the associated salaries, premises, costs of regulatory compliance, finance, marketing etc.

 

Oh, they got those out pretty quickly!

 

These do look good indeed but a basic 2.1 setup costs £350 and that doesn't include an amp; I think Cambridge has missed a trick here.

What about being the best at a more modest price? More challenging yes, but adding constraints encourages creative thinking!

I'm not suggesting go into low-end mass production. But what about using a more budget friendly model for marketing purposes? If you can impress young people with kit they can afford then some of them may end up buying your best kit later.

Or would building budget be bad for marketing of hi-end products, snob value and all that?

 

I think we really have to define the budget.
I'd say <£500 rrp forget it.
£500-£1000 rrp - perhaps if you could sell decent numbers and generate enough cash to build them quickly and reliably.

 

There's the Quad 11L Studio Active and the 12L Active.

I thought they had been discontinued, but they are still on the website

http://www.quad-hifi.co.uk/ranges.php?sector_id=2&range_id=5

And there is the cheaper and smaller 9L which is powered rather than a true active, but has its own DAC.

There's the near field monitors from music stores which look horrid, and there's AVIs offering.

Some of these boxes look cheap for HiFi but expensive for consumer electronics.

But as already said an iPod dock can beat a 1960s Dansette Record Player by a significant margin.

And so can my Squeezebox Boom.

Where does the industry go?

 

I went to see the Mechanic yesterday, film not the guy who fitted my new engine. Pride of place in the main characters house, project 9, with samba red, and some integrated amp. It was a reference point several times in the film and even ended up being the trigger for a booby trap.

Of course their was lovely music being played as well, it was well presented, as good an in film hifi advert ad as I've seen. What we need is much more of this, at all levels, brands showing people enjoying accessible hifi if they want to fight the downward spiral.

 

I could agree more, this is the sort of thing the industry should be working towards; making hi fi aspirational

 

i am interested to receive an answer to this, some of you out there seam to be either unhappy at the price of hi-fi either made here "very few i must say" but demand that hi-fi not only should be cheaper but must have extra facilities to match your demands of this digital era, why then you make your own? kit's amps, spkrs and so forth, then when you have wasted all your moneys on r&d and found that to make your money back the price you thought of £100.00 now has to sell for £1000.00, pay staff, supply on demand, promote the products, give dealer marging so he and his sales staff a living, not to mention rent, electricity etc..etc. my advice is make your own.

 

visions of the future in the real hi-fi enthusiast two channel my thoughts is more people will go nostalgic towards vintage units,

 

Unfortunately, you don't get product placement unless it is germane to the plot or you have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on getting 'eyes' on your product.

There are a couple of directors who wanted some high-end hi-fi in the past, and this goes to explain why there is a flipper Nakamichi in 9 1/2 Weeks, Sonic Frontiers and Audiostatics in Philadelphia and so on. Now, the marketing people get in first. Which is why you used to get a lot of Apple products, a lot of Nikon, Pepsi, Sony and Omega product placement.

 

I honestly think that due to the 'internet boom' dealers are struggling.

Example: I have currently got £1000 to spend on a pair of speakers. If I go to my loval dealer he'll offer me Kef Q700's or B&W's CM7. If I look online, I'm finding JM Labs Electra 926's for £800, Ruark Crusaders for £600, Kef Reference models for under £500 on occasion.

There's just no way some people (like myself) can justify buying new, when such quality can be had in the used market. Many dealers could make a good few £££'s by spending time on classified sites/ebay and picking up the bargains (Seen a pair of Mission 782's going for £102 last week!).