Americans and Hi-Fi
“From 2000 to 2009, Americans reduced their overall spending on home stereo components by more than a third, …”
Stupid Americans.
Neli and I talked it over a little, and after thinking more about it later, I think that this is not true for say:
Europe: Growth with Eastern Europe coming on the scene with their need for hi-fi bliss counter-balanced by a likely decline in the U.K. [it is my opinion that the world imitates the U.S., including and maybe especially our bad habits – like not worshiping high-fidelity – and especially countries most like us].
Japan? I would suspect treading water as their economy stagnates.
China: Incredible growth. Hong Kong: a decline from the great heights that once were.
Russia. Steady growth as capitalistic populism gains ground.
This is just speculation. Comments? Many Europeans, for example 🙂 think that the U.S. is just one big pot of gold. It is, but only if you are selling somethin’ that fits on a shelf in Wallmart 😉
It would be interesting to know how that decline broke down year to year. I suspect quite a lot of it came in the last couple of years. How did spending in other categories trend over that same time? There’s also increased competition for disposable income (and time) from the Interwebs over that same time. An intriguing, almost hypnotic collection of tricksy tubes, it is.
Is there any investigation behind your speculation on trends across the rest of the planet?
Worshiping hifi isn’t the point of hifi everywhere or for everyone. Oddly, sales of at least some high end gear turns out to be based on appreciation of music and that gear sells well in the places where people are nuts about music.
Lastly, the fact that much of high end audio sounds like angry insects at war with malfunctioning industrial machinery can’t be helping sales . . . .
Good questions. You could write the NY Times and ask them.
My speculations are based on the readily observable 1st and 2nd derivatives (we are not talking about 1 or 2% here) of the size of the market on the one hand and market penetration on the other.
I do indeed think high fidelity (hifi) is a Good Thing – but worship implies blind faith and fanatical anger at people who do not agree with one’s personal own interpretation of fidelity (or, more often, of some obscure nit only partially related to fidelity). One of the central points of this blog is to present the case that worshiping any aspect of hifi is Bad, and Listening is Good.
“… angry insects…” 🙂 we thought this was hilarious! How true!
And, as a followup, this New York Times article is also being talked about on Audiogon (hey! I was looking for something else… actually, Audiogon Bill’s posts and whether they were collected together or not):
Death of high end audio
which is only interesting, to me, as a view into what audiophiles are thinking about the future, or lack thereof, of their own hobby.
Easy answer to an easy question. Manufacturers need to make, and more importantly MARKET electronics that the masses can afford. Who in the world is going to purchase a pair of $350,000.00 Coltrane Supreme speakers?? I mean if I had the cash I would. MARKET to the MASSES at prices the MASSES can AFFORD !! This is not rocket science my friends.
But I think this is not working [see my Doom and Gloom post].
The masses have a LOT to choose from now. But are they buying it up? Talk to college students these days. How many have, or even want, a stereo?
It is precisely this low end that is designed to appeal to the general public that is dying. Why? Because the general public is not interested in hifi. So making more products for them is a waste of money and effort.
As a guess I would say there are 20+ or so h-fi iPod stations available – from a couple $100 to a couple $1000. I do not see a lot of people getting rich off these.
[However, if Apple maed a stereo, then the younger generation would buy millions the first month and the audiophile industry would become rich off of the renewed interest in the hobby. Not saying that young people are lemmings when it comes to Apple, but… :-)]
Audiophiles are still interested in hifi and they still buy hifi. At all price levels. And from what I see for every one of us that dies we get a new young audiophile who really wants what he or she can’t yet afford [like the rest of us old timers – I’ll post Mike & Neli’s wish list sometime].
Anyway, that is how I am seeing things these days.
Definitely a lot of people see it like you do – especially some manufacturers and reviewers. But dealers typically do not – otherwise they would be carrying a lot of inexpensive gear. But they don’t. They can’t sell enough of it to have it make ROI sense. The ones that try it anyway go out of business [Circuit City for example. And yes, Amazon and Music Direct, etc. take some of the blame as well].
My 2 cents…
Take care,
Mike