Is Hi-fi getting more expensive?


When I first get into high end audio in 2003, $3000 can buy you a very good cd player. Now $3000 just get you started. All of sudden, most of the major high end cable companies all ask $10,000.00+ for their top of the line speaker cables. The economy is bad but you don’t see high end audio getting cheaper. The entry ticket to Hi-Fi is getting more expensive and Hi-fi is getting far away from average people.

I guess the reason is that if the economy is bad, less people buy high end audio. So companies have to charge more for each unit to cover their development cost, and even fewer people will buy their equipment. This will be a vicious cycle that never ends. I think some company should cut the price by 50% to break the cycle. I know there is lots of pressure for companies not to follow the price trend when one cable company list its cable for $10,000+. If you don’t follow it, people might think you cable is not as good as the high price tag cable. But if you cut unit price by half, your sale volume can go up to make up your lower price. Volume is important. Windows 7 is more complex and powerful than Sooloos, but why Windows 7 is $200 while Sooloos charge yoy $10,000? You can also look at computers, they are always getting faster and powerful while still keep at the same price point or cheaper. Once other companies see the benefits, they will join it too. Pioneer and Sony are not incapable of making great audio gear, they just choose not to because of the tiny market size. If big companies like Pioneer or Sony see there is a big market for high end audio, they will come and join the game.

I feel Hi-Fi almost double its price from 2003-2009.We really need some companies to take the first step(cutting the price) to break the vicious cycle. Now these days more people are listen to compressed music like MP3/ipod. We really need to find a way to attract more people to good quality audio to benefit all of us, otherwise we all lose in the end.

This might be my wishful/unrealistic thinking. People are welcome to share their thought.
yxlei

Showing 5 responses by macrojack

I'm sorry, Tvad. Remember that you chose that time zone yourself though. It's 10:30 in N.Y.
Anybody ever consider the homonym exploited in the Laffer Curve?
Barons and serfs, guys. That's where we're headed. The middle class that rose with labor unions has suffered as a result of their elimination.
Manufacturers of high end electronics have to sell to barons because the serfs can only buy mass market stuff, if anything. The number of potential customers is down but the barons can and will buy things that they perceive to be beyond the reach of the rabble. Pandering to them is the key to survival.

The problem we may encounter when we see great deals on previously unaffordable goods, will lie in being unable to sell what we want to replace.
High end audio is getting more expensive with every breath you take. 30 years ago when many of us got involved, the ultimate speaker system might have been obscenely expensive at $2500. Today, after wages have crept up slightly, the dream equipment is beyond dreaming - it is unimagineable. Working people could dream about buying $2500 speakers when they made $400/week. Now they make $1000/wk. and the state of the art speaker is $150,000.
Do you see any change in those numbers?

The carrot is being dangled so far out in front of us that it no longer seems to be within reach - not even within dreaming reach.

Our economy has been propped up for years by cheap foreign goods and consumer credit. These factors have lost some of their corrective ability in the last couple of years and audio has felt the crunch. It's still a great hobby but new goods are not much of a value these days. There's just too much opportunity to get your fix from the used market.
The reason that audio manufacturers all want to offer a Statement piece for a bazillion dollars is the same reason why people went to Sutter's Mill, buy lottery tickets or recorded anybody who had a band in the sixties. They all want to strike it rich. Maybe that $60,000 preamp will be the next Beatles or the lucky number or the "Eureka!!!" hole in the ground.
There is no justification for these prices other than the fact that people who work on Wall Street can afford and will buy them. In this age, where discrimination is frowned upon by the courts, these people are eager to feel discriminating, even if they are nothing but wealthy. Money, in and of itself, is not very rewarding so it is hoped that spending it might be. And if spending some feels good spending a lot more should feel a lot better. Right?