The Hub: Just how bad is it in high end audio?


A warning: those seeking heart-warming anecdotes and mindless cheer to accompany their morning coffee should perhaps save this piece for later in the day. Following our last Hub entry concerning the closing of high end audio's best-known dealer, Sound by Singer, we will take a look at the big picture in the audio industry... and it ain't pretty. Think bartender, not barista.

In past entries of The Hub, we've discussed the origins of the audio industry, some of its giants, and the glory days of the '50's through the '80's. Sad to say, these days are not those days.

Why is that? In addition to the societal factors that have diminished the importance of hi-fi, general economic trends have taken their toll on the high end.

Consider: Since the crash of the sub-prime mortgage market in 2007, 1 in 50 homes in America has gone into foreclosure. Blue chip companies like GM and Chrysler have gone into bankruptcy. Reports of major corporations slashing tens of thousands of jobs have become almost commonplace. Car sales are down to record low levels. Housing sales are almost nonexistent in many major markets. Is it any surprise that sales of big-ticket items like high end audio components are also way down?

The question is not IF sales of new audio gear are down, but HOW MUCH they're down. Oddly enough, coming up with an accurate assessment of the damage to the high end audio marketplace is surprisingly difficult.

At $175 billion/year, the consumer electronics industry constitutes one of the largest and most robust sectors of the economy, as seen in this Consumer Electronics Association press release. However, the CEA also reports that sales of component audio have dropped from $1.3 billion/year in the US five years ago to about $0.9 billion/year today. So: in the US, the audio industry makes up a mere one-half of one percent of the $175 billion consumer electronics marketplace. What the average audiophile would consider high end makes up a fraction of that fraction.

In addition to being just a small crumb from the crust of the consumer electronics pie, the scale of the high end is difficult to ascertain due to the nature of the companies in the industry. Quite a few high end manufacturers with a worldwide reputation and presence have fewer than a dozen employees. Some are larger than that, but many more are even smaller, 2- or 3-man operations. Nearly all audio manufacturers are privately held, and thus are not required to report their sales or staffing. Nearly all are small enough to escape the attention of the Bureau of Labor Statistics or the Bureau of the Census, which compile most of the data regarding American manufacturers.

What about audio retailers? As is true of manufacturers, most dealerships are small and privately owned. Knowing that Best Buy has an astonishing 180,000 employees and exceeds $49 billion in sales tells us less than nothing about Bob's Hi-Fi in Winnibigosh. There's almost no hard data available on independent audio dealers, but few say that they're doing well.

As we become inured to reports of disasters in the economy, individual happenings tend to be forgotten. To refresh our memories, here are some key events in the reshaping of the consumer electronics marketplace. Not all these companies were directly involved in audio, much less high end audio, but are still relevant to our discussion:

January, 2009:
Circuit City closes its remaining 567 stores. 34,000 employees lose their jobs.

January, 2009:
Bose lays off 1,000 employees, about 10% of its workforce.

April, 2009:
Ritz Camera closes 300 stores.

February, 2010:
55-year-old D.C.-area A/V chain MyerEmco closes all seven of its stores.

April, 2010:
D & M Holdings shuts down its Snell and Escient brands.

May, 2010:
Movie Gallery closes 1,906 Movie Gallery, Hollywood Video and Game Crazy stores. Over 19,000 jobs are lost.

June, 2010:
Ken Crane's, a 62-year-old California A/V chain, closes the six stores remaining of what had been a ten store chain. 75 workers lose jobs.

Clearly, times are tough. The best available data indicates sales in the audio industry have fallen off by at least one-third, over the past few years. Many working in the business feel the drop has been far greater than that. One manufacturer puts it very plainly: "a lot of the dealers and manufacturers are zombies. They're dead; they just don't know it yet."

A dealer with decades of experience puts it even more brutally: "The best we can hope for is death, for a lot of the manufacturers and dealers. Maybe then we could get some sensible people who don't hide their heads in the sand."

Our next entry of The Hub will review some of the changes audio dealers and manufacturers are making in order to survive in today's challenging marketplace. We will also talk with folks in the industry who see signs of a turnaround, and are working to bring in a new generation of audiophiles. The question we leave with this time is: "What do we do now?"
audiogon_bill
"What do we do now?"

We focus on new opportunities and learn new ways of exposing people to quality music systems.

One suggestion I have is to stop using the term "High End". That term turns a lot of people away.
Part of it is the downturn in the economy but this is magnified by changes in technology, a shift in how people consume music and the more effective marketing strategy that has accompanied that shift. I see a wide variety of people still consuming music but they do so via a pair of earbuds and a very portable source. The marketing consists of selling people individual songs where the price is small and more importantly reducing the space necessary to listen to music of your choice. That plus the competition from big box stores is pretty much the death knell for most of high end audio. Many high end stores sold not only speakers and amplifiers but also televisions and the number of tv sales plus small unobstrusive 5 channel speaker systms far outstripped the number of amplifier and high end speakers. The problem was that it is impossible to compete with the big box stores in that arena. Space, or rather the lack of it, makes the newer technology systems more and more attractive. You can hang your TV on the wall and take up virtually no space, your portable music player and earbuds take up next to no space. It is not just music but rather music listening has merely been fit into the new paradigm. People have also greatly reduced the number of books they buy - buy it on an electronic reader and you do not need a wall of bookshelves to keep a collection. This is coming from someone who has walls of books, still purchases CDs, and does not own a portable music player so I obviously like the old ways. I do not believe that "hi end" audio will go away completely, but it will likely not make a big comeback.