What's going on with the audio market?


Recent retail sales reports are very bad and I am hearing that sales for audio equipment have been nonexistent over the past few months.  I also see more dealers putting items up for sale here and on other outlets.  Even items that have traditionally sold quickly here are expiring without being sold. 

To what would you attribute the slowdown?  Have you changed your buying habits for audio equipment and, if so, why? 
theothergreg
If you were to look inside the gear sold today and see the parts quality used for the prices asked, assuming you know about electronics and parts, you would begin to feel as sick as I do about the industry.  No reason for the prices charged on many high end pieces.  No reason other than only a relative few of us will ever buy this stuff. I can no longer support this dying model as I have decided to enable it no longer. 

$1 resistors and $10 capacitors in $15,000 speakers and on and on! 

Again, I know we have exceptions, but we need open our eyes as we are being charged ridiculous prices for what is actually inside the gear. Yes, including R&D etc... 

We do have some  companies selling nice sounding gear for reasonable prices like Emotiva and others. These are genuine great values that we should take notice of and there are others. 


I can't speak to the initial post question cause I haven't a clue.. I'm a 72 year old oxy-moron... Retired musician. Since the late 1960s I've always had a meat and potatoes system. Kenwood, Sansui, Pioneer, Yamaha, Marantz or Onkyo.. with Braun 810s and Thorens TD 125 Mark something (I forget the rest). Upgraded over the years to more audiophile stuff when CDs came into being.. When I turned 70 and discovered SACD I had a realization.. I have a ton of available credit. My present debt will never get paid in my lifetime. I'll make my payments, but never finish. I decided who cares. Call it all the interest paid over 50 years. I was thinking, after standing in front of Marshalls on 11 for 50 years, Why would I wanna wait until I'm wearing a thousand dollar hearing aid to listen to $18,000 speakers. So I took the plunge. Not a hobby, but a one time top line system buy. Spent $40,000 plus of the banks money. I'm talkin' just 3 pieces. Integrated amp, sacd player and speakers. S*#t, I spent more on cables than I ever did on any single piece of electronics or speakers in my life. I've never ever heard music as I'm hearing now. So the point is if you are over 70 you have more 'disposable' income than you think. Just charge it. don't worry about interest. just make your payments, enjoy your music and then eventually die. Simple. Of course you can't do this at 50 or 65 years old. You'd have too much time left. But at 70? Do the life math. Who cares. 
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