"With the exception of Levinson, Martin and to a degree B&W it is all mid-fi brands."
Pretty dismissive and elitist attitude.
Harman To Acquire B&W, Denon, Polk And Marantz From Masimo In $350 Million Deal
just saw the above announcement--of particular note is that masimo paid over a billion for the same brands just a few years ago. not sure whether harman will add any value--they've neither hurt nor helped revel or arcam--or what this move indicates about the consumer audio market generally, but this doesn't bode well for the future.
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@llg98ljk that is to be expected in a space that think it is a big thing when we’re a niche within a niche. To put how small we’re as a subset of audio, AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 3, and AirPods Max alone gave Apple almost 22 billion in revenue for 2024 Apple could’ve bought All of so-called Hi-Fi, Mid-Fi and Lo-Fi companies in our little pocket of audio and all they have to use is revenue from 2024 alone But hey let us keep arbitrary metrics up |
The only items I own in the list is some vintage JBL drivers out of some beaten up cabs.....'mid-fi' for them, LE-08's, 'empty' cabs with minimal padding, no internal structure...got the interior dimensions, everything including the ports.... No, I won't 'Walsh' them....I have some scruples...;) I do wonder who bailed Ohm out when they went up for sale....but I've my own variants on the pedigree, and don't mind being Jack v. the Giant..... "Practical Art Objects"....signed and limited to the versions produced. Sue me...win Nothing. Empty victories stink... ;) |
Shrinking values in a shrinking universe of HiFi (and MidFi) brands. Even the cornerstone legacy brands are suffering. I think that a peculiar alchemy of lost creativity (including sucky music), lowering competencies, really cheap electronics prices, declining disposable income of those under 50 and pretty darn good sound out of AirPods, Beats and wireless boom boxes has made the last generation (or 2) of consumers unwilling to matriculate into bespoke gear. I read somewhere (sorry I can't recall where) that the average age of high end stereo buyers is 57 years old. If true, the guys that buy the stuff we all love here on the AG forum are soon to be unable to hear well, and then dead. Anecdotally I see HiFi shops that managed to stay open moving to home theater to stay alive as their $10,000 to $20,000 separates sales are not covering the overhead. It appears that only the really large city/ rich areas have Hifi shops now. Additionally I see used gear on HiFiShark being marked down pretty substantially of the seller needs it gone. Overpriced gear sits on there for months/years. The same thing is happening to pre 1960 automobiles. The last Goodwood auction was awful for vintage Rollers, MGs, Triumphs, etc. The only cars catching a bid were early 1980s and later Ferraris and other hand-built exotics. There are exceptions which do not invalidate the generalization. Of course this is just 1 man's observation.
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