Auralic out of business?

Indeed as A British Audiophile posted, "Auralic ceasing trading makes me question the viability of high-end streaming. What does Lumin have to offer to ensure it’s survival?" 

So he reviewed the Lumin U2 Mini. 

He mentioned he regularly talks to dealers and distributors and global sales of high end audio are simply not good, so the issue is globally, you can’t blame the U.S. tariffs on that, or at least not all of it. 

Other manufacturers are successfully navigating the changing landscape of tariffs, so what happened to Auralic might be more of their own fault or own internal decisions. 

But it is interesting and a bit scary that as he mentioned, the question is whether small niche manufacturers can sell enough product to make staying in business viable. 

For every 1000 Bluesound Nodes or WiiM Ultras sold, maybe 3 (that’s a guess) higher end streamers are sold, I would at least contemplate. 

With Auralic, Lumin, Innuos, and Volumio's Rivo being the "high end", I see mentioned on this forum most of the time, are there any others? I’d sure like a look at their balance sheets to see how healthy they are. 

Competition is a good thing, pushing manufacturers to innovate and offer more for our money as time goes forward, but the market for anything is only so big. Not everyone coming to the table to sell things will make it. 

It is similar in the rocket launch business. Right now, SpaceX, ULA, Blue Origin, and RocketLabUSA are the main providers, along with some offerings by the Indians and Japanese at competitive prices. But in the background, there are numerous startup providers trying to get into the game. But how large is the launch services market and can they go up against the established providers? 

Just as with high end audio, time will tell. 

 

Miss managed with no succession plan.  DOOMED from day one. 

lol who would’ve thought the overpriced streamer company will be in trouble... they’re not doing anything Wiim and the rest aren’t doing

@kofibaffour I find that Wiim and Bluesound are total junk (my opinion and based on experience). Actually the well managed higher-end  companies are doing quite well, Innuos, Aurender, Antpodes, Grimm just to name a few. @moonwatcher the 1000 to 3 remark is hilarious, but consider the source. 

@foggyus91 I had heard the gist of it being that too: Auralic was not managed well, and when the old guy decided to do something different, well, they just couldn't transition to another paradigm of operation. 

Hopefully your opinion on how the rest of the high-end usual suspects are doing is true. 

But I have the WiiM Ultra and it is not junk at all, at least not at its price point of $329. It sounds to me as good as my friend's older Node X, if not better. And I can always buy a better DAC and use it as just a steamer or repurpose it for use in another room. In any event it is better than all the Raspberry Pi builds people were so excited about 4 or 5 years ago, so there is that. 

Then you have the fact that these large tech companies behind the WiiM and Node can put together great software to pair with their "so-so" devices, and it is that user experience that keeps people coming back. 

For use in systems costing say around $10K, a WiiM Ultra is a nice match. No one with a $10K system is going to spend $4K on a streamer/DAC, and even if they did, the system likely wouldn't resolve enough difference to justify the expense.

For a lot of 20 to 30-somethings getting into decent audio, a WiiM Ultra (or Node Nano) is a good gateway drug.  Hopefully as they move up the ladder to better systems, they will indeed upgrade to better streamers. 

At the end of the day, before I pop $2K to $4K for a streamer/DAC, I would like to know how the company I'm buying into is doing financially. {Actually, I'd rather spend $2K on a good streamer and buy my own DAC}.

No one wants to end up like those Fisker owners with a $61K vehicle they can't drive once they lose software connectivity because the company has gone belly up. 

And yes the 1000 to 3 was just a wild guess, but how many products do Aurender, Innuos, and Grimm actually move? Is that information available to anyone outside the companies? Or is their profit margin high enough at their higher prices that they can sell just a few and stay in business?