The death of ultra hiend audio


Verity and DarTzeel last year, now MBL, ultra high end audio manufacturers are facing their demise and they have nobody but themselves to blame. What do these companies have in common: too much investment in creating the very best and when that fails raising their prices bottom up to recover their losses and inevitably charging 2x what the same product cost just a few years ago. Ego, greed and poor management can only result in one thing!

hiendmmoe

The used market is a diverse thing. Vintage silver-face used gear is having its moment, selling for multiples of its MSRP in the 70's. This is a select slice of the market, attractive equipment with vintage slide rule tuners, balance, bass and treble adjustments, and enough auxiliary inputs to accept a modern DAC and streamer and a tuner preamp and one or two headphone jacks. Of course these were upper end of a mass-market brand production, not modern ultra high-end used gear which is priced very differently. Who can say how much longer any of that will last. Gear made in the 1980s and later is vulnerable to repair/replacement parts unavailability as ICs become obsolete and salvage parts become scarce. I suspect that except for brands like McIntosh and similar well-supported legacy brands, much of that period gear will be recycled and not restored. I once bought a legacy Luxman receiver, the ones with the Lucite panel buttons and the motorized receding faceplate. Even once-expensive gear like that couldn't find a market to service it.

Then there is the possibility of loss of whole technologies to factors yet unknown. Vacuum tubes are one of those technologies vulnerable to shifts in production even now. Imagine a future where power consumption of every household device might be sharply controlled and products like inefficient and heat-producing amplifiers might be heavily taxed or even outlawed. A desperate world where warming becomes an existential reality that cannot be ignored may impose such bans.

High end is a joke now but they deserve to fail as the market is full of stupidity glad I’ve enjoyed it and will continue to enjoy it since age 12 and now I’m 69 and have spent north of 1 million and had the pleasure of co-authoring a biography about the great PAUL KLIPSCH.

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but I find the topic fascinating.

Different people have different goals.

My category is best sound possible in an analog-only chain without spending ridiculous amounts of cash or going into debt.

The situation presents a great opportunity for boutique small shops - in many cases, experienced engineers building to order in their own workshops.  Why does a product need to be mass produced in a large factory?  Some names to throw out: Sutherland Engineering, HiFi Gem, Pear Audio, Well Tempered Labs.

Yes, you will pay a bit more, but not the kinds of prices mentioned earlier here.  And you are buying not just a product, but for craftsmanship, for a relationship and an engineering philosophy -- part of what makes this hobby appealing.