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Audiogon and the Hi-Fi Mags

As a longtime reader of both TAS and Stereophile, I do not recall ever having seen any discussion in either of those magazines about Audiogon and its impact on the two-channel audio business.

To me, Audiogon is by far the biggest story in high-end audio in the last ten years. If it is in fact the case that the two main hi-fi rags have never discussed the advent of Audiogon and its impact on the industry even casually, let alone do an article or feature piece on it, that is curious, especially because both magazines have columns devoted to developments in the hi-fi industry and regularly run feature pieces about industry developments. Not to cast aspersions, but I know that many manufacturers and retailers do not like Audiogon and believe it to have a pernicious affect on the industry (it has created a huge market for used components and on-line sales of new products that suppress sales of new products sold through traditional dealer networks / the counter argument is that Audiogon has greatly expanded the high-end hi-fi market generally, creating much greater knowledge of and demand for new products and after-sales service from all sources), so could it be that they have exerted pressure on the magazines to keep quiet about Audiogon? It is also the case that the hi-fi rags get taken to task a lot in Audiogon threads (sometime fairly and sometimes unfairly, in my opinion), so this may be a reason why we don't hear about Audiogon in the magazines. Lastly, are the mags incompetent and have just missed the story? For whatever its worth, I know that Audiogon has advertised in one (perhaps both) of those magazines.

I let my subscriptions to TAS and Stereophile lapse last year, so perhaps they have treated the subject and I have missed it? If the subject has not been treated, does anyone know whether any B-school has done a case study of Audiogon's affect on the industry? If yes, I'd love to see it.

Perhaps Kal and others associated with the magazines have some insight that they would care to share?

Please temper your comments so this thread does not get pulled.
raquel

Showing 1 response by drubin

drubin
3,277 posts
 
The mags have certainly discussed the audio community on the Internet writ large, by which they mainly mean Audio Asylum. I suppose the discussion forums here on Audiogon are minor league, not where the real players hang. It's love-hate, but mostly more hate than love. I'd say the Internet has eroded some of the high priest status the pro reviewers used to enjoy.

As for the marketplace of Audiogon, well, the magazines don't spill a whole lot of ink on the high-end "market" to begin with. And i certainly understand that they have to walk a fine line between what's going on here and the business models of the ecosystem that surrounds their manufacturer and dealer advertisers. I'll cut them slack on that. But Stereophile has a formal business relationship with Audiogon. That's at least a tacit acknowledgement of Audiogon's impact, don't you think?
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