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High End is Dead?

Browsing used audio sites such as Audiogon and the Marts, high end gear ads are dominated by several dealers. Non-dealer ads are usually people trying to push 15+ year old off-brand junk at 60-70% of MSRP (when they were new). They don't sell anything. You could slash Wilsons, Magicos, etc, 50% off retail and no one will buy them.

No one buys if it costs more than 1k. It's not that they're not interested -- the ads get plenty of views. It's that the asking prices are just way over the ability of buyers to pay. Fact is, if you see a high end piece for sale it's probably by a dealer, often times trying to push it at 15% off retail because its a trade in, but also often they are taking a good chunk off the price 30, 40 sometimes 50% off. They can be famous brands with a million positive reviews. No buyers.

Are we just poor, and that's all there is to it? 
madavid0

Showing 1 response by russbutton

russbutton's avatar
russbutton
452 posts
 
Today's $10,000 wonder is tomorrow's $4000 white elephant.  I've been saying that kind of thing since 1980.  High end audio has never been a big market because the demographic of well-heeled obsessive-compulsive-neurotics who just HAVE to have the very, very best has always been small.   

Hi-end audio dealers not only compete with each other, they also compete with their own used gear.  People still lust after the Audio Research SP3 and SP6,  the Mac C22, Marantz 7 and even the Fisher 400-CX2 tube preamps, all of which go for big prices.    That 15 year old Nelson Pass designed power amp sounds just as good as it did when new and costs much, much less than a new amp.

Beyond that audio dealers are also competing with all the other personal technology products - home theatre, PC laptops, hi-end PC gaming systems, cell phones and tablets.   Not only do people have limited amounts of money to spend on technology products, they also have a limited amount of time and attention as well.  Time spent playing video games or watching Netflix is time not listening to music.

And as one other person here said, how many audiophiles under the age of 50 do you know?

The one audio sub-culture which never seems to die is the DIY crowd.  Audio dealers come and go, but Madisound and Parts-Express are doing just fine.
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