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I feel bad for speaker manufacturers

Think about it. If you were going to start a company that manufactures audio components, which would you pick? Arguably the worst business to get into would be the speaker business. Right? First, it’s painstakingly hard to market a new speaker that can break through in today’s ultra-competitive environment. Second, the development costs are relatively high because you have to invest in expensive cabinetry (at least on the high end) , electronic components, and drivers. And except for bookshelves, you have to absorb or charge so much more to get your product to your customers because of the relatively large size and heavy weight of the product. Third, and again especially if you have any floor standing speakers of any size, which, let’s be honest, any speaker company that wants to make money will have to have, you have to pay to hump these things to shows around the country and likely internationally as well.

Now let’s compare the life of a cable manufacturer. Let me state up front that I am a big believer that cables, interconnects, digital cables, and power cords can make a big difference in the ultimate sound of an overall system. Tires on a car, right? And yes, they also have several variables to deal with: silver, copper, tinned, dielectric, shielding, connectors, cryogenic, etc. But they’re all small, light, and relatively cheap. You can ship your product for next to nothing with almost no risk of damage, and you can travel to audio shows carrying all of your wares pretty much in a medium-sized backpack. Oh, and then there’s this. While speaker manufacturers are lucky if they can retail their products for four to six times their cost of production, cable manufacturers get to retail their wares for ten, twenty, or even fifty times or more of their manufacturing cost. There’s the well-worn tale of speaker manufacturers coming to shows in a rented minivan while cable manufacturers show up in Ferraris. It’s sad but funny because there’s some truth to it. I credit @erik_squires with generating this thread because in his recent thread he made me think about how hard it is to successfully create and market a truly successful speaker today. Anyway, it almost seems unfair, especially since speakers contribute so much to the ultimate sound of our systems while cables, while crucial, contribute RELATIVELY much less. What say you?
soix

Showing 5 responses by cd318

cd318
2,636 posts
 
@tomic601 ,
Yes, lots left to be done. Many options including open baffle, sealed box, ported box, transmission line, horns, panels, line arrays, single crossoverless drive units etc etc.

As of 2019 there is no clear design that is superior to the others. Implementation still seems to be more important than theory. 
cd318
2,636 posts
 
@mijostyn, yours is not an isolated case. The history of loudspeaker design is littered with tantalisingly intriguing designs which for one reason or another just didn’t make it to the market. Weren’t Naim Audio for one working on an electrostatic which also never got past the prototype stage?

Here’s a list of some notable product designs which fell by the wayside even after making it to the market.

https://www.audioholics.com/editorials/the-biggest-failures-in-consumer-audio-video-electronics-hist...


@prof , on the other hand there appears to be no shortage of those products that you wish that had never made it to the market.

Here’s a disturbing report of industry doings coming from an experienced insider who probably failed to get many invites to industry dinners after his comments.

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/home-cinema/home-theatre-audio/home-cinema-audio/audio/hi-fi-radio...
cd318
2,636 posts
 
@kosst_amojan

"That's very hard to do when you're a nube that shows up and runs across some thread where a guy makes ludicrous claims that sound sophisticated because you're a nube that isn't up to speed. It seems to me that watching out for the nubes is more important than placating somebody's ego or hurting their sales figures."

Isn't that the way its always been? This is a perfect way to share our experiences. Just hope the newcomers read carefully.

Music is such a pleasure that it's entirely natural to want to experience it in greater fidelity.

I suspect because of the complexity involved most of the world's population stick to one piece systems and only a few adventurous souls are willing to explore the world of specialist Hi-Fi. Most, I daresay totally oblivious to the kind of the kind of marketing ploys used to separate them from their hard earned money.

It should never be this difficult, but it is. The sheer number of options available to the newcomer are quite staggering. A bewildering number of technologies and price ranges await. Imagine the shock of seeing cables costing >$100 per metre for the first time? Enough to frighten anyone off.

Hopefully, some of the contributions here on Audiogon will help to make those difficult choices easier. It really is possible to get much better sound than one piece supermarket systems without it costing the earth. 
cd318
2,636 posts
 
@kosst_amojan, 

"I guess that's why I laugh at people who say measurements don't mean anything."

A few Audiophiles might not care for measurements but thankfully there's hardly a single manufacturer who feels the same way. 

Not unless those old cable rebranding stories are still true. 
cd318
2,636 posts
 
Sure, it's no joke building high quality loudspeakers. But if we can start off building ones which can fool us into thinking we're listening to a real live human being (give or take radio station compression artefacts), then that's a great start to build upon.

Since there are far more smaller classic designs than bigger ones its not too hard to see where the design complexities lie.
Far easier to build a good mini monitor, and far cheaper too.

Big deep bass adds so many many more difficulties to the entire package (cabinet, drive units, amp, room etc) that attempts to get it right often screw up some of the remaining frequency range.
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