The market has split up.
Headphones and lifestyle or portable music devices.
big box stores selling everything like Best Buy (Sears of home electronics)
HT market with the main target being new home installs and partnership with builders
car audio
Boutique hi fi
pro market bifarcated to small semi-pro bar band/church applications with a dying high end studio market
This is still evolving towards
Headphones portable market is saturated with low end crap - even expensive products like top of the line Dr Beats Pro are CRAP (now going wireless towards even worse sound quality)
Big box - selling mostly low to mid range ever cheaper Chinese made crap
HT still going strong but home movie watching is dying as families all tend to watch individually what they want on their portable devices and go out to theatres for blockbusters. (Market is dying)
Car audio - increasingly left to hobbyists - like Chip tuning - as car audio on luxury models has become extremely good (and profitable as upgrades can be 5,000 for a few hundred worth of gear vs the usual pennies put into car systems in the 80’s)
boutique hi fi - kind of lost in this split up market with much $ lost to HT, portable and car audio. Now increasingly moving towards furniture suppliers of high end products of questionable value but with massive elegant (expensive) cosmetics and often re-issues of archaic tube designs - exotic woods, steel, precious metals, stunning finishes etc. and ridiculous marketing hyperbole to support that and with most profit on selling accessories like basic wires (specially repackaged) at nose bleed prices
pro market remains bifarcated and an ever smaller niche for aficionados that can’t demo hi end gear easily except through word of mouth or a visit to another facility (most facilities are shutting down as there is not much money in the recorded music business compared to the 70’s and 80’s boom years)
Honestly my take is that boutique hi fi the likes of which are mentioned above are trying to survive and experimenting with approaches. Selling packages is what big box stores do and I disagree that hobbyists would entertain being told what to buy to make a complete a system - this approach is wrong. Sticking to good specific technical advice that is or is not directly related to a sale is what may keep the last few aging buyers coming through the doors. The pseudo-science around audio is what has turned me off boutique compared to the 70’s but I don’t represent the target geriatric customers.
All are are competing with internet expanding market threat! Lifespan as a retailer of dry goods is limited. Retail sales have been dying the last two years - internet buying direct is becoming a reality. Malls are closing down across the US. Showroom floors are too costly - Internet forums have replaced the foot traffic and audio conventions allow manufacturers to demo their sound.
Headphones and lifestyle or portable music devices.
big box stores selling everything like Best Buy (Sears of home electronics)
HT market with the main target being new home installs and partnership with builders
car audio
Boutique hi fi
pro market bifarcated to small semi-pro bar band/church applications with a dying high end studio market
This is still evolving towards
Headphones portable market is saturated with low end crap - even expensive products like top of the line Dr Beats Pro are CRAP (now going wireless towards even worse sound quality)
Big box - selling mostly low to mid range ever cheaper Chinese made crap
HT still going strong but home movie watching is dying as families all tend to watch individually what they want on their portable devices and go out to theatres for blockbusters. (Market is dying)
Car audio - increasingly left to hobbyists - like Chip tuning - as car audio on luxury models has become extremely good (and profitable as upgrades can be 5,000 for a few hundred worth of gear vs the usual pennies put into car systems in the 80’s)
boutique hi fi - kind of lost in this split up market with much $ lost to HT, portable and car audio. Now increasingly moving towards furniture suppliers of high end products of questionable value but with massive elegant (expensive) cosmetics and often re-issues of archaic tube designs - exotic woods, steel, precious metals, stunning finishes etc. and ridiculous marketing hyperbole to support that and with most profit on selling accessories like basic wires (specially repackaged) at nose bleed prices
pro market remains bifarcated and an ever smaller niche for aficionados that can’t demo hi end gear easily except through word of mouth or a visit to another facility (most facilities are shutting down as there is not much money in the recorded music business compared to the 70’s and 80’s boom years)
Honestly my take is that boutique hi fi the likes of which are mentioned above are trying to survive and experimenting with approaches. Selling packages is what big box stores do and I disagree that hobbyists would entertain being told what to buy to make a complete a system - this approach is wrong. Sticking to good specific technical advice that is or is not directly related to a sale is what may keep the last few aging buyers coming through the doors. The pseudo-science around audio is what has turned me off boutique compared to the 70’s but I don’t represent the target geriatric customers.
All are are competing with internet expanding market threat! Lifespan as a retailer of dry goods is limited. Retail sales have been dying the last two years - internet buying direct is becoming a reality. Malls are closing down across the US. Showroom floors are too costly - Internet forums have replaced the foot traffic and audio conventions allow manufacturers to demo their sound.