What's going on with the audio market?

@dgarretson ,
55
27
0

If anything, I have been taking money out of my system lately. I'm done.....yeah, I've said that before. However, I just don't have enough time to listen to justify the expense anymore.

Also, I've noticed that this past year has been the worst seller's market that I can remember in decades. Selling is becoming so difficult that it is eliminating buying, for me anyway.

I've been buying/selling on Audiogon for over 15 years now, and AudioMart for a decade before that. The audio market today is stagnant.
I'm not sure if it's dwindling interest or the economy, maybe both.

@dgarretson , you might want to check your math.

So between us, we have 54 man years of active purchasing, with 4 to go. We’re 93% finished with heavy buying.

I add 27 and 35 and get 62 with 4 to go, 94%.

I see a LOT of folks started seriously exercising their audio purchasing power as teenagers. Though I bought my first audio rig at 16, I would hardly call it serious audio purchasing power.
I don’t think I started buying "hi-end" gear until I was about 28 years old.

@geoffkait
+1
Many conveniently forget how badly Dubya trashed the economy.

@dgarretson , right you are.
It seems that it is not a problem with your math skills so much as it is a problem with my reading skills.
I read your second number to be how many years have you seriously exercise your purchasing power on audio, not at what age did you start. So change my 27 to a 28. I’ve been playing in the high end for 27 years now, I started at the age of 28.

jmcgrogan2 what was your system at 16? I ask because I had a complete load of crap at that age...

@infection , as I said earlier, it was my first system, but I wouldn’t call it serious audio. I didn’t get into serious audio until I was 28 years old.

At 16 I bought a pair of Altec Lansing Model 9 speakers, coupled them with a big old Pioneer receiver, a Technics turntable, and an Akai tape deck. All brand new, I didn’t know about used stuff back then.

I bought it all while my parents were away for the weekend. They were very unhappy when they came home. Those were the days (1976).
Risky Business before the movie came out. ;^)

I would have loved that when I was 16 in 1991.
So what did you have at 28?

Thanks.
Let's see, so late in 1987 I discovered a small company called Reel to Real Designs through a small ad in the back of Audio magazine. They had a speaker out called the Legacy 1's that I bought in early 1988. The company has grown much bigger over the years, and now calls themselves Legacy Audio. The Legacy 1's were their top of the line at the time, and sold for a whopping $1600 (a lot of dough at that time). Now I believe they are called the Legacy Classics HD, and are almost bottom of the line.
Bill Duddleston was working out of his garage at the time. Good old days.

I paired them with a PS Audio PS-200CX amplifier and a PS Audio 4.6 preamp with the separate power supply. I had a VPI HW-19 Jr turntable with a Dynavector 10X4 cartridge. By now, I had a CD player too, as perfect sound forever had been released upon the unsuspecting public. I had a Sony, but I can't recall the model number. It was much better than my first CD player, a Fischer, in 1985?

Been chasing the rabbit down the rabbit-hole ever since. ;^)

Interesting perspective merrillaudio, that is a different view from where I see it.
I have to question your point number 2, as I see "better" as subjective, faster I can agree with, though this isn't necessarily always a good thing, but cheaper? I don't see this.

 I have seen companies go in two directions, cheaper, and more expensive. It's the middle ground that seems to be disappearing.
Companies like Wilson, ARC, VAC, Vitus, Nordost, Tara Labs, etc., are making gear more and more expensive every year. So I have a hard time seeing that new products are cheaper. Maybe cheaper to manufacture, but the list price still goes up.

+1 macrojack, very well written post. I concur on all fronts.

I can no longer even see the carrot, and at one point in time, I had several carrots, not too long ago either (8-10 years ago).

As Bob Dylan said: The Times They Are A Changin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qQ6_RV4VQ

Idiocracy is a documentary film of current events. ;^)

With Brexit, now what will happen to British audio?   A buyer's market ahead?

@mapman , where you been? It's been as strong of a buyers market for the last 1+ years as I've ever seen, even going back before Audiogon was created.

Sure. things can always get worse, but how much can you buy if nothing is selling? After a year of taking advantage of a buyers market, I now have to stop as nothing will sell. What looked like a steal only 6 months ago (60-75% off list) now has to be given away at another 25-30% loss.

As a seller ( and a buyer), I have halted buying until the market recovers a bit, and I can sell some of my extra gear.
Now if gear starts selling for 10% of list, I may be tempted to buy some more. ;^)