Watches hold an edge over audio when it comes to disposable income so it's no wonder why or how they can outsell audio equipment. Breitling is not even on my radar when it comes to desirable watches and yet it has an audience. I just don't like the looks. They sell enough to employ John Travolta as a spokesperson but the really big players in the watch industry don't need celebrity endorsement.
I've read where a certain brand took 40 prototypes to a gathering at a yacht club meeting and sold every one with orders for another 40-50 and they went for $400K apiece. These type of people already have a quality stereo system or don't really care about it, but their love of watches goes back generations.
It would be like Ferrari selling out an entire years worth of inventory on a car that has yet to be made and comparing it to the slow sales of farm combines to small family farmers.
All the best,
Nonoise |
Rja,I have read those reviews also!Mechans, I think you are correct.The majority seem to be dazzled by whatever is newer,smaller,and loaded with the latest features.I think reviewers are journalists first,entertainment more than enlightenment. |
"A failure to relate and be genuinely critical will lead to the continuous demise of Hi End hifi."
Hi Lohanimal
The above is what you said so I guess it is what you mean and completely in line with the responses to your query as far as I understand, am I missing another point somewhere? First off there are reviewers that are entertaining writers at best who's judgement I don't hold in any higher regard than anyone else's. Then there are reviewer's who by the consistency of their descriptions of products lend more credibility to what they describe. Another thing to consider is that most reviewer's review products that they think they will like. Why waste time on products of little interest? This idea about being "genuinely critical" is a bit vague, what exactly do you mean? There are usually clues in the review that let you know the plus and minus points of the product. There is no need to openly bash a product in a publication unless there is some type of consistent objective method involved, certainly not subjective, that would be totally unfair to the manufacturer of the product and would go back to biases and preferences. Measurements are one of those objective tools upon which the reader can draw his own conclusions but as most experienced audiophiles know, they don't always tell the whole story.
I don't completely understand your point about Breitling and how this relates in any way to Hi-end audio sales, could you explain, I am curious. |
I like the reviews where the first sample broke and the second sample malfunctioned but the third sample sounded really, really good. Has anyone read one of these reviews recently? |
Hi Loh,
Just to be clear, I've read your post twice now. You contend (first), that the fact that reviewers consistently fail to bash any meaningful number of products that they write about could be the likely cause of the demise of the high end industry's sales. For the life of me I cannot see a tie in between the two and cannot fathom how you correlate these ideas.
Second, you posit that Breitling's US sales exceed the entire volume of high end sales of audio gear in the US. Again, please help me because I have no idea what that has to do with the price of tea in China.
I think I speak for more than a few here when I say that you have made no discernible points to agree or disagreee with. |
The review process is almost completely unrelated to the decline of hi-fi. The whole technical world seems to be currently revolving around the concept of portability. Therefore whatever is small is of high value seeemingly without regard to the sound quality. I don't think 99.99% of people even bother to read a review of high end electronics, therefore whether it is an honest appraisal or not doesn't matter. For those of us who do read them we have to read between the lines. I find the same to be true for most car reviews as well. My enthusiasm is not altered by reviews and I doubt that others are affected either. |
I do wonder who on this forum read the second half of my thread starter.
It's not about a conspiracy either.
A failure to relate and be genuinely critical will lead to the continuous demise of Hi End hifi. If reviews are always wishy washy, uncritical, and irrelevant, then when people have a browse through the magazines on the shelves, like many people do when researching a moment of big spending, do writers genuinely believe they are doing the world of audio a favour?
Remember my point about Breitling outselling the whole of the High End audio industry in the states put together... |
I completely agree with Mofimadness, Nonoise and Chayro. The thing with reviews is that you have to learn to read between the lines. So to me, the good reviewers are better at conveying what they hear and through experience in reading reviews the reader learns to discern what they are communicating. Most reviews to me are for entertainment value.
As for any reviewer, they are no different than us, they have their listening preferences and biases. The good ones communicate the characteristics of a component under review regardless of whether you agree or not, it's up to the individual reader to review the reviewer and determine whether or not to value his judgements. The decline of HiFi, if it is happening, never did, is or will have a thing to do with reviewers. Your premis seems a real stretch and you give the reviewers much to much credit. As long as people listen to music there will be a fringe group that will want to hear it well reproduced regardless of the new technologies on the horizon.
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I swear to god - I am so tired of hearing about this giant conspiracy and how the reviewers are paid off and how certain people set themselves up as the self-appointed guardians of all of us stupid audiophiles. There is no help for anyone who hangs on the word of any reviewer and who must upgrade because a reviewer says that this Wilson speaker blows away the old version. Every industry has reviewers and there is no way of knowing what they get out of it. Can you imagine how much Mercedes could pay for a positive review? Audio reviews, as all reviews, are one person's opinion about the product. That's it. Anyone who thinks different has a lot to learn and anyone who thinks they need to protect us all from reviewers by exposing them should find more productive things to do with their lives. IMO. :) |
I've yet to find, outside of the 3 mainstream car mags, only positive reviews of cars. One needs to know where and how to look. Same goes for audio reviews, movie reivews, etc. It takes some time to get to know how reviewers "hear" things and it involves getting to know the reviewer.
I've personally contacted a few reviewers to get their take on some equipment and found it, so far, to be for the better. Take the time to get to know them: the better ones will answer and hopefully, offer good advice. I've had great luck so far in selecting components.
Just as you can get to know how folk here actually hear things the way you do, the same can go for a reviewer. Blanket statements about their veracity only serve to widen the gap.
All the best,
Nonoise |
My take on this, is that current gear, for the most part, is very good.
The designers are more talented and educated and experienced. The technology to build these and test them is much better. The parts quality is better. This is the 21st Century.
I think it would be rather hard to really make a bad sounding piece of audio gear nowadays.
Also, high-end audio, (like most other hobbies) has and will always be subjective. Everyone hears differently, has different rooms, and listen to different source material.
This is just my opinion, but after almost 40 years in this hobby, (and business), I think year after year, this industry just gets better. |
I have stopped reading the so called reviews of hi-end audio magazines as I have yet to find any reviewer giving altogether negative feedbacks.
Instead I rely much more on first hand experience from audiophiles on sites such as Audiogon and Audioasylum |
reviewers pitch the new product and that's what reviewers are for. if they're paid to pitch, they will. cars, hi-fi, wi-fi, scmi-fi, pills -- it doesn't matter. |
