What High End Manufacturers Could Learn From Bose

I do hope you are kidding? Bose is mass mid fi, they are in it for the money, and in actuality I see nothing wrong with that, it is what they chose to do. But in no way could a Krell, Martin Logan, Revel compete in that market or do I doubt they even want it. Highly unlikely they even have the means to produce the #'s it would take to capture a % of that market. Then there is the fact that simply put, who buys $3000 amps or speakers, hell who buys $3000 stereos? Less than 10% of the market. You may have 2 out 20 friends that walk into your house and are able to recognize the makes and brands of your audio equipment, people who don't ask you to turn the bass up or why are you still using that old tube amp when pointing at your Tube Innovations amp sitting on the floor. People who aren't internally smug when you tell them it puts out 100 wpc, thinking to themselves, that fool, my Pioneer from Sam's puts out way more than that, smaller too! High end audio is a very small market, and even then highly tiered. And then I feel many are trying to make the market smaller by not educating those who ask the most rudimentary questions about high end, choosing instead to ridicule them for wanting to basically know "Why?". I see too much of that on these pages and way too much of it on the unmoderated groups.
IF and I write IF in a major way, the high end manufactorers want,IMHO, an example to go by, I would send them Magnepan's way. Magnepan builds entry level high end gear, allows decent trade up policies, makes you feel good about yourself for "only" spending $550, and doesn't insult by telling people no way can you use a reciever with their products and expect good sound. It will be better than what they had, and it is a first step toward what I am sure is what they hope to be a budding audiophile. IMHO again, I think a lot of the high end companies are missing a huge market by not building more affordable entry level gear. Its as if they build for those of us that think nothing about spending more on an amp that will some day die than a wedding ring where at least the diamond lasts a lifetime if not the relationship. But most
people will not do that. Most purchasers are going to cap out at around $1500 to $2000(and actually I would love to see the average on this) on an ENTIRE system, not just one piece of gear.
None of the above is to say that there are many of the high end makers who don't build or advertise this way because they are truly intent and content with building the very best product they can, and marketing it knowing there will be only few buyers. I applaud them, it brings audio up to the next level when it finally trickles down. But many can't or choose not to afford their gear. And where I think there will never be a huge high end market, it would be nice to see some come down into the mid fi market and bring it up a notch or two more, as I believe Magnepan and a couple of others do. I applaud the Canadian gov. intheir efforts and in their providing the facilities to allow some very small and very good companies the ability to do just that. By the way, another thread kinda covers the subject with the demise of Sonic Frontier, a high end maker that is being either closed down or sent in a different direction by its parent company because of its limited demand in the market.

The Nature of the high-end market will always mean it is small. Any manufacturer that goes for mass market numbers, by definition, will no longer be high-end. For truly high-end stuff, there is no 'entry level' to it. Or, the level of entry required is just that - fairly high, due to the nature of the product (e.g. $2000 or whatever).

BTW Jvia - diamonds are a poor comparison. Personally I get way more life and pleasure out of a 2k amp than a 2k rock. Of course the girlfriend (wife to be) may not agree... But ultimately diamonds are the most over-valued commodity there is, propped up by an industry-controlling cartel (DeBeers) which is sitting on a huge hoard, that if ever released at one, would destroy the market. Intrinsically (e.g. based on scarcity) diamonds are worth at most 1/4 or less of what they sell for. If it was really an open market on them, prices would be much less. To wit: Rubies are much more scarce than diamonds, yet diamonds nearly equal them in price up to a given point in size. Wacky.

-Ed

Actually, both Martin Logan (marked-and-bloated) and Krell (smell) DO market to the masses. About two years ago, both lines began to appear in the SoundTrack chain retail stores.

That confirmed what I had always thought about tonally inacurate equipment...people LOVE it...

Geeze, I would hate to think what my Revel speakers would cost if Madrigal spent as much on marketing as Bose!!!! Look at how expensive those pitiful sounding Bose systems are! I remember sitting in the Bose HT suite at CES a few years ago. They acted proud of those crappy tiny speakers.

interesting thread--reminds me of the case study i worked on Chivas Regal (the worst scotch around). Chivas was a marginal player in the low dollar blended scotch mkt, and meer fodder for jokes amongst single-malt scotch conniseurs..but then chivas did 2 things: new box / packaging, and raised their price. results go against economic theory (sales increased!), but testify as to the effect of a good marketing program.

this has a lot in common with audio. high end audio is the equivalent to the scotch conniseur--who knows what regions were known to produce good scotch, what labels / years to watch for, etc. point being, they're very educated about product, and as such have no problem paying $80 for a liter if they think its amongst the best. of all the people who own stereos, how many are very educated about product? only those on this board.

audio has a couple serious problems, financial aspects aside. in order to compete w/ mass mkt product, they have to educate the public as to how much better it can get. and to do so requires retail outlets for demonstrations (and we all know the difficulties for the highend retailer these days).

couple that with these factors: bose recognizes 3 things in serving the market: 1) product must have aura of high-end (face it, most people think its the best!), 2) product must be at a price point that is still discretionary, and 3) product must be small (i.e. households buy furniture, and when speakers are not in use, they're furniture---best to keep em small guys else the wives don't like it).

so what is one to do? madrigal has a good starting point w/ the multi-dimensional line (levinson in lexus), and would be well served to purchase the gallo speaker technology and begin w/ a new brand...

the rest of high end will always be a cult.

rhyno