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Is Hi-fi getting more expensive?

When I first get into high end audio in 2003, $3000 can buy you a very good cd player. Now $3000 just get you started. All of sudden, most of the major high end cable companies all ask $10,000.00+ for their top of the line speaker cables. The economy is bad but you don’t see high end audio getting cheaper. The entry ticket to Hi-Fi is getting more expensive and Hi-fi is getting far away from average people.

I guess the reason is that if the economy is bad, less people buy high end audio. So companies have to charge more for each unit to cover their development cost, and even fewer people will buy their equipment. This will be a vicious cycle that never ends. I think some company should cut the price by 50% to break the cycle. I know there is lots of pressure for companies not to follow the price trend when one cable company list its cable for $10,000+. If you don’t follow it, people might think you cable is not as good as the high price tag cable. But if you cut unit price by half, your sale volume can go up to make up your lower price. Volume is important. Windows 7 is more complex and powerful than Sooloos, but why Windows 7 is $200 while Sooloos charge yoy $10,000? You can also look at computers, they are always getting faster and powerful while still keep at the same price point or cheaper. Once other companies see the benefits, they will join it too. Pioneer and Sony are not incapable of making great audio gear, they just choose not to because of the tiny market size. If big companies like Pioneer or Sony see there is a big market for high end audio, they will come and join the game.

I feel Hi-Fi almost double its price from 2003-2009.We really need some companies to take the first step(cutting the price) to break the vicious cycle. Now these days more people are listen to compressed music like MP3/ipod. We really need to find a way to attract more people to good quality audio to benefit all of us, otherwise we all lose in the end.

This might be my wishful/unrealistic thinking. People are welcome to share their thought.
yxlei
macrojack
1,303 posts
 
High end audio is getting more expensive with every breath you take. 30 years ago when many of us got involved, the ultimate speaker system might have been obscenely expensive at $2500. Today, after wages have crept up slightly, the dream equipment is beyond dreaming - it is unimagineable. Working people could dream about buying $2500 speakers when they made $400/week. Now they make $1000/wk. and the state of the art speaker is $150,000.
Do you see any change in those numbers?

The carrot is being dangled so far out in front of us that it no longer seems to be within reach - not even within dreaming reach.

Our economy has been propped up for years by cheap foreign goods and consumer credit. These factors have lost some of their corrective ability in the last couple of years and audio has felt the crunch. It's still a great hobby but new goods are not much of a value these days. There's just too much opportunity to get your fix from the used market.
david12
1,454 posts
 
The evidence suggests HiFi is getting more expensive, $50000 to 70000 speakers seem to be the norm now, not a rarity. This is a dangerous generalisation, but going from room to room at RMAF this year, it seemed clear to me, how many of the high end rooms were dry and sterile. On the other hand, many of the smaller company rooms were musical and enjoying. I would name Modwright, Grant Fidelity, Ayon, moscode and Daedalus as examples. I wo'nt name any of the big names I disliked.
What links these companies? There small scale, run by enthusiasts and without expensive promotion budgets.
So I think good value is out there, you just have to find it and sites like Audiogon, Pink Fish Media in the UK, have helped me enormously. TW Accustic, Daedalus are just two of the value for money brands, I have found on this site. Note I did'nt say cheap, but value for money, before someone jumps back at me about the price of a TW Accustic Raven
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,373 posts
 
"Is Hi-fi getting more expensive?"

Perhaps as viewed through this, the "high end" audio site, but not overall in general.

The high end in western culture is just that, the extreme portion that will tend to become even more extreme over time.

But the "extreme high end" statistically of any normal population is but a very small percentage of the overall population.

So take what you see or read on this site regarding the current state of audio with a grain of salt realizing that there is a very real yet useful bias at play.
jtimothya
612 posts
 
I agree with John, particularly concerning new entertainment options supplanting high end audio. 20 or 30 year olds sitting passively in front of a two channel (or multi channel) music-only system versus gaming or actively doing something at a computer?

Bruckner or Donkey Kong.

Bruckner or Donkey Kong.

My gawd, I cannot decide.

Maybe Google will tell me what to do.

 
tonywinsc
583 posts
 
I think the opportunity to spend astronomic funds on hi-fi has existed since the 50's. The booming economy expanded the hi-end market, just as it did for many other high ticket, high priced luxury items. The Luxury Yacht market's best year since the 1920s wasn't until 1999, for example.

While those of us audio enthusiasts drool over what we can't have, the trickle down technology benefits everyone, eventually.
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