Oh, to be a high end dealer for a year.

I recently visited one of my local high-end audio dealers, a great store which has been in business since 1984.

Looking around the place as well as at him and his only salesman proved downright painful. Needless to say, they were more than gloomy about the current state of the industry. They also felt the collapse of Audiogon has kicked one of the last legs out from under the chair.

Don't you think that the really High End will do OK in a recession? The super rich are always with us and in fact, are growing exponentially. It's us wage slaves in the middle, that are suffering. So it's the sellers of $2 to 4000 that are feeling the pinch.

If you look at the far east, the growth of millionaires and billionairs, is phenomenal. If you ask the high end manufacturers where they are looking for sales, that's where it is. I have mentioned this before, but I heard of A US speaker manufacturer who makes a £1000,000+ set of speakers as advertising, promotion, never expecting to sell any. He went to a Shanghai show, a guy came in, listened for a good while and bought 2 pairs there and then.

Thank you all for the very enlightening discussion.

David12, as to this super rich always being with us, I wonder if startups thinking of taking the risky plunge go for the very high end, thinking it less risky than swimming with the masses, for that very reason. If you are a good promoter and get a hundred customers lined up in that price range maybe that spells survival. Maybe that's why there are so many ultra-expensive components these days.

For what it's worth, vintage audio prices are climbing again (been checking them for my gear). I think the economy is on its way back. And the advent of $1000 iPhone DACs would seem to bode well :-).

I'd say you or I will never now if the ultra systems are worth their cost in the SQ that is achieved. You can probably gain a a bit of insight at the audio shows, or traveling to a quality dealer and hearing their ultra setups. And from what I read online, you would not want to be a dealer in order to find out, unless you want to end up with an empty bank account.

Is a $10,000 Rolex purchased to get a precise indication of time? (it is routinely 3-4 seconds off on a DAILY basis while a $ 100 quartz-powered watch is precise to a second a month).

Is Bugatti the fastest, best-handling car? Or is a "mundane" Porche 911 is all and above-all of what would get you there?

Is a $ 2,000 bottle of wine better than one at $ 200.00 ? Can you really taste the difference? (some can, and they make their living at it).

Will you take better photos using a $ 25,000 Leica S2 instead of a $ 1,000 D7000 ? Could you see the difference?

Will you catch more fish with a $ 4,000 Orvis fishing rod than with one that cost $ 300.00 ?

Now relate those examples to high-end audio. It is no different - only the snobby aspect remains.

If course high-end does get better as we pay more - but not always of course.

But past a certain point and dollar amount, it just depends on the gear-lust factor amd how buyers are motivated by it.