I recently emailed John Atkinson of Stereophile

I have been subscribing to Stereophile on and off since the eighties. JGH was the editor and chief crumudgeon then and I can say with volumes of proof that there was plenty of advertising in the magazine then. I will admit that there is more now. That may be due to the fact that it has become more of a pamphlet than a magazine though.

Manufacturers are not stupid. When they see a magazine that caters to their customer and does it at an increasing level of volume and quality they will want to advertise on those pages.

If magazines sell-out to advertisers how does this happen? It's like the: "What came first the chicken or the egg?" question. The answer in both cases is obvious. The chicken came first and so did the successful magazine. No one advertises in a magazine that has no circulation. When Stereophile and TAS got started they were an unknown quantity. There was no other rag that did the same thing they were doing. It would be pure speculation on the part of any advertiser to establish a relationship with such a publication.

The tiff between 'Tiffany' and TAS comes to mind. When TAS refused to bend over for them just because they advertised Tiffany threatened to pull their advertising. TAS response was to tell Tiffany that they would never accept advertising from them again. Tiffany went out of business shortly thereafter.

I find it quite noble that so many companies that did not advertise have gone out of business. WOW! Hurray for them. What a great bit of business saavy they displayed to all of us!!!

Companies that do not advertise and still succeed are the exception, not the rule.

Corona what do you do for a living? I doubt that you are a business owner. You seem to have no grasp of what it takes to compete in the marketplace.

Is there glory in a noble death?

Nrchy:
For over six years I have been owner and designer for an audio cable company. I can say with confidence; there is a market based on performance that exists outside the cloister of audio magazines.

Hi Everyone,

Yes...there is a certain momentum in these threads that gives rise sometimes to an ever increasing bite to our observations.

May I suggest that there are a great number of now successful audio manufacturers, that started in their garage or basement. I think of that as being rather wonderful, and a very healthy thing for science, and the art of audio.We, of course, are the ultimate beneficiaries.

Sometimes, these lone innovators and inventors do not find the backing they need to bring their product to a large market. Sometimes the products they make fill a rather narrow nitch in the hi-end world. May I give you a case in point.

I just purchased a tiny "passive" pre-amplifier from a cable manufacturer, that has one input and one output and a simple attenuator...it is called the Axiom and it works splendidly...I could not be happier with its performance...it only costs $150. and it's performance could easily rival "passive" pre-amps that costs more than a thousand dollars. The company that makes it is Luminous Audio.

I found the little Axiom by reading reviews and threads on Audio Asylum and here at Audiogon. I feel inclined to support companies that are making inexpensive products that rival the audio jewelry that sells for very high prices. Frankly, it is fun to find these products and put together a "system" that sounds fabulous...on a shoe string.

I am not knocking the expenditure of a great deal of money to achieve musical nirvana. I am an artist and adjunct college teacher so my income is much lower, by choice, then many audiophiles who can make decisions on purchases based on deeper pockets.

One can, for fun, research and check out who is offering products that can qualify as state of the art, that do no advertise in magazines, but do sometimes advertize here at audiogon and are otherwise known through word of mouth.

Yes, this is America, and we are all exposed to a great deal of inculturation that suggests that there is no success as great as great success...and a thorough knowledge of marketing and advertising techniques is essential for an "upright" business to succeed.

But in my world, there is plenty of room for innovators that make wonderful inexpensive (relatively...of course) products that may not have the savy, or inclination, or energy, or know how, or contacts, or personality, or drive, to go past the word of mouth or simply advertising here...in audiogone.

Many of these innovators make these poducts as a "second" career. They may not make enough through sales of their audio poducts to survive, if it was not for their "day" job.

Another case in point is David Berning...whose wonderful amps are "hand made" and yes, he actually has a different "day job."

It requires a bit more work on our part to investigate these "alternatives" to the large (corporate) manufacturers. But it is well worth it...believe me.

Richard