I feel bad for speaker manufacturers


Think about it. If you were going to start a company that manufactures audio components, which would you pick? Arguably the worst business to get into would be the speaker business. Right? First, it’s painstakingly hard to market a new speaker that can break through in today’s ultra-competitive environment. Second, the development costs are relatively high because you have to invest in expensive cabinetry (at least on the high end) , electronic components, and drivers. And except for bookshelves, you have to absorb or charge so much more to get your product to your customers because of the relatively large size and heavy weight of the product. Third, and again especially if you have any floor standing speakers of any size, which, let’s be honest, any speaker company that wants to make money will have to have, you have to pay to hump these things to shows around the country and likely internationally as well.

Now let’s compare the life of a cable manufacturer. Let me state up front that I am a big believer that cables, interconnects, digital cables, and power cords can make a big difference in the ultimate sound of an overall system. Tires on a car, right? And yes, they also have several variables to deal with: silver, copper, tinned, dielectric, shielding, connectors, cryogenic, etc. But they’re all small, light, and relatively cheap. You can ship your product for next to nothing with almost no risk of damage, and you can travel to audio shows carrying all of your wares pretty much in a medium-sized backpack. Oh, and then there’s this. While speaker manufacturers are lucky if they can retail their products for four to six times their cost of production, cable manufacturers get to retail their wares for ten, twenty, or even fifty times or more of their manufacturing cost. There’s the well-worn tale of speaker manufacturers coming to shows in a rented minivan while cable manufacturers show up in Ferraris. It’s sad but funny because there’s some truth to it. I credit @erik_squires with generating this thread because in his recent thread he made me think about how hard it is to successfully create and market a truly successful speaker today. Anyway, it almost seems unfair, especially since speakers contribute so much to the ultimate sound of our systems while cables, while crucial, contribute RELATIVELY much less. What say you?
soix
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@mijostyn, yours is not an isolated case. The history of loudspeaker design is littered with tantalisingly intriguing designs which for one reason or another just didn’t make it to the market. Weren’t Naim Audio for one working on an electrostatic which also never got past the prototype stage?

Here’s a list of some notable product designs which fell by the wayside even after making it to the market.

https://www.audioholics.com/editorials/the-biggest-failures-in-consumer-audio-video-electronics-hist...


@prof , on the other hand there appears to be no shortage of those products that you wish that had never made it to the market.

Here’s a disturbing report of industry doings coming from an experienced insider who probably failed to get many invites to industry dinners after his comments.

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/home-cinema/home-theatre-audio/home-cinema-audio/audio/hi-fi-radio...
@cd318 
Thanks for the link and the walk down memory lane.
He certainly let us know what he thinks about tweaks;

TWEAKS

Anything from magic markers to allegedly reduce static during playback of your CD's, to cable elevators that elevate your cables of the floor to again reduce "static electricity", these devices are not only nonsensical but they just never really caught on with most audiophiles. To this day, they remain a very small niche supported only by the most "suggestible" audiophiles desperately trying to improve system performance while ignoring the obvious things that work such as speaker upgrades, better speaker placement, and fixing room acoustics problems.

The ever-popular Shun Mook Mpingo Disc—the ultimate snake oil tweak.


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