Any business can fail if it’s sufficiently mismanaged, and unfortunately high-end audio companies are typically started by audio engineers or audiophiles with little business background who wouldn’t know a SWOT analysis if it bit them in the ass much less actually bothering to conduct one. But as others have mentioned this is a declining market as boomers age/die out — in fact I don’t have any friends or acquaintances from GenX on down who own or care about having even a halfway decent stereo system. At best, even the wealthy ones have mediocre home theaters that are horribly set up and calibrated. Younger generations’ attention is so diluted what with social media and portable/convenient audio that the thought of sitting down in front of a dedicated audio system to just listen intently to music isn’t even on the radar and may well never be. My only faint — and it is very faint — hope is that GenY and Zers who seem intrigued by and are buying turntables might eventually look to upgrade their listening experience, but my guess is that they’re more into it for the nostalgia and the cool factor than ultimately upping their sound quality, so a $1500 entry-level system is about as far as they’ll likely end up going. What with a declining customer base and now tariffs on top of it I don’t envy even well managed high-end audio companies (although cable manufacturers with their insane profit margins will likely fare better than most). My guess is this may play out in a similar fashion as it might in the college arena in that the uber high-end and very low-cost institutions will be fine but the relatively expensive mid-level schools will struggle as their pool of potential students shrinks, their already nosebleed tuitions continue to rise, and they struggle to justify the ROI on a multi $100k tuition bill. Likewise bespoke audio companies like Wavac, TIDAL (speakers), Berning, etc. will likely always have a niche with well-heeled audiophiles as well as being luxury goods that attract the wealthy who just want and will pay for the best the best so will do fine because they don’t need all that many customers to thrive. On the other end of the spectrum the cheaper mass market/ChiFi brands will also do ok as they cater to the “I just want cheap and good enough” crowd that will thrive on continued high volume for their earbuds, headphones, all-in-one sub-$1000 audio systems and speakers, etc. (again assuming they’re well managed). Getting younger generations to spend more than a couple thousand dollars on a dedicated stereo system is likely and realistically largely a pipe dream so audio companies who cater to those more mid- and even higher-level hifi systems are the ones I envy least as their market base continues to dry up and tariffs eat into their already relatively thin profit margins and/or force them to raise prices in the face of shrinking demand. That’s just a sinking lose-lose proposition that will only get worse given demographic and market trends that will not only continue but likely accelerate going forward. Anyway, just my take on the situation FWIW.
