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How many truly high-end speakers sold yearly?

HI All,
Just curious here and wonder if anyone out there knows, or knows a good source to confirm some information? I was wondering about this hobby of ours, and how many speakers (new or used) actually are purchased every year by all of us, at these TRULY hi-end levels? ($100k Plus, $100k, $75k, $50k, $25k, $15k, $10k, $5k).

I remember seeing recently just ONE speaker manufacturer mention that they would be producing 100 pairs of a speaker that sells new for $75,000!!! Do the math....thats $7.5 MILLION (at the retail level) in sales from just ONE speaker, from just ONE manufacturer that makes SEVERAL models!!!

You see where I'm going with this thought? How much DO we actually spend yearly (JUST for speakers) on this hobby/habit? (Tell the wives it keeps us OFF THE STREET!!! ....outa the bars, and out of trouble!!!) :-)

So, if anyone knows, or knows where to get/confirm these statistics,(OK...tell us too about amps, pre-amps, CD players, etc. if you know) let us all know?

I've SEEN some information on electronics in general, but that also includes everything from tiny cheap speakers that go in cheap radios to boom boxes, etc. I'm just curious about the true HI-end picture. Anybody know the yearly volumes produced at the price points mentioned above ($100k to $5k, or however its broken down by price categories?
What DO you know?

Thanks and Happy Listening!
soundsgr8tome
sean
6,231 posts
 
Your question is quite limited in scope. You specifically state "truly high end speakers" but then put price limitations on it. Even though they qualify, i don't think that Bose makes any models that expensive : ) Sean
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kthomas
911 posts
 
It seems that I read when the Dynaudio Evidence's came out that Dynaudio "considered them to be a production product" (I guess some manufacturers don't?) and were projecting sales of a couple (few) dozen pairs a year. I don't remember the model numbers exactly, but I remember reading a review of the Levinson monoblocks (33H?) that retail for around $18K that they were developed in response to the "overwhelming" demand for for their flagship monoblocks (33?) that went for over $30K, but they were limited to being able to produce only about 6 pair per month, whereas the newer (cheaper) model they'd be able to produce more of.

Taking into consideration the vagueness of these memories, my guess is that "successful" state-of-the-art products sell between 20 and 100 "units" per year. -Kirk

tireguy
1,964 posts
 
Now that its mentioned I know a high end amp manufacturer that sells his amps from $12,000-50,000 and when he made the new 12k stereo amp, he had 100 chassis made(which we found a minor flaw in, but with 100 chassis on hands the flaw went into production) and he didn't seem to think it was going to take long to blow through the first 100 before he could improve upon the design. Not sure if that helps any but another interesting fact I have learned over the years.
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