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Hit the one in the middle. And I’m not just saying that having just consumed the hottest chicken sandwich ever at a Houston’s Howdy Hot Chicken. Nice people. Seriously hot chicken sandwiches that can cause hallucinations. So do high-end audio systems that cost nearly $600,000. We have listened to a few of those over the past 18 months. It disturbed us. Not in a good way.
Perhaps Paulie and Tony “Duke” Evers had it correct in Rocky IV.
Sometimes, when you have too many moving targets in front of you – the best strategy might be to hit the one in the middle.
High-end audio has battled through that for a few decades.
The inability to convert a new core generation of audio enthusiasts; both male and female who are emotionally connected to their music collections but completely turned off by the perceived price of admission to join the high-end club.
It is easy to point fingers at manufacturers who charge $3,000 for cables, or $20,000 for loudspeakers, but the reality is that they wouldn’t make such products if there wasn’t a customer out there willing to buy them.
The problem is that they are selling to the same customer. All of them.
And that customer base isn’t getting any younger. Or larger.
The high-end press doesn’t get a pass here either.
While there have been positive changes over the past few years thanks to the growing influence of YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, the reality is that the press is still too focused on the portion of the industry that has zero chance of growing the base.
How do I know this?
We made a strategic decision back in 2020 to shift our focus to more affordable high-end audio, vintage audio, system building, a much bigger emphasis on music, and we brought some amazing new staff writers onboard who have contributed in a huge way.
All of them shared a few things in common which they expressed with a sincere degree of frustration.
Their audience loves music but has almost no idea what to buy and is completely turned off by the “insane” prices at the top of the audio pyramid and the lack of quality on the ground floor.
Their audience reads hardware reviews but walks away without any real understanding of how to assemble a system.
Their audience reads reviews about $3,000 cables, $4,000 record cleaning machines, $3,000 power conditioners, and $8,000 phono cartridges – and completely tune out.
Our Music Editor, Lauren Halliday (with close to 12,000 followers on her Instagram vinyl page) started laughing when we said you could spend over $1,000 on an Ethernet cable.
She replied, “that is just dumb.”
And she’s not wrong. Dumb beyond.
The audio industry needs to become more inclusive and stop paying lip service to women and the 25-45 age segment who want to spend between $5,000 – $10,000 on a complete system.
That ceiling can be expanded but retailers need to ask themselves a simple question.
Do they want 100 new customers in 2022 who will spend in that range for the very first time and upgrade slowly over time or do they want the same old customers who will upgrade a solitary component after a favorable review?
Some will get that answer wrong.
The middle is where we are going to succeed with this group.
Hit the one in the middle.
Offer customers quality products from the middle. Because the quality is there and that’s what they can afford to spend.
If I am wrong – then why did Sonus faber introduce the excellent Lumina I loudspeakers?
Why does ELAC sell a lot of loudspeakers in this range?
Schiit Audio, iFi Audio, Rega, Naim, Focal, Wharfedale, Pro-Ject, Bluesound, NAD, Magnepan, Q Acoustics, PSB, Topping, Rotel, Polk Audio, Quad, Cambridge Audio, Klipsch, Heed, Decware, Omega, and many others offer excellent sounding products that fit into this system range.
Some brands like Naim & Focal are offering loudspeaker/network amplifier or network amplifier/headphone amplifier/headphone packages for a price in the middle of our range and do you know what — they are moving a lot of product and most of the sales are to new customers.
I like that Focal and Naim are focusing on personal audio with their headphones and Naim Uniti Series. I tried the new Uniti Atom HE Network Headphone Amplifier with both Focal headphones and my own HiFiMAN and Meze Audio cans — it was perfect for people who want a hi-res streamer/DAC/headphone amplifier that can also serve as a preamp with active loudspeakers. Same tactile volume dial and one of the best control apps available from any manufacturer.
People gravitate to headphones and I can see this being a very successful gateway drug for people who want to use premium headphones instead of loudspeakers.
Naim & Focal get it. Both on the hardware and software side of the streaming category.
Rotel and Pro-Ject have expanded their offerings to include more affordable integrated amplifiers, turntables, CD players, and even streamers — and the results speak for themselves.
The Future is Now
We’re going to continue on our new path because it’s working. We have published almost 1689 articles in 2 years (on pace for over 800 articles again this year) and our focus on vintage, vinyl, affordable systems, headphones, and the changing face of the audiophile community is having a huge impact on our traffic.
Our publication has more than tripled in readership in less than 2 years and we are very grateful to our readers for their daily support. We are on pace for over 500K monthly readers by the end of Q4 and that comes with a degree of responsibility and the willingness to have more open conversations with all of you.
Tell us what you want to see going forward. Let us know whom you would like us to interview on the ecoustics podcast.
Ian White & Brian Mitchell
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