Industry Insiders And Their Nonsense

[Jimbo]

Interesting post Martin and many truths in there.

If you look at who owns large parts of the hifi industry you will find that it is all about shareholders and maximising their interests. Take some of the well known brands and peel away the layers and you will find some huge business investment owners at the other end who absolutely nothing to do with hifi. They just want to make cash... capitalist society so to be expected!

The very expensive gear just means they do not have to concern themselves selling to the masses but just the gullible few with deep pockets. No large amount of box shifting to make small profits but just sell a couple and make HUGE profits and far less hassle? Quite a few hifi business operate on this principle where they are not interested in the mass market low end but just the top as it means less effort for everyone involved in order to make lots of money. This is mirrored by the hifi shows which are stacked out with ridiculously priced high end gear.

The magazines and internet "reviewers" rarely look at affordable gear, although there are some exceptions, most of it is eye watering in price and funnily none ever gets a bad review. What a sad industry it has become when you pull back the curtain?

[narabdela]

...just the gullible few with deep pockets.

I don't worry about them. What concerns me are the gullible few who believe that putting themselves in debt is going to transport them to some sort of audio cloud nine.

(Can I interest anyone in an audiophile grade 13amp fuse, only £2400?)

[Puffin]

I don't know how many people are still interested in building a separates system or their age group. I suspect that the majority of those who have such a system are over 50 years old or older. I Used to pore over all the hifi mags in the 80s imagining what the latest rave review sounded like. Yes, getting expectation bias from a picture and some print of what the reviewer thought of it! as a teenager I wanted a "Hifi" with big speakers with big bass. Teenagers these days (and older) are likely content with their phone and some bluetooth speakers or ear buds.

Fast forward to now. There are many ways to hear what the current flavour of the month is amplifier wise without spending mega bucks. I recently bought a new commercially available amp as it cost less than I could DIY it for. It uses one of the latest iterations of Class D, in a nice case with all the connections, but minus a power supply. I posted about it on another forum where the majority are into higher end stuff and got a few interested responses but as it cost so little I suspect they thought that there was no way it could be "Hifi" whatever that is. No one has bought one to my knowledge

You pays your money and you takes your choice. Some have a price range in their mind for quality and anything under that cannot be any good.

I stopped reading mags years ago but occasionally flip through a few in WHSmith's. The price tags are laughable. Hifi News always used to be quite conservative with their ratings but now they all seem to be 100% positive

[Mr. C]

Really I'm fed up with reading about things being difficult financially for young people. It was always that way unless your parents were loaded.

What he's really worried about is that these youngsters are never going to be in a position to buy expensive hi-fi. Because that's where the big margins are.

Well you can't blame them for trying I suppose. But how about making some good affordable products and writing about them. Or writing about second-hand bargains instead of reviews of ten grand streamers, cables and other expensive, magic-powered nonsense that surely has the effect of putting off impecunious youngsters looking at getting into the hobby?

Industry Insiders Bollocks. Self-serving and - ultimately - counter-productive.

Not often Macca & I agree on many things however today he is on the money.

Absolutely Martin,just like influencers on any form of social media 'giving' opinions on product 'x' or product 'y' because they feel self important or can lever £/$ from subscribers or patreons, many a gen x & snowflake thing but you will have lots of oddballs from just about ever form or hobby or interest

All of the under 30's want to be influencers on a YT channel making a living by doing virtually nothing, trying to find young, keen and genuine staff is all but impossible. I had one 'potential electronics apprentice' tell me how he will be on 35K after a 3 year course and that is was slave labour until then LOL

I know not all youngsters will be this way, but the M3 craving owners and £240 trainer bridgade are all the same, still live at home with mummy etc.

Like Martin mentioned you made do with what you had, did a few side hussles and made it work, yes things were much cheaper, but my first take home pay was £27.50 before you paid your bills lol

[Macca]

There were some youngsters at this years NW Audio show but they looked wealthy (you can always tell by the hair, rich kids have rich-kid hair).

Any normal youth thinking he quite fancied a proper hifi and who popped along to see what was on offer probably thought he'd need a lottery win to even get on the ladder.

It was a mate's dad's JVC/JBL system (my parents had no interest in music) that got me into it. I wanted that! But I don't think today's youth have the same chance to get exposure to proper equipment.

My neighbour is 32 and likes music but just has one of those blue tooth speakers. It's okay for background, not at all unpleasant. I offered to loan him a full system - not interested.

[Beobloke]

probably all true mate.. luxury products look good in glossies, and are paid for mostly by the product placement, not the selling of mags. if it were with the buying of mags, there would be a topless bint carressing each speaker

I’ve just sent in a review into Hi-Fi News of a pair of speakers. I can send in a topless photo of me draped over them if you think it’ll help sell more mags!

What worries me is that the newcomer to Hi-Fi buys a copy of Hi-Fi News, reads about nothing much except £10K cartridges, £80K speakers, £100K amps, £15K mains leads etc and thinks that is what you need to buy to get a Hi-Fi system.

Whilst I understand where you’re coming from, if your mythical reader buys next months Hi-Fi News, he can also read about a good quality secondhand turntable that can be bought from around £150. I know because I wrote the article! A lot of the vintage things covered by the magazine recently have been eminently affordable.

[struth]

I’ve just sent in a review into Hi-Fi News of a pair of speakers. I can send in a topless photo of me draped over them if you think it’ll help sell more mags!



Whilst I understand where you’re coming from, if your mythical reader buys next months Hi-Fi News, he can also read about a good quality secondhand turntable that can be bought from around £150. I know because I wrote the article! A lot of the vintage things covered by the magazine recently have been eminently affordable.

Bet I've better boobs lol

[walpurgis]

Whilst I understand where you’re coming from, if your mythical reader buys next months Hi-Fi News, he can also read about a good quality secondhand turntable that can be bought from around £150. I know because I wrote the article!

Hope it's a TD150.

[Beobloke]

Hope it's a TD150.

No! We did that years ago…

[Beobloke]

Bet I've better boobs lol