Turntable Sales - Circa 2010

[The Grand Wazoo]

This is pretty much aimed at the dealer fraternity here.

I was just pondering a few things as you do & wondered about the current sales of turntables & how they compare to the days of yore.
We hear about the resurgance of vinyl & see the 2nd hand value of all things analogue going up.

Of course I realise that sales of all things hi-fi are way down on those times, but I wonder whether the number of TT's that you shift is anything like the number shifted then as a percentage of market share of each type of item.

Any idea?

Cheers

[hifi_dave]

Well, I still sell turntables, arms and cartridges on a regular basis but not in the quantities that we used to but that also applies to all things hi-fi. That is to be expected though as there aren't the customers out there anymore.

In the late 70's and early 80's we literally couldn't get the gear in quickly enough. For instance, we had an allocation of 24 Rega turntables per month and it didn't matter how much we pleaded, we couldn't have any more except at Christmas when we got 5 more. With this rationing we would only sell a Rega as part of a complete system but even then we always had a waiting list of 12 months. Yes, one year but only if you bought a system.

So, we sold 24 Rega's a month but also 4-6 Linn's a week plus assorted Michell and Systemdek turntables with their arms and cartridges. In stock we had a selection of arms and cartridges from the AT95E to Koetsu Rosewood all ready to go.

Those were the days...:lolsign:

[The Grand Wazoo]

Thanks for this Dave - interesting.
But what would you say the TT sales were as a proportion of all sales?
And how would that compare to nowadays?

[hifi_dave]

Difficult to say as I haven't got any figures but I 'feel' that the propertions are similar in terms of turnover. The turntables, arms and cartridges I now sell are mainly at a higher level than back then. In those days we were selling to a younger market, which is where the Rega, Michell Focus, Systemdek and other turntables went, along with the rest of the system.

Nowadays I don't often sell a complete system, it's usually a component upgrade. The record playing machines are now far more expensive, usually with a 12 inch arm and sometimes with two 12 inch arms mounted. Most sales are now what you'd term 'high end', virtually no budget at all but maybe that's where I pitch my market.

[DSJR]

back in 1982 - 85, Studio 99 were in the top three Linn/Naim/Rega dealerships and the London shop sold around 13 - 15 LP12's PER WEEK!!!!! I'm not joking, we had three people setting the things up almost full time and that's in addition to the few that I sold in the sticks. Our little shop was alocated 11 Rega's per month, six 3's and five 2's....

I look back and wonder at the popularity of it all back then.. not being in the industry now i can't say how the "vinyl revival" is going, but I suspect it's really just a very few hundred people in the UK buying new every year and a thousand or two buying used product...

[Mike Reed]

I suppose that when a record player was the only effective way of reproducing purchased music apart from compact cassettes, t/t sales could only decline against competitive CDPs and other digital forms

However, I wonder if the VARIETY of kit sold has changed much.

For example, analogue has, in my opinion, branched out, with sundry phono stages, m/c and m/m carts, supporting furniture etc. far in excess of what was available a generation or more ago.

Valved amps have proliferated; cables are now de rigeur and so on.

The long established dealer has seen a total sea-change in equipment, I guess, but maybe not in all areas.

[DSJR]

Record sales were being eroded by cassettes long before CD IIRC... There were so many twenty-something year old audio fans at this time that we didn't see it at all.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

We get more people in after turntables these days I think than we used to, funnily enough though we get less people in after replacment cheapy stylus.... Make of that what you will! The shop I work in is a lot more about tv's than hifi these days though ... So I'm not sure if thy has any real baring on anything

[DSJR]

What about the Sevenoaks/ex-Sevenoaks dealership not far from you?

[Tarzan]

I just bought a new Technics SL1200 MK2 and l rang three shops- sorry sold out, the fourth shop had some a bit off topic, but somebody is selling them.

[DSJR]

It's a good deck that will see many of us out easily.. Even with original bearing used domestically.....

[darkstar078]

Some figures out EMI's 'A Tour of The World Record Markets' from 1967:
The estimated number of UK homes with record players is 8 million. Total number of players a dazzling 10 million.
1966 saw a UK record players sale of 385.000.