are we the 'poor relation' in audiophile land?

[doodoos]

Stereophile covers the Magico v3 speaker in the latest issue and very fine they seem too. However there is no UK distributor, but there is in Finland, Greece etc.Looking through the pictures of tasty gear on show in Munich recently I became aware of how much never gets to these shores. Why not?
Presumably they consider our market unsustainable but why? Is the UK considered as irrelevant in some audio circles?

[Neil McCauley]

Stereophile covers the Magico v3 speaker in the latest issue and very fine they seem too. However there is no UK distributor, but there is in Finland, Greece etc.Looking through the pictures of tasty gear on show in Munich recently I became aware of how much never gets to these shores. Why not?
Presumably they consider our market unsustainable but why? Is the UK considered as irrelevant in some audio circles?

I’ve had a little experience of this a hopefully my comments might help a bit. Of course I’ve been a retailer for distributors, and had discussions from time to time with US and German makers about becoming an importer. Most recently, this was with regards to TacT. It came to nothing.

Intuitively, existing importer/distributors do a simple estimate in their minds. It’s salient and without hard data, only rough and ready. It goes along the lines of the ratio of ‘x’ to ’y’ where x is the number of audiophiles in the UK with the money to purchase the item and ‘y’ are the number of options available to that audio within the price band. This last bit is most important.

Given that the market (‘x’) is small in the UK plus the fact that we have some highly competent home grown products PLUS the fact we have a number of incumbent and established importers with good products, then the ‘ratio’ as described above is currently, and I guess for the foreseeable future, commercially unattractive.

My belief is that it is as simple as this. Of course there are other factors which are difficult to confront. For example, establishing a brand in the UK that has no previous reputation. It happens, but it’s increasingly tough.

And then of course there is the grey import factor. Take STAX for example. A UK buyer would have to be nuts, in my view, to purchase STAX earspeakers in the UK. they can be bought (without voltage issues) direct from Japan and the USA for very considerable savings even when VAT and import duty are factored in. (It's slightly more complicated with the STAX Energisers though.)

It’s certainly true that some makers probably do feel the UK is irrelevant. This is certainly true of makers who have been represented numerous time via ‘n’ importers and frankly, no longer want the hassle. And there are the occasional deeply arrogant ones who either (a) don’t want to pay for CE approval or (b) think that we are a backward nation – or both.

There more to this. But I don’t want to bore anyone and I'm off to Chutneys tonight – a damn fine Indian Veggie restaurant in Drummond Street, London. http://www.london-eating.co.uk/362.htm

[Marco]

Robin,

As I wrote on the Munich Show thread:

Primarily the biggest difference is that generally the Germans are much more serious about hi-fi than we are and also tend to spend big money on seriously hi-end kit.

They tend to think more 'out of the box' than we do and in terms of equipment are not afraid to go outside of the mainstream, whereas in Britain enthusiasts, in the main, are 'bargain hunters' who operate in the low to mid echelons of the marketplace buying mainly mass-produced mainstream hi-fi.

Basically, outside of the US, the Japanese and German markets are where the 'big players' are in hi-fi, so the Munich show reflects this.

There's a big high-end scene in Greece, too.

The difference in the UK is truly affluent 'audiophiles' (in general) buy expensive 'lifestyle' hi-fi or collections of expensive boxes from 'aspirational' brands to impress their friends and neighbours in the way of a designer suit or a flashy new car. Ask them anything remotely technical about it and they won't have a clue.

In the likes of Germany or Greece, affluent audiophiles (note the absence of inverted commas) buy expensive equipment to further their interest in music and because they're seriously 'into' hi-fi as a hobby, know lots about it, and don't care whether it looks pretty or not. Their systems are highly tuned tools for reproducing music, not status symbols.

In Britain (in general) the knowledgeable enthusiasts are unfortunately mainly those who can't afford to buy expensive equipment, whereas the ones who can, by and large do so for all the wrong reasons. There are a few exceptions of course, but including what I wrote earlier shown in my quoted text, it kind of sums up the scene here in the UK.

Marco.

[Togil]

The latest victim of the problem with the UK seems to be T + A

Their importer's website is down and they seem to have disappeared from dealers' agencies.

Anyone know the details ?

Hans

[Marco]

Ah yes, T+A pronounced as: "Tay" und "Aah".

They make good gear.

Marco.

[snapper]

Here's me thinking it meant tits'n'ass.

[Marco]

Tee hee... Perhaps Hans will tell you what that is in German

Marco.

[Togil]

He he .

Actually you could view this topic from a more positive angle : I'm sure some foreign companies feel they can't compete with British hifi, especially in the loudspeaker scene. As one reviewer in a German magazine recently put it : "The British can't play football but they make damn good HiFi ! "

Hans

[pure sound]

LOL, that must've been written before British clubs occupied 3 of the 4 possible European Final places!

[Marco]

But I don’t want to bore anyone and I'm off to Chutneys tonight – a damn fine Indian Veggie restaurant in Drummond Street, London. http://www.london-eating.co.uk/362.htm

Howard, are you a veggie or did you just fancy some veggie food tonight?

Marco.