You're probably right on target. The products were already in development and now they have to put on a brave face and go out and sell, sell, sell. It's got to be a tough spot. I believe that the current economic situation will thin the herd of high end. Hopefully the category will emerges leaner, meaner, and healthier on the other side of the tunnel. Personally I find it a bit presumptuous to ENTER the market with uber priced gear. To me a manufacturer would be better served by building more modest gear, learn from those outings, create a customer base for their "brand", then come out with their definitive statement. I don't have the kind of budget that allows me to spend 6 figures (or even 5 figures to be honest) to purchase a component but if I did I would want it to be from an established name. Someone that I had confidence was going to be around in 5 years.

One of my best friends is a very successful high end dealer.

Thinking this must be a tough year for him I expressed my sympathies and he looked surprised.
He said he was selling more gear than he ever had. We are talking Nordhost 20,000 power cords and up. Mega buck speakers etc.

My take is that the super rich are cutting back by not buying that 3rd vacation home for 5 million. They are cutting back by only spending 200,000
on the stereo Chump change for them.

Would you believe I was part of the Tenor/Rockport exhibit 7 years ago (where does the time go?) at the then brand new Tuscany in Vegas? Back then the Tenor amps were only around 14K per monoblock if memory serves, but the Hyperions were biamped, so.... The Rockport Hyperion speakers were 90K/pr. Cabling by Jena Labs. Tenor apparently must have been well-heeled even in those days as the Tuscany room was exceptionally large - 60x60, something like that; anyway, maybe the moral of the story is it takes deep pockets to weather these fickle economic times.

Postscript: It is only fitting I mention the Tenor/Rockport Room was reported by a great many industry insiders and senior reviewers to be the best sound at the show... was it Jonathan Valin who deemed it the best sound he had heard anywhere, anytime and had the whole kit and kaboodle packed up and shipped to his home for review?

Anyway, bye for now

It's difficult to predict how expensive audio gear well sell in the coming few years. Consider this, expensive cosmetics and expensive interior decoration sales have always increased in times of economic downturn. Make of that what you will. One thing's for sure, if a large number of small 'boutique' audio manufacturers go to the wall many of their talented designers will end up being employed ( at first on a lower rung?) by the large audio companies such as Pioneer, NAD, etc. This, along with economics of scale and the elimination of expensive ( and often ugly) cosmetics, could mean state of the art components will become more readily available and cheaper. Fingers crossed.
I fear for companies such as Soundlab & VPI who produce unique products with a limited customer base. Maybe we should all be buying in spare parts while we can?
I also predict people will hold onto good gear longer but this leaves us with the problem of the lack of skilled audio repair technicians, the sad result of the disgusting throw away mentality we've all gotten so used to. These animals have traditionally been under payed and under appreciated. I'm lucky, I've get a tech whose a close friend and believe me, he's worth his weight in gold. I've proposed to him but sadly he's incurably hetro. Ya can't win em all.

I do not believe a product that sells maybe a dozen items IS a market, just a obscurity.

We do not serve the hobby well when we pretend selling a dozen of a $100K item is a 'market'. Such sales are like trophy wives and hardly indicative of marriage.

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I do not believe a product that sells maybe a dozen items IS a market, just a obscurity.

We do not serve the hobby well when we pretend selling a dozen of a $100K item is a 'market'. Such sales are like trophy wives and hardly indicative of marriage.

Yes, some, not all $100K sales are like trophy wives. Some, to my ears, are worth every cent. If there are people out there silly enough to pay those kinds of figures for a status symbol that sounds like a strangled pig fart, so what?
Are you intending to have legislation passed that no single piece of audio gear shall ever be priced at above one month's average weekly earnings, or some such figure?

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That's surprising, Tom. I've talked to several high-end dealers, and their answers ranged from frank dismay to a fatalistic shrug of the shoulder.

Geoff, thanks for filling us in on the details of Tenor's history. I'd thought they were a newish company from the post.

I was surprised as well. OTOH, we are talking about Texas, which has an 11 billion surplus and always does better in recessions than the rest of the U.S.

There are two segments for high end: there are everyday people like us who go out an purchase high end audio although usually not at the the very top and there are the people who purchase high end and that are not effected by the recession (unless they invested with Madoff). In talking with my audio dealer he is seeing a def softening on the low end high audio but he stills sells a hell of a lot of the Macintosh $12,000 CD players. Of course here in California a lot of money comes from the entertainment area which seems not to be effected by the recession

my experience comes from living in the suburbs of Cincinnati, a mid-sized mid-west city. the cost of living is pretty low here, so a million dollars is still real money for a home in this neighborhood, unlike califonia where that is a bungalow. well, the only homes selling in my area are million and up (not me) and $150,000 and below right now. those million dollar babies are decked out too. there is a lot of "stealth-wealth" in this country even now. perhaps one theory to liken this to expensive audio is that it provides that "little reward" to the wealthy in a less ostentatious way in bad times as opposed to an expensive car? i don't know, just a thought.
my dealer friend says that most of the wealthy people he caters to are more concerned with buying "the best" than the overall quality of the sound. but there just are not enough of them to support the business without more.
most dealers, and by extension manufacturers make their bread and butter on the famous middle class that the polititians talk about.
sadly, my prediction is that there will be blood.

Buying the best?! I have to agree with most audio enthusiasts who say that your ears are the best judge but there are a lot of people who believe that price=quality. There will be a shaking out of high end audio dealers but there will remain a market for it. When I have friends over to hear my system I usually hear "I didn't know CD's could sound that good" but then not a lot of people have the time to sit and really listen to good music

My local store (which admittedly is in one of the most affluent locales in the Bay Area) says that "entry-level" sales (for example in systems in the $3500-$7000 range) are down, but that big-ticket sales in the $250,000 range are up; that the people who really have money...still really have money. He said that while there are not that many of those big-ticket sales, they are off-setting the decrease in "affordable" sales. How long that will continue, OTOH, is another matter.

I know that there had been a post on dealer margin on such products. I would be curious to know if these big ticket sales are being sold with much profit, or if large discounts are being taken to entice those who may not need to be so careful with their finances.

Not exactly high end news but Circuit City announced liquidation today.

I tend to agree. If you look at Walmart's most recent earnings, which were expected to be good due to step down shopping as a result of the soft economy, the street was shocked when they reported lower than expected. Analysts quickly embraced the notion that in a soft economy, the people hurting the most are the typical Walmart customers, who continue to shop at Walmart, but who have cut back on the electronics and discretionary stuff. The step down shoppers aren't going to Walmart and the affluent are still spending if their income stream is relatively secure. As opposed to the the Walmart customers who are less confident of continued employment.