As I write this, the current US president recently put into effect large import tariffs on almost every country except (oddly) Russia and North Korea, then paused for most countries (including EU countries) for 90 days (except for 10%, and then another 10%). The 145% tariff on Chinese exports wasn't paused (except for computers and smartphones).
Tariffs are the dominant force in our industry right now, due partly to the added cost but also to the uncertainty they create. New products, especially those made in China, have been delayed because prices can't be set. Companies in Europe and elsewhere are waiting and seeing; some have implemented or are contemplating price increases; others have decided (for now) to keep prices the same. Many component parts come from China, so American supply chains are disrupted—and as we learned from the COVID pandemic, supply-chain disruptions can lead to inflation. Tariffs have caused the value of the dollar to decline, making foreign products more expensive for Americans (and American importer/distributors).
Lenbrook (NAD, PSB, Bluesound) raised prices 15% in early March and another 10% in April. Steinway-Lyngdorf, makers of the Lyngdorf MXA-8400 eight-channel amplifier reviewed in June 2025 by Kalman Rubinson, announced a tiered price-increase schedule, with increases ranging from 5% to 53%—of retail, not wholesale, prices. AudioQuest says it will add a "temporary" 5% increase (of wholesale) prices on PowerQuest, Niagara, DragonFly, and JitterBug products and 10% on all others (footnote 1).
Tariffs should have a major beneficiary: US manufacturers, due to the fact that foreign products are now less competitively priced. But if you think US manufacturers are happy with the protection from overseas products that import tariffs offer, think again. US companies may benefit from tariffs with domestic sales, but many (perhaps most) US hi-fi companies sell half or more of their product overseas—and that will be interrupted by "reciprocal" tariffs against the US, which are practically guaranteed. Representatives of US companies I spoke to were pissed. Tariffs are harming those they're intended to help.
And consumers? We're stuck with less choice and in many cases higher prices.
The worst problem, though, is none of this. Rather, it's the wealth—the spending power—that tariffs have destroyed. As of late April, the S&P 500 was down about 11% from its recent peak on February 19. Tariffs (or the tariff threat) are expected to substantially reduce economic growth, in the US and overseas, which means less money to spend on hi-fi (footnote 2). The IMF expects US economic growth to slow from last year's 2.8% to 1.8%—a reduction in potential new wealth of about $300 billion, fully attributable to tariffs. Germany, home of Accustic Arts, Audio Physik, Burmester, Canton, Elac, MBL, and T+A, among other hi-fi companies, was expecting a small amount of growth—perhaps 0.3%—to its stagnant economy; post-tariff, those growth predictions have been zeroed out.
There are indications that the US hi-fi industry is reining itself in, and the clear, obvious reason is tariffs.
Ever heard of Ethel Cain? I hadn't, though she is reasonably well-known. She's a singer-songwriter from Perry, Florida, a town I remember from my childhood as the approximate midpoint in my family's frequent trips to my grandparents' places in Alabama before the interstate was finished. I recall sleepily rolling into town and seeing lights from a handful of restaurants in the part of town we drove through. In contrast to the rest of Florida, Perry—population 6898, according to the 2020 census—doesn't seem to have grown much in the last 40 years or so. Ethel Cain, aka Hayden Silas Anhedönia, grew up singing in the church choir. She left the church at age 16. Judging by her lyrics, the parting was not amicable. Anhedönia is Cain's legal name, though it isn't her birth name. Anhedonia is also a psychological syndrome characterized by the inability to experience pleasure or joy. It's a common consequence of schizophrenia and severe depression.
In early 2022, Cain released her first full-length album, Preacher's Daughter. The album's protagonist is the daughter of the town preacher, who had died years before. Cain's music is hard to describe. Ambient slowcore darkwave Americana noise with gospel and metal influences? I hear Cat Power in some of her well-reverbed vocals. The lyrics are consistently dark—"When my mother sees me on the side/Of a milk carton in Winn-Dixie's dairy aisle/She'll cry and wait up for me," she sings on "Strangers"—and often Not Safe For Work. Sonically, I prefer more grit and less atmosphere, but some of the later tracks sound okay.
When it was released in 2022, for streaming and download—no physical media, which these days is common enough—Preacher's Daughter received critical acclaim but failed to make a mark commercially. Then suddenly, in the April 10 issue of Billboard—three years after the album's release—Preacher's Daughter appeared at #1 on the Album Sales chart and #3 on the Artist 100 chart. Most significant was its appearance, at #10, on the Billboard 200 chart. The Billboard 200 is a modern chart, based on metrics relevant to our current age: traditional album sales (physical and digital) plus track-equivalent albums plus streaming-equivalent albums. So that's an actual, 2025-type #10 ranking, not some relic like Rock Physical Album Sales.
Why did this 2022 album become popular all of a sudden? Because on April 4, 2025—a week before the cover date on that Billboard issue—it was released on vinyl. Vinyl sales alone launched it to #10 on the Billboard 200. That's the power of vinyl circa 2025.
Not convinced? How 'bout this? The album Tracy Chapman debuted on the Billboard 200 on April 30, 1988. It hit #1 on that chart in the August 27 Billboard. Tracy Chapman's run on the Billboard 200 ended more than a year later, in the week of July 4, 1989.
Almost 36 years later, on the chart for the week of April 19, 2025, Tracy Chapman found its way back to the charts, at #51 on the Billboard 200.
Why? On April 4, Rhino and Elektra reissued Tracy Chapman on vinyl.
Footnote 1: Some of this information comes courtesy of Strata-Gee.com. Footnote 2: Overall retail sales fell by 0.9% in May from the prior month; see www.cnn.com/2025/06/17/economy/us-retail-sales-may.—Ed.
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Ever heard of Ethel Cain? I hadn't, though she is reasonably well-known. She's a singer-songwriter from Perry, Florida, a town I remember from my childhood as the approximate midpoint in my family's frequent trips to my grandparents' places in Alabama before the interstate was finished. I recall sleepily rolling into town and seeing lights from a handful of restaurants in the part of town we drove through. In contrast to the rest of Florida, Perry—population 6898, according to the 2020 census—doesn't seem to have grown much in the last 40 years or so. Ethel Cain, aka Hayden Silas Anhedönia, grew up singing in the church choir. She left the church at age 16. Judging by her lyrics, the parting was not amicable. Anhedönia is Cain's legal name, though it isn't her birth name. Anhedonia is also a psychological syndrome characterized by the inability to experience pleasure or joy. It's a common consequence of schizophrenia and severe depression.
When it was released in 2022, for streaming and download—no physical media, which these days is common enough—Preacher's Daughter received critical acclaim but failed to make a mark commercially. Then suddenly, in the April 10 issue of Billboard—three years after the album's release—Preacher's Daughter appeared at #1 on the Album Sales chart and #3 on the Artist 100 chart. Most significant was its appearance, at #10, on the Billboard 200 chart. The Billboard 200 is a modern chart, based on metrics relevant to our current age: traditional album sales (physical and digital) plus track-equivalent albums plus streaming-equivalent albums. So that's an actual, 2025-type #10 ranking, not some relic like Rock Physical Album Sales.
Why did this 2022 album become popular all of a sudden? Because on April 4, 2025—a week before the cover date on that Billboard issue—it was released on vinyl. Vinyl sales alone launched it to #10 on the Billboard 200. That's the power of vinyl circa 2025.
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Almost 36 years later, on the chart for the week of April 19, 2025, Tracy Chapman found its way back to the charts, at #51 on the Billboard 200.
Why? On April 4, Rhino and Elektra reissued Tracy Chapman on vinyl.
Footnote 1: Some of this information comes courtesy of Strata-Gee.com. Footnote 2: Overall retail sales fell by 0.9% in May from the prior month; see www.cnn.com/2025/06/17/economy/us-retail-sales-may.—Ed.
