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...has raised over $1M (one million dollars) with 5,800+ funders and still has 11 hours left. I'd say they've hit on a rich mine.
Even high-end audio's most respected companies lack the capital required to attract celebrity endorsements and launch advertising campaigns on the scale enjoyed by those more popular brands. So how can the industry reach a wider, younger audience?
Many audio companies have taken to various forms of social mediaastounding when you consider that, as little as five years ago, you'd be lucky to find a high-end audio company with a halfway-decent website. Then, it was not at all uncommon to discover that the person responsible for writing complex audio code was incapable of sending a simple e-mail. Today, things are different. You may still be unable to find their products in local stores, but you can easily find their presidents and marketing managers on the Web. Arcam, Grado, Meridian, Peachtree, Sonos, VPI, and Zu are just a few brands juggling weblogs, Twitter feeds, Facebook pages, Spotify playlists, Pinterest boards, and Instagram accounts.
A more interesting and possibly more effective opportunity comes in the form of Kickstarter, the vastly popular crowd-funding website. Since its launch, in April 2009, the New York Citybased company has helped collect over $839 million from more than 5 million backers, resulting in the successful funding of over 50,000 products ranging from affordable 3D printers to fancy food thermometers to space-age dress shirts.
Strictly speaking, Kickstarter is simply a platform that allows creative people to reach an audience; it's not directly involved in the development of projects. The success of Kickstarter, as well as of the projects it hosts, is based on the relationship between "creators" and "backers." Creators retain complete control of their projects. It's their responsibility to describe the benefits of those projects and to then attract the financial support of backers. Creators determine a funding goal and a deadline by which that goal must be met. If a project reaches or exceeds its funding goal, backers' credit cards are charged for the specific amount they donated, and Kickstarter charges the creator a 5% fee on the total funds raised; if a project does not reach its goal, no one is charged. Backers don't stand to make a financial profit, but they do receive some sort of reward for their support. If, for instance, an LP is successfully funded, backers may receive a signed copied of that LP.
The consumer-electronics industry has embraced Kickstarter with eagerly opened arms. At the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, the spaces typically controlled by corporate giants were suddenly dotted with independent, Kickstarter-funded startups. The most popular of these was the Pebble Watch, a customizable, Bluetooth-enabled wristwatch for use with iPhone and Android devices. If you thought the wristwatch was dead, think again. The Pebble creators collected $10,266,845 from 68,929 backers, making their smart idea the most successful of all Kickstarter projects thus far. If Sony or Samsung sold 68,000 smartwatches, we might not notice; when Pebble does it, heads turn.
Today's angel investors and venture capitalists may not take a special interest in small, independent tech companies, especially those with no sales history, but Kickstarter allows an entrepreneur to simultaneously pitch a business idea and build a customer base. Young audio companies have taken note. In July 2012, Los Angeles's Urban Fidelity (see "The Entry Level" in this issue) proposed a single-driver, cabinet-free loudspeaker whose front panel features expertly printed designs by independent artists. Within a month, the project was successfully funded. In December 2012, the Boston-based startup U-Turn Audio used Kickstarter to introduce the Orbit, a $179 turntable. By the end of its 35-day funding period, the company had raised $233,940 from 1133 backers, easily exceeding its $60,000 funding goal. Orders are shipping now.
We smiled when startups like Urban Fidelity and U-Turn Audio successfully launched their Kickstarter-funded projects, but when Light Harmonic, maker of the highly regarded Da Vinci DAC ($20,000), turned to Kickstarter to fund the production of a $299 device called the Geek Out, the high-end audio industry raised a collective eyebrow.
Like AudioQuest's successful DragonFly, the Geek Out would be a portable DAC and headphone amp that plugs into a laptop's USB port to deliver improved sound to headphones or a stereo system. But whereas the current DragonFly model is limited to a maximum resolution of 24-bit/96kHz PCM, Geek Out would employ trickle-down technology to handle 32/384 as well as native DSD files. In addition, Geek Out's two (0.47 and 47 ohms) outputs would make it compatible with a wide range of headphones and in-ear monitors.
Light Harmonic's 30-day Kickstarter campaign was launched August 13, 2013, with a funding goal of $28,000, intended to cover the costs of final production and packaging for an initial run of 500 units. Depending on their pledge amount, the Geek Out's backers were offered rewards ranging from a simple thanks ($1), to discounted Geek Outs for "early adopters" ($99$219), to a trip to the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show ($5000). A media blitz ensued. In addition to its Kickstarter page, the Geek Out had its own dedicated website, blog, Facebook group, and Twitter feed. Press releasesmany of them, from several of the best-known agents in the industryfilled our inboxes.
If you thought high-end audio was dead, think again. The Geek Out reached its funding goal in less than 11 hours, and by the campaign's third day had exceeded its target by 300%. By the campaign's final day, Light Harmonic had raised $303,061 from 2146 backers. According to Gavin Fish, Light Harmonic's VP of sales and marketing, most of that support came from outside the traditional audiophile community. Fish told me via e-mail, "For every backer who asks, 'How will Geek Out sound with my Audeze LCD-3s?,' there are five who ask, 'Will this make my Beats sound better?'"
Fish may be optimistic, but with the recent well-documented success of LPs, headphones, and computer-audio components, he has good reason to be. Perhaps it's just a matter of time before the pursuit of true high-fidelity sound reaches every music lover. After all, these days, it's cool to be a geek.
...has raised over $1M (one million dollars) with 5,800+ funders and still has 11 hours left. I'd say they've hit on a rich mine.
This was the first DSD-compatible USB thumb-size DAC with a headphone output, yes? If so, that's a worthy investment I think.
Resonessence Lab have been producing a usb thumb size dac( HERUS) capable of decoding DSD 64 and 128 as well as PCM 24/352.8. That DAC can also be used with Smartphones both Apple and Androids.
From what I see, the Herus is not the same thing - it requires a cable rather than plug directly into the USB port. So it's more like a Microstreamer - not like a USB thumb drive. Unless it changed.
You folks at Stereophile don't see that when you bemoan the death of the Hi-fi hobby, that a large part of the blame falls upon your shoulders, do you? Oh, and it's not just you. No, TAS shares the guilt as does Hi-Fi+, HFN&RR, and probably many more audio magazines the world over. When you concentrate on DACs and/or amplifiers that cost as much as a car, and speakers that can cost as much as a nice home (in some US markets), you are sending the message: "This passtime is for the very rich. Youngsters and the average working Joe need not apply." No wonder little to no new blood comes into this hobby. Kids figure that the only audio that they can afford is out of reach. Sure, there is some good value equipment out there, but your cover stories are invariably about some megabuck component. Your December issue is a good illustration of this point. The Wilson Alexia highlighted there is almost fifty grand. You'll not attract the next generation by gearing your readership to that level of clientele.
Of course, the manufacturers aren't helping much either. Their answer to a shrinking market full of aging enthusiasts is to sell upmarket products that are so expensive that only the neuveau riche can afford it. They cater to these people's often skewed notion that only the best will do, and to their uneducated senses, the best is determined by price. The fact that these rich people will buy a stereo system ONCE, and probably not be repeat buyers, is mostly lost on today's equipment manufacturers, who feel that because the profit margin on this equipment is so good, and the neuveau riche are so numerous, that they are set for life. Greed gentlemen, is what is driving "high-end" audio these days (as it is driving everything else in this society). I can undertsand why manufacturers are following this route, at least short term, but what's the excuse of the audio fourth estate?
You want new blood? Put the "hobbyist" back into the audio hobby. What got me interested, and I'm sure got many of you interested in audio was the availability of kits back in the day. Amps, tuners, receivers, even tape deck electronics were available as inexpensive kits back when I was a lad of fifteen. The pride of accomplishment that accompanied my completeion of a new piece of gear was as great as the joy of listening to that new component. In those days, most people built their own speaker systems (not to mention their own cables - a couple of lengths of coax, four tin-plated RCA plugs and a soldering iron was all you needed to connect two components together). My dad was a gifted amateur cabinet maker. He built me two very nice bass reflex cabinets in which I installed a pair of Allied Radio "Knight" KN812 speakers (Allied's version of the Electro-voice 12" Wolverine) along with a pair of Layfayette Japanese sourced horn tweeters. At the time I thought the rig sounded great, and best of all, I mostly made it myself, and the entire thing was less than $300, much of which I earned doing odd jobs and after school jobs. Make audio affordable again, bring back kits, and refocus your editorial priorities toward finding the best low and medium priced equipment you can, and the new blood (at all ages) will flock to the fold. But they won't won't as long as the prevailing perception is that a decent sound system will cost a half a million dollars or more and that a cable to connect your $40,000 DAC to your $60,000 pre-amp/amplifier will set you back $6000.
Changing the magazine like that would make it a different magazine, then I'd have to find something else to read (and I'm just an average wage earner). But introducing a new magazine for hobbyists and/or DIY'ers (I'm neither) sounds like a great idea, unless it already exists.
introducing a new magazine for hobbyists and/or DIY'ers (I'm neither) sounds like a great idea, unless it already exists.
20 years ago there were 4 healthy US magazines aimed at DIY audio enthusiasts - Audio Amateur, Glass Audio, Speaker Builder, Sound Practices. Now there is just one, AudioXpress. You can draw your own conclusion.
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
It's interesting to read about the business side of LH and their crowdfunded products.
I'd also really like to read a review of how the products sound!
I am amazed that people will throw money at these promotions without any indication of sound quality.
I recently demoed both the Dragonfly 1.2 and the D3. They sounded very different and I liked one far more than the other.
Please review these new crowdfunded products.