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HiFi consumers . . . slightly ranty

I

ItemAudio

Trade: Item Audio
Why do people insist on buying the same old rubbish, from the same rubbish manufacturers, who line the pockets of the same old rubbish distributors, who line the pockets of the same old rubbish dealers, peddling the same old overpriced rubbish to people who keep on buying it?!

The old firm of British manufacturers (you know who I'm talking about) haven't released a single genuinely competitive product in the last two decades. Yet still they outsell better products by ten to one, because still the same old rubbish magazines repetitively spew out the same old rubbish about the same old rubbish brands and their legacy still dominates the 'free media' because consumers lazily reach for the nearest and most familiar products instead of doing the research.

Stop it, people of England! Use your intelligence. Look around. There's a wide and wonderful world out there . . .

[Partly in response to the thread 'HiFi Dealers . . . slightly ranty]. Balancing the editorial perspective and all that.]
 
Because the same old rubbish has good residual resale values. And everything else doesn't.

People buy safe in a downturn. They buy safe because if the worse thing happens, they can always get back at least some of what they paid when they sell it. And the same old rubbish is safe.

There are too many brands in hi-fi now. Who wants to be saddled with last year's flavour of the month, especially when there's a fighting chance that brand has gone tits up in the last six months?

As for the magazines... they are going to tap into what the readers and what the advertisers want. And if those advertisers and readers want to read about the same old rubbish, guess what they write about?

You want to change this? Good luck! You could start by spanking down a small fortune in magazine advertising and watch the mags become interested in your products, but that still won't change much. People see through that now. The magazines hardly matter anymore. If you paw over the magazines today, you'll end up with a Cyrus streamer feeding into a Devialet D-Premier into a pair of something like Wilson Benesch speakers and lots of Nordost Odin cable all on a Finite Elemente stand that costs as much as a small car, and people don't buy that stuff, either.

Basically, join the club or suffer the consequences!

Close the door on the way out, will you?
 
Can I respectfully request that a certain dealer's website gets updated more frequently, if only to make sure the correct product descriptions, photos and prices are on the correct pages. It creates a bad first impression and has certainly put me off from buying from there.
 
I buy safe brands because I can't be arsed to listen to countless combinations of curiously-named local or foreign flavour of the month boxen. I'm happy to pay twice what I should in order to know that my system is 80% as good as it could have been had I done an inordinate amount of homework and box-swapping. I save money by not buying flavour of the month expensive DACs and cryo-treating my laptop.
 
Actually I like quirky smaller companies' stuff while fully taking the point about residual values. Distributors and dealers will of course want you to take a punt while coughing up market leader prices. Perhaps if they came in lower they would establish these products rather than just trying to take a very attractive margin?
 
Item,

Not that I'm looking to buy anything right now, but what is the amazing thing I should have from the wide and wonderful world out there.

Joe
 
Some interesting food for thought: it's been a difficult year for many dealers who aren't positioned in the middle of the mainstream: people are indeed buying safe.

The point is also taken re: website updates - you're perhaps referring to a certain dealer's old website which hasn't been updated for several months because of their new, larger website.

Sonddek: I reckon you've saved around £35 by not cryo-treating your laptop. But the fun you've missed out on is incalculable: will the DIMMs de-solder? Hunt the newly dead pixels! Find the CPU under the inverter!! How we laughed . . .

The irony of dealers complaining because the market is too 'commercial' hasn't escaped me. Can't beat them, join them? Perhaps, but to sell VDacs day in, day out? I'd rather clean pools.
 
pro·fes·sion·al·ism   [pruh-fesh-uh-nl-iz-uhm]

noun

the standing, practice, or methods of a professional,  as distinguished from an amateur.

Maybe we just prefer to buy from more professional, more established companies that dont constantly whine like little girls about the industry / competitors / customers / the weather.

Butuz
 
The bulk of the response to the OP had centred around the notion that it is better for the consumer that the status quo be maintained.

Best to play safe. The unknown is a scary place. We don't want people listening to how kit reproduces thrir favourite music and choosing it on that basis. They might imagine stuff and get it wrong or be open to the powers of suggestion by the unscrupulous.

Better to stick with what we know, eh!
 
You new website is crap by the way - I hope its not supposed to be live yet?

It looks like its been half written then abandoned. Tells me a lot about Joomla! And very little about the products. I have at least heard of Gradient but none of the other brands.
 
Actually that lot in the link does not seem to offer anything that remotely resembles value for money.

The acrylic ReBounds I hang from my RCAs cost 20 quid.
 
Steven Toy said:
The bulk of the response to the OP had centred around the notion that it is better for the consumer that the status quo be maintained.

Best to play safe. The unknown is a scary place. We don't want people listening to how kit reproduces thrir favourite music and choosing it on that basis. They might imagine stuff and get it wrong or be open to the powers of suggestion by the unscrupulous.

Better to stick with what we know, eh!
Click to expand...

The unknown is a scary place when you don't know which way the economy will turn. People buy very (too?) cautiously under such conditions.

They buy what they know and what they know others know because they know they can sell it to those in the know. If you know what I mean?
 
alanbeeb said:
You new website is crap by the way - I hope its not supposed to be live yet?

It looks like its been half written then abandoned. Tells me a lot about Joomla! And very little about the products. I have at least heard of Gradient but none of the other brands.
Click to expand...

If by 'crap' you mean 'unfinished', then yes, it is. Funnily enough, Gradient was one of the few brands I'd not heard of until recently.

From (approximately) the same part of the world (geographically) as Coconut Audio . . .
 
Evil Emperor said:
The unknown is a scary place when you don't know which way the economy will turn. People buy very (too?) cautiously under such conditions.

They buy what they know and what they know others know because they know they can sell it to those in the know. If you know what I mean?
Click to expand...

I know what you mean, if you know what I mean.
 
sideshowbob said:
Is that an April fool's joke? Quite astounding if it isn't.
Click to expand...

I'm assuming so as I can't see a link on the main page which goes to that page.

Those descriptions are funny though - the names read like dungeons & dragons, "giant ruby-encrusted wand of demon-shrinking +3", or similar...
 
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