You when things are bad when...........

One of the very top men, at a very well known long established British hifi company has been in
the home counties this week, *offering* various *quality reatail outlets* that don't stock there
products a once in a life time change to be accepted in to the fold for zip yes no
minimum order at the moment & get this they don't have to stock anything either I have it on
good authority 2 shops politely refused. things must getting tuff, can you guess how it was? Wm

 

dunno


wouldn't like to name names....

 

So the Salisbury boys are going on a whip round then? :devil:

Michael.

 

Well I would say its either Naim or Arcam.

 

Oh Maybe Mick P could shed some light on this

 

I definately smell a rat - from recent rumours, sounds like it *could* be Arcam!

 

Yes Arcam alledgedly maybe badly in the poo , however on this occation it's not them

 

if it is naim then i'd be very surprised. usually they insist on dealers taking an installation cum foot tapping class before a dealership is granted.
although it may be that they are trying to get wider distribution for their new 'i' range which is a lot cheaper than the existing stuff. in which case i don't think it points to them being in trouble, more that they are trying to elbow their way into the space left by other brands now exiting the hi-fi seperates market like pioneer. if this is so then good luck to them, a british company trying to do better, a rare thing these days.
cheers


julian

 

The sad thing is that if the stories are true, then the industry as a whole is in dire straits!

the company concerned has one of the most fanatical user bases on the flat planet, so it is cause for concern to everyone.

Indeed I know of just one of their dealers whose total takings for the past few weeks actually amount to a minus figure!

This is serious for all concerned.

 

Not so I'm afraid mate. Anything you want from the latest range, no minimums. No mention of the i range.

 

Whilst that is good it also not a large group of people in the big scheme of things.

You cant continue to rely on an existing install base for future revenue growth. You need new customers. Where are they coming from. I large number of manufacturers are thinking about or actually have started to move away from the traditional 2 channel market as they see Home Cinema as the way to make money.
I cant see Multichannel music taking off big time, it is just too expensive for the masses in terms of hardware cost. Not even taking into consideration many people not wanting 5-7 speakers dotted around the room.

As someone who is not a Audio hobby-ist (sp?) I have drifted into forums like these after buying some new equipment to listen to my music collection. I can say that it really is like the "Masons".
Very inwardly gazing, not an attractive prospect to people who might be mildly interested.

With attitudes to foreign manufactures similar to the motorcycle industry of the 60's The Audio world really needs to look at itself and try to make some changes.

I am not attacking anyone in particular here so dont think I am, just some food for thought!

 

Just a quick reminder that you shouldn't post something like "Company X are in financial trouble" unless you can support it with some evidence because that could be seen as defamatory.

Something like "I heard from a dealer friend of mine" is not evidence btw You'd have to fess up with verifiable sources and or press releases.

This may seem a bit over the top but otherwise there's nothing to prevent someone who has a grudge (or any other silly reason) to come on here and say "A little birdie told me that company X are in serious financial trouble so I wouldn't buy from them if I were you".

I'm not suggesting that's the case here though and so far I think the thread has just about remained within what one could get away with

Michael.

 

That's certainly serious for the dealer. Do you mean he hasn't made any sales on the brand in question or in total?. If the latter, he'll be broke soon.

I also have dealer friends. What they sell at any given time can be influenced by the sound quality of the items concerned. It can also be influenced by extra margins on other brands, the lack of a recent review, the need to shift existing stock, the availability of financing and other factors which don't necessarily have anything to do with the meticulously unnamed company whose sales we are discussing.

Merlin, I think your tale says more about the dealer than about the company.

 

If you want to encourage new buyers, you should be looking at making your hifi as pretty as the boxes now being sold in Dixons etc. Some of those midi systems look stunning.

Once they're in the shop, then you can introduce them to the finer points of the audio quality. These people aren't going to buy some great lump of dark grey aluminium, they have lifestyles to consider. Looks good > sounds good to these people.

 

But often those people don't care about sound quality. And they do already exists its called Bang and Ofelsen (Jeremy Clarkson's favourite HIFI marque).

I think places like Dixons are partly responsable for the decline in seperates as their stupid sales men say things like "you won't be able to tell the difference between minis and seperates" and the public believe them

 

Bang and Olufsen

For a large proportion of the public they are right. For most people the sound of one of those small minis is more than adequate for what they want. TBH I have a Sony mini system (the very cool looking one with the glass front vertical CD player where you drop CDs into the slot from above) in the kitchen and the sound is really pretty good. When I listen to it I'm listening to background music whilst cooking or whatever and it's fine. Something like the Denon M31 is, by all accounts, approaching hifi in its sound quality.

I think you'll find the number of people who actually use a music system (of any kind) to just sit down and listen to music is very small and of those only some are audiophiles who really give a toss about the quality.

My dad for example has 1000+ CDs and 200+ LPs (the last of what was about 800 before he sold them) of classical music. He's very into music and often does sit down to just listen to music. He has a JVC mini system and he's quite happy with it. He uses his old late 70s Pioneer turntable through it aswell.

He has another system which is a Philips CD104 (circa 1982, the first CD player he bought) a cheap Rotel integrated handed down from my brother and a pair of J&R 149s (the cylindrical LS3/5as) also circa 1978. It's undoubtedly better than his JVC mini but he hardly ever listens to it and says he can't really notice the difference anyway.

Michael.

 

Yeah I admit systems like the Denon MC31 are good. I have always been impressed with how sweet the Denon sounds considering its size. My mates mini system does sound bad though. He is really into music and does want to get a seperates system when me moves out.

In my extended family though people either seem to have seperates or just play their music via the TV. But then there is a lot of technical people in my family from electronics backgrounds.

 

I think there needs to be a push toward the low/mid end of the seperates market by the "HIFI" dealers. I can understand that the profit is less but if you are looking for new customers you have to stop avoiding the competition and take them on.

400-500 of Denon mini system is nice, but if you offered up 500-600 packages of seperates including speakers bundled up with all the cables and leave out the hype about what cables can and cant do and market them to the people who go to Curry/Dixons

I see in the dealers that I have been in, that all the gear on offer is both expensive in tems of what the public pay and rather how shall I say it.... Geeky.
My local shop has a pair £9000 speakers in the window together with a "Power Conditioner" at some silly price. I just cant see that attracting the general public.

The perception is that the "hifi" dealer is for the AUDIO GEEK. The public go to the electrical superstore.

Obviously no offence intended.

 

Also, lots of hi fi shops are quite intimidating environments. Obviously there is some expensive gear that you don't want the muppets to handle, but at least when I walk into Dixons I don't feel as though I should clean the soles of my shoes.

 

That brings to mind the "gramophone" sketch on Not the Nine O'clock news about 20 years ago.