Honestly, I have to differ here as one who goes to a lot of shows. Some observations from 14 years at RMAF and others:
1. Great gear sounds great at shows by and large. Many of the better firms either know how to so setup or hire guys like Jim Smith and Stirling Trayle to get it right.
2. Hotel power sucks like most power (I know this since I do location recordings) but a good line conditioner solves this and good people like PS Audio lend out that gear.
3. Hotel rooms have bad acoustics but you know what, that's not an excuse since setup guys are at work and many mfrs uses the same room year-in year-out and figure out what needs to be done.
4. The biggest sound problems come from using really bad gear like Scaena speakers (fortunately PS Audio hated them and moved to the much better Focal) and Ayre electronics or have really bad synergy which is sadly a bigger issue. Fundamentals matter like primarily speaker-amp pairings. How's that for honesty.
JAJAJAJAJAJA!!! I happen to feel the same way about Audio Research and Focal as you feel about Scaena. A lot of people feel strong dislike about Magico and Wilson. They are very polarizing brands! Interestingly, Harry Pearson thought Scaena and NOLA were 2 of the best speakers in the world, but when "Sterile" Jon Valin usurped power from HP, he called both speakers "as you like it", meaning badly colored speakers.
I have heard ARC amps sound like PURE MALODOROUS DREK every time I have heard them, with only two exceptions. Both times they sounded great - and it was ARC Ref 75 amp. Once was Scaena and once was with Nola. I think both speakers are very easy to drive and both have been designed with ARC.
By the way, I want to make sure you understand I am not laughing at you, Lee. I sincerely appreciate your point of view. Subjectivity is a funny thing.
Here are a couple of posts I wrote about 3 years ago that explain why certain brands dominate, and why most languish and slowly die. Since then, Classe has gone belly up, Raidho's founders have left to peddle cables, Technical Brain seems to be dead also, no one talks about Veloce, and the list of rooms covered 10 years ago at RMAF is nearly unrecognizable. (And interestingly, some dealers who questioned this theory are now selling the blockbuster brands instead of the more obscure ones
):
"....interesting thread... let's look at things a bit more holistically from an economic perspective..
There are fairly low entry costs into the high end audio industry. Any guy can assemble the stuff in his garage. capital requirements are fairly low. just build the more complex parts of the gear in someone else’s shop. if you cook up a recipe that others like, you can get “large”. And if you get large, you can open your own machine/ furniture / metal shop. if you so, you can build your own cabinets and drivers, and use it as point of quality/differentiation…
These low entry barriers have caused a proliferation of gear today to suit every taste: from highly musical stuff that conveys human emotions to highly resolving stuff that succeeds at mechanical excellence and detail resolution. There are so many turntables, dacs, speakers, amps, cables, and combinations of the above that it makes your head spin. And all these excessive choices no doubt drives away customers due to sheer confusion because there is no one to trust to help separate the wheat from the chaff. So the primary marketing strategy of successful audio firms is to get a reviewer to like your stuff. If they do, they can mention it every time they write about it...
It’s a shame, but most reviewers are like smegma (there are a few good guys, but they are rare). Most help protect the incumbents and blockbuster brands; most reviewers just follow the herd and most are too gutless to voice independent opinions.
who has the beitzim to give the magico, arc, wilson, pass, macintosh, etc., bad reviews, when in comparison smaller, less talked about companies frequently smoke the blockbuster brands. So the blockbuster brands get stronger, while the smaller companies with better products are starving or scraping by. Of course, it makes sense for a dealer to carry these blockbuster brands, and it makes sense for less demanding audiophiles who are happy to have what others have so they can kibbitz about the products they have on the internet sites with those who own the same products. But not so for the customer that is looking for the ultimate sound of their choice.
Also, the reviewers take on authority mentality. they see the audiophile as some dumb f#%! that they need to give specific instructions to : "this is the best", "I would by this speaker/ dac/ amp”... This is not helpful to consumers and is actually very insulting. despite what our engineering minded friends say, audio products are experience goods. their quality can’t be judged without hearing them and comparing them. Who cares what a famous reviewer likes? the consumer’s taste will not likely match his. Without comparisons, reviewers are just marketing their favorites instead of working for the consumer. But that’s their incentive.
You touch on the bargaining power of consumers, but your comments are incomplete. Some consumers have a taste preference that they follow for years (remember the hunt for the Absolute Sound?). Sure, customers can shop around and play different dealers off against each other in order to drive price down or demand a high quality of service. But if you know what you like, you can’t really substitute. If a customer loves the Vivid Giya, the Wilson or Magico will not do.. If customer thinks ARC is inferior to CAT, he will find a way to get a CAT into your system despite the low number of dealers and paying a premium. So your purchase outlet choices as a consumer are quite limited in this small industry.
Yet, other customers frequently swap gear when they get used to one sound and think there is a sonic signature that they erroneously believe they won’t get sick of. Ever visit a site called the audio shark? They seem like a great group of guys, but swap gear like Wilt Chamberlain swaps girlfriends because of misunderstanding a basic psychological concept of habituation/ economic concept of declining marginal utility. They get all hot about some piece of gear in the beginning of a thread, imagining how that piece of gear will bring them bliss. They get their hands on it and are all euphoric about for a few weeks. Yet only after few months of living with it they are dreaming about the bliss of the new piece of gear. Of course, there is absolutely nothing wrong with approaching the hobby this way. Just another segment and different goals, who may demand a deal or a deep discount.
Sure, the industry growth seems to have slowed down for a variety of reasons. But with a million things completing for our attention, so has pretty much everything else. Baseball world series ratings are at an all time low also. but the high end audio industry has adjusted by raising prices."
And...
"First let me say that I am not talking about any individual’s taste in gear. To me, whatever people do in their personal life, including what kinds of sex, art, sports, or audio they enjoy is irrelevant as long as no one is hurting anyone else. I am sure you and those who own those other blockbuster brands have very fine systems. And I have heard some blockbuster brands sound fabulous in some systems and sound atrocious in others. In the end, achieving happiness is a moral goal, and as long as having great music in your life makes you a better doctor, lawyer, businessman, engineer, or whatever people do, is all that matters.
Yet, on a micro level, doesn't it make you wonder why certain people choose certain brands, and why there is a clump of very popular blockbuster brands mentioned above exists? I don’t have any industry sales stats, but using common sense, it’s probably a safe bet to apply the 80/20 rule and assume that those popular brands get most of the sales.
With so many choices, in the so-called “golden age” of audio, why are there just a select few brands extolled by the media, carried by most dealers, and purchased by customers. First, there is no engineering/ hard sciences answer. There are few “objective” claims to high quality, and audio customers disagree on what is good, so their choices reflect tastes, not verifiable differences in quality. And sure, there is a superficial answer….
But those of us with a background in social psychology and behavioral economics like to scratch beneath the surface and try to understand human behavior... How many guys that bought the Magico or Wilson also seriously auditioned the Vivid Giya? How many Audio Research buyers seriously auditioned CAT? Many of those who have are blown away by how much better CAT is than ARC… And how many folks would be willing to admit they can live with either brand (because to them the differences are minor) but chose the more popular brand so they can start a “my system” thread on audiogon or here, and socially relate to more people. If you start talking about CAT or Vivid, people will not engage with you on the same level as with a more popular brand. Start talking about Wilson or Pass, and people have an opinion, and you are talking about it for years while getting thousands of hits in your thread, vs. taking about a less popular brand and ending your conversation in a week or 2, and having your thread die…
Human nature is very interesting. There is a big social aspect to this hobby. Talking about gear is similar to re-experiencing it. (How many times do people re-tell great vacation stories, even after many years?) Based on the initial chatter and buzz, audiophiles can go to dealers and hear a product. Many will buy it and start yapping about it to their friends and online…And it’s just human nature to yap about a popular product than a more obscure one, which may just absolutely kick the popular product’s ass in every way possible. But sadly, many folks on the forums only talk about the popular products because they get extra enjoyment of discussing shared experiences of products they own or are familiar with. So many ARC fans are ARC fans only because others are ARC fans. The technical term for this phenomenon is “social proof”, but such is human nature. Whether people realize it or on, Popularity happens to be a HUGE signal for quality in our hobby.
Also, interestingly, research shows that consumers of obscure products appreciate those products less than owners of popular products. The more obscure the product, the less likely it is to be appreciated. In effect, what results is a natural monopoly of popular, yet not necessarily “best” products. People’s tastes tend to converge on a select few blockbuster products rather than be dispersed across the assortment of available offerings.
And the internet/ social media, of course, amplifies all of this…
But social proof is just one influence force acting on us. There are others even stronger. With so many overwhelming choices and extremely high prices, it sure hurts a lot if you go with the wrong piece. In fact it hurts a lot more to lose a dollar than to gain a dollar. (It’s just human nature and it affects famous investors, famous athletes, audiophiles, and pretty much everyone else. For example, it has been proven that people sell winning stocks too early but hold on to losers for a long time in fear of experiencing a loss.) So why not buy a product that many others like and is favorably thought of by professional reviewers/ audio intellectuals? Surely, one cannot be too wrong and not experience that painful loss.
People can claim to be not be swayed by influences and making deeply personal choices. But then you look at the most popular brands like Wilson, Magico, Macintosh, etc., and you have to ask: Not Swayed? Right!!! …
By looking at the popular brands, it clearly shows most guys in this hobby are herd thinkers (both audiophiles, dealers, and reviewers). Bring it up and they deny it. They use their ears, they say. But they are operating from a set of biases they are not even aware of. But then why is this clump of Magico, Wilson, ARC, Macintosh, etc., getting most of the sales and reviews while virtually everyone else is starving (or keeping a second job)? How many of those low selling brands sell just a single unit a year, usually to their mother?
It’s no coincidence that people’s tastes converge on select few brands rather than be dispersed across the assortment of available offerings. With so many different flavors of sonic signatures in individual components, one can build so many systems to create a similar sound and excellent sound. Guys who run audio magazines are assured of an audience and ad sales by covering and hoarding around the popular brands. Dealers are assured of customers walking into their shops. Audiophiles hoard around these popular “Lady Gagas” and “Peyton Mannings” and the result is a strong concentration of sales for the blockbuster brands that promise familiar and repeatable experiences in an uncertain market.
Now with the economic and social psychology theory and ideas in place, the more demanding audiophiles check out not just the popular brands, but check every nook and cranny to find the less popular brands that frequently outperform the blockbusters."
