Millennials, Please Check In!

[Nascimento]

boomers (1946-1964)

Having been born in 1958, I must be a bomer!
I'm too old to have a story!

 

[the sound of Tao]

Having been born in 1958, I must be a bomer!
I'm too old to have a story!

It’s just that you must use Sanskrit or paleo Hebrew to communicate it. We are the lost tribe, the only ones who see putting an entire life’s journey and earnings towards creating a memorable sound system together as fundamentally worthwhile. Bravo sir! Join the lost ones. We celebrate you!

 

[Nascimento]

I will join you, but will we have parties with beer and barbecues?

 

[the sound of Tao]

I will join you, but will we have parties with beer and barbecues?

Always... and sacrifices of Celine Dion albums! There will be much sacredness as well!

 

[Folsom]

Skip,

That was my whole point. I do offer $250 turntables, $250 speakers and $500 amps, all new with support and warranty. But that isn't enough, as they seem to want the impossible, like the proverbial $150 mentioned above.
Different values and different priorities, that's what it is.
I've had a couple audition a bunch of speakers in the store, only to buy the ELACs that he liked... from an online store! *right in front of me*! Again, different values.
We need more people in the hobby, period. Gen X, Y, Z, A, B, C, doesn't matter one bit, as long as they have their priorities and values straight.

While it's true you may sell things at that price, do they sound very good? IMO usually no. I mean that in the way I don't think they're a strong enough hook, not that they can't make music. But that's my opinion, a good amount of people buy stuff in that range. They however tend to do it online. Where I would substantiate my data about why it isn't a hook is because they rarely seem to move on but are more likely to try new equally priced gear or nothing. Something that isn't working is they're coming in with a substantial amount of money to them, and your business is built on being the trusted person to help guide them... But there isn't much to guide, and at that price you can't exactly give them the white-glove-all-day treatment. The disconnect is they're spending to them as much or more in relation to their income than someone coming in to spend $100k.

 

[DSkip]

While it's true you may sell things at that price, do they sound very good? IMO usually no. I mean that in the way I don't think they're a strong enough hook, not that they can't make music. But that's my opinion, a good amount of people buy stuff in that range. They however tend to do it online. Where I would substantiate my data about why it isn't a hook is because they rarely seem to move on but are more likely to try new equally priced gear or nothing. Something that isn't working is they're coming in with a substantial amount of money to them, and your business is built on being the trusted person to help guide them... But there isn't much to guide, and at that price you can't exactly give them the white-glove-all-day treatment. The disconnect is they're spending to them as much or more in relation to their income than someone coming in to spend $100k.

It's a truth. I know a dealer/distributor who specializes in high end and he has tried to offer complete systems at $20-30k range and the gear sits there for years regardless of sound. You get a client base and that's what you cater to. Reaching outside of it can be challenging.

In the past I've worked with niche brands that stand apart at their prices but they are few and far between in the sub-four figure range. I watch what the big online stores carry and steer away from just about anything they sell (Marantz is the exception). If you can offer them something that is a true value vs. a place-holder at a given price, you tend to build stronger relationships.

For what its worth, I'm not sure what product you are speaking of asiufy so I'm not necessarily directing that response at you personally. I just see these things from dealers around me and they have never wowed. In my demo space, I try to create a tonal balance from bottom to top so that a client can grow within my offerings. Often, these lower end products sound NOTHING like the high end rigs which makes them seem that much less attainable.

 

[Folsom]

It's not that I want to poo poo lower range stuff, it's that I can't counter example of something very inexpensive that isn't DIY, that I like. It's a general statement.

Although I can say the Elac's are pretty darn good for the money. They aren't my kind of speaker, and they aren't a huge hook like certain vintage speakers, but they're poop either. That story he has about the guy buying on the phone in front of him is kinda... not everyone is cool.

I recall being in college. While I never had the money at the local audio place, I did buy a few albums, or bulk wire. It wasn't personal, I was in college. However they would routinely ask my opinions on some things, and I might help swap gear around that would be better fit. Then my friend who had some nice gear (much older than me) started running the place on weekends, but the fellow who owned it was too busy doing UN work so it just ended eventually. They had some lower priced stuff, and at that time some people bought it, but they weren't overly particular.

 

[microstrip]

Well the ones I would choose are very select at this point. But for a beginner there really is very few tube receivers that outright suck - a few pioneers for example. A mediocre Marantz still is vastly more pleasurable than powered JBL desktop monitors. (...)

Probably the situation is different in the US. But I think that sometimes we underestimate the adversary . I was at a dinner with friends and our music source for the whole evening up unit late in the night was a single black cylinder connected by wi-fi to Tidal. Colored, without true dynamics, no real extremes but in fact the damn thing was very pleasurable. People loved the music, choose their music on the mobile phones, ladies sang with it, we revived the old music of our youth. And no one was under 50!

Surely I prefer the XLF's , but IMHO the next generation of audio designers is learning fast...

 

[Folsom]

They aren't learning. The people that make those things just have basic criteria and everything else is happy happen-stance.

Battery power is sorta hard to totally screw up. The problem is in a few years it'll be for sale at a garage sale then maybe last another year and then trash.