State of the industry - Roy Gregory Editorial
- Thread starter Elliot G.
- Start date
I liked thIs. Recently read a well-known British Hifi mag and found that 90%+ of the articles were written by the same guy, all in one month. And every “review” read like an ad. And of course it did—no one could properly review that much gear well.
"Once upon a time real products got real reviews in real magazines. Only the wannabees were forced online. Now that situation is reversed, flipped on its head."
Thanks for bringing this article to attention, Elliot. It is a further take on the glass-ceiling theme RG started in his 'State Of Play - Part Three' article where the ceiling was on performance. This latest article is a fascinating take on how the Web (I don't think it was covid as Roy says), on-line reviews, and direct marketing or at least cutting out the distributor, are changing the audio marketplace.
The Gy8 enterprise, which ties together reviewing, listening spaces and a reading room, is a new venture, proudly European. Do you know who is behind it? I'm pretty sure Roy is involved.
Thanks for bringing this article to attention, Elliot. It is a further take on the glass-ceiling theme RG started in his 'State Of Play - Part Three' article where the ceiling was on performance. This latest article is a fascinating take on how the Web (I don't think it was covid as Roy says), on-line reviews, and direct marketing or at least cutting out the distributor, are changing the audio marketplace.
The Gy8 enterprise, which ties together reviewing, listening spaces and a reading room, is a new venture, proudly European. Do you know who is behind it? I'm pretty sure Roy is involved.
The assumption that the print magazines have not adjusted to going online is false. TAS, for instance, has been creating more digital ads and that revenue is very strong and the print ad revenue remains strong at our publication. We have been innovative with our new Welcome Mat campaigns that generate prospects for manufacturers. We made a substantial investment in improving our TAS and hifI+ websites and it is nicely paying off.
Also, our subscriptions in both print and digital are way up. We reach approximately 1.3 million audiophiles a month across a wide number of channels. We are starting a YouTube channel and adding staff to the organization.
Honestly “print magazine” is no longer an accurate description. We are a customer reach and product review engine. We turbocharge product introductions and offer reviews so small to large manufacturers get their message out to more people. And we focus on building different products for different segments of customers.
It’s not about “paid access”. It’s about return on marketing investment and a multi-channel approach.
There are new distribution models and we have a video coming soon where a distributor explains a new approach.
Also, our subscriptions in both print and digital are way up. We reach approximately 1.3 million audiophiles a month across a wide number of channels. We are starting a YouTube channel and adding staff to the organization.
Honestly “print magazine” is no longer an accurate description. We are a customer reach and product review engine. We turbocharge product introductions and offer reviews so small to large manufacturers get their message out to more people. And we focus on building different products for different segments of customers.
It’s not about “paid access”. It’s about return on marketing investment and a multi-channel approach.
There are new distribution models and we have a video coming soon where a distributor explains a new approach.
A few other observations and differences I have on the article on a second re-read…
**Covid did not represent a “collapse” in advertising at TAS. In the first three months of the virus when fear was at its height, we lost roughly 30% of sales. But like a well-run business, we immediately put in place what we called a “war-time budget” and temporarily reduced wages by a modest amount for upper management. But then manufacturers started noticing that orders were flowing in from every audiophile being confined at home and wanting to upgrade as part of the nesting trend that still persists to this day. Ad sales returned and we were able to restore to full pay quickly.
**TAS and hifi+ regularly go out of their way to promote affordable products including those who either don’t advertise with us or sparsely advertise with us. We have a new product introduction product coming which we have specifically created a lower cost tier so smaller companies can advertise with us. Robert and Alan regularly give reviews to affordable gear that they feel is important from purely a performance to price standpoint. Where is the glass ceiling? Maybe if one doesn’t have enough dealers? But then if the product is so good, why would it not attract more dealers?
**I really don’t understand the comments around performance not improving. My life in audio lately had been jam-packed with experiences of listening sessions at amazing new levels of performance. We have heard the XVX Chronosonic speakers deliver breathtaking realism at Paragon Sight & Sound. We have heard Hugh’s Kodos do truly bold and lifelike playback. We have heard Jacob’s system recreate an orchestra in natural and realistic sound. We have heard step-change advancements in digital from Wadax to dCS Apex.
**Online becoming a force? Roy is absolutely correct here. But it has been for 20 years. We have been slow to capitalize on some of the changes because we are a company formed by an owner who bought two magazines. We have ROI considerations so we need to fully understand how these online reviews get monetized and how we use “network effects” to build revenue. We have that figured out now (as much as one can in a rapidly changing tech environment). So we are building a YouTube channel and looking at ways to improve show coverage and product introductions. A key reason I was hired was to do a digital transformation of the company. The other reason was that Tom and I realized that there needed to be more focus and offerings around specific customer segments such as portable audio, small systems, and traditional two-channel.
**The high end business is not dying, imho. It just suffers from a lack of awareness. Study what Ben Clymer did for the Swiss watch business with Hodinkee. Study how Teddy Baldassarre lifted the interest in watches among younger people via YouTube. Study what my friend Matt Moreman did for detailing with his videos on Obsessed Garage. This is a way for high end to understand how to grow the business.
**Awareness benefits the two most important groups of our hobby, the manufacturer and the consumer.
**I did not leave a very lucrative job in consulting to join an industry that I felt was dying. Indeed, I felt that the TAS and HifI+ brands were under-utilized and that high end audio had a bright future. People love music and I am here to make more people aware of how much fun it is to sit in front of the speakers and enjoy it.
**TAS and Hi-Fi+ are here to tell stories about enjoyment, new innovations, new products, product recommendations, and setup tips. There will always be a market for that if it is done well. High end audio is complex. Our value add is working with manufacturers is to simplify the complex and bring more enjoyment.
**By the way…those so-called “power blocs”? I could argue that they help the product get out. Take the new hifirose gear for instance. How did that go almost viral as a hot product? MoFi Distribution. They did an amazing job of getting the word out. Look at Ricardo’s great distribution firm in the U.K. I bet we could find numerous examples of the value add of this major player. Sometimes power blocs exist because they are adding value in some way. We have to have critical thinking skills and dig deeper into what is really going on. We certainly learned that lesson over and over during covid.
Roy is a friend and a great writer and did a magnificent job starting hifi+. But his story here doesn’t reflect reality.
**Covid did not represent a “collapse” in advertising at TAS. In the first three months of the virus when fear was at its height, we lost roughly 30% of sales. But like a well-run business, we immediately put in place what we called a “war-time budget” and temporarily reduced wages by a modest amount for upper management. But then manufacturers started noticing that orders were flowing in from every audiophile being confined at home and wanting to upgrade as part of the nesting trend that still persists to this day. Ad sales returned and we were able to restore to full pay quickly.
**TAS and hifi+ regularly go out of their way to promote affordable products including those who either don’t advertise with us or sparsely advertise with us. We have a new product introduction product coming which we have specifically created a lower cost tier so smaller companies can advertise with us. Robert and Alan regularly give reviews to affordable gear that they feel is important from purely a performance to price standpoint. Where is the glass ceiling? Maybe if one doesn’t have enough dealers? But then if the product is so good, why would it not attract more dealers?
**I really don’t understand the comments around performance not improving. My life in audio lately had been jam-packed with experiences of listening sessions at amazing new levels of performance. We have heard the XVX Chronosonic speakers deliver breathtaking realism at Paragon Sight & Sound. We have heard Hugh’s Kodos do truly bold and lifelike playback. We have heard Jacob’s system recreate an orchestra in natural and realistic sound. We have heard step-change advancements in digital from Wadax to dCS Apex.
**Online becoming a force? Roy is absolutely correct here. But it has been for 20 years. We have been slow to capitalize on some of the changes because we are a company formed by an owner who bought two magazines. We have ROI considerations so we need to fully understand how these online reviews get monetized and how we use “network effects” to build revenue. We have that figured out now (as much as one can in a rapidly changing tech environment). So we are building a YouTube channel and looking at ways to improve show coverage and product introductions. A key reason I was hired was to do a digital transformation of the company. The other reason was that Tom and I realized that there needed to be more focus and offerings around specific customer segments such as portable audio, small systems, and traditional two-channel.
**The high end business is not dying, imho. It just suffers from a lack of awareness. Study what Ben Clymer did for the Swiss watch business with Hodinkee. Study how Teddy Baldassarre lifted the interest in watches among younger people via YouTube. Study what my friend Matt Moreman did for detailing with his videos on Obsessed Garage. This is a way for high end to understand how to grow the business.
**Awareness benefits the two most important groups of our hobby, the manufacturer and the consumer.
**I did not leave a very lucrative job in consulting to join an industry that I felt was dying. Indeed, I felt that the TAS and HifI+ brands were under-utilized and that high end audio had a bright future. People love music and I am here to make more people aware of how much fun it is to sit in front of the speakers and enjoy it.
**TAS and Hi-Fi+ are here to tell stories about enjoyment, new innovations, new products, product recommendations, and setup tips. There will always be a market for that if it is done well. High end audio is complex. Our value add is working with manufacturers is to simplify the complex and bring more enjoyment.
**By the way…those so-called “power blocs”? I could argue that they help the product get out. Take the new hifirose gear for instance. How did that go almost viral as a hot product? MoFi Distribution. They did an amazing job of getting the word out. Look at Ricardo’s great distribution firm in the U.K. I bet we could find numerous examples of the value add of this major player. Sometimes power blocs exist because they are adding value in some way. We have to have critical thinking skills and dig deeper into what is really going on. We certainly learned that lesson over and over during covid.
Roy is a friend and a great writer and did a magnificent job starting hifi+. But his story here doesn’t reflect reality.
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Thanks for sharing. Very interesting perspective, and I agree with many things he says. Didn't Roy Gregory own a print magazine in the UK?
If Roy Gregory were to compare the experiences of gear he's heard, he would be my best friend.
Interesting. I only read the first 5 pages and overall I think Roy layed things out rather well. More importantly, he either substantiated or confirmed what some of us have known for decades. That contrary to the naive the high-end audio industry as a whole was/is to one good extent or another, morally bankrupt. IMO that included a good number of editors-in-chief, reviewers, distributors, dealers, and manufacturers, certain consumers/enthusiasts, etc. And it was/is so easy in an industry having no standards or commissions and where performance is so subjective. The pay to play business model, the 10 or 100 year equipment loaner programs, the great discount models, edited/skewed reviews, editors/reviewers who could write well but couldn't punch their way out of a musical bag if their lives depended on it, etc. How many good well-intentioned mfg'ers were financially harmed or destroyed by the good ol' boy business model? How much sonic performance, the sole purpose for the industry's existence, has been compromised by those power blocs and those that played along (just doing my job)? How much of this still goes on today?
Many experienced these things firsthand while many others were in denial and even blasted those who tried to share real world experiences. The good news is that truth itself is a force of nature as eventually the truth will come out. Sadly, it can take years or decades while in the meantime the damage continues. As Winston Churchill said, "A lie can make it halfway around the world before the truth can put its pants on."
For me, the final straw was at the tail end of 2014 when IMO a couple of editors-in-chief did a complete wholesale sell-out for the inferior MQA format claiming cows were jumping over the moon. They (and others) actually seemed willing to severely cripple the industry's actual as well as its potential sonic performance into the forseeable future for whatever reasons / motivations. Moreover, we'll never know the full extent of damage already done and the potential hudreds of thousands if not millions of collective hours lost in the forums agruing the perversion / benefits of MQA. IMO, it was perhaps the greatest most expensive fraud perpetrated on the industry and to some extent is still going on.
And now rather than call out these morally bankrupt types in the industry, we leave them in place while a supposedly "better" business model is ushered in while not holding anybody accountable? Yeah, right.
Reading the first half of this article, I'm reminded of the old saying, it's not the ones in prison that bother me, rather it's the ones they haven't caught yet that trouble me greatly.
IMO of course.
The comment about MQA is a complete lie, not what happened at all. I am at a birthday gathering but will respond later.
Good post.
Yes, MQA is a complete scam and fraud. Reviewers that I used to respect, like John Atkinson or Robert Harley, now have tons of egg on their faces.
MQA has greatly tarnished the world of audio review for a very long time to come.
As for MQA distribution, the death of the streaming service Tidal cannot come early enough.
I'm sure many of us wish it weren't true. But we also have to take into consideration their potential lack of listening skills may have helped convince them a bit that cows were jumping over the moon. Doesn't matter, the end result is still the same. IMO.
But I hope this does not start yet another MQA rabbit hole thread as MQA was just the icing on an already perverted cake. Just as Roy layed out nicely in his article.
I don’t understand and perhaps never will why folks like Stehno have such stubborn views about an innovation like MQA. If you don’t like the sound then that is one thing and everyone is entitled to an opinion on it. But to slander good people like Robert Harley and John Atkinson is another. These are good people forming an opinion based on what their own ears heard with MQA. There were no commercial considerations. There is no MQA electronics brand and MQA as an entity barely advertises with our magazines. The apodizing filters were a genuine innovation as was the folding process.
The bottom line is that Robert Harley, Andy Quint, and myself have talked up MQA because we hear the sound quality improvement.
One of the big accusations was that MQA would implement DRM but after ten years of religious debate there is not a single instance of DRM.
Bob Stuart is a well-regarded scientist and audio engineer who created a good solution to bandwidth limitations.
The bottom line is that Robert Harley, Andy Quint, and myself have talked up MQA because we hear the sound quality improvement.
One of the big accusations was that MQA would implement DRM but after ten years of religious debate there is not a single instance of DRM.
Bob Stuart is a well-regarded scientist and audio engineer who created a good solution to bandwidth limitations.
Bob Stuart used to be a hero of mine. I used to have his innovative Meridian 208 and Meridian 602/606 players back in the day. Fond memories.
Yet the quest for money and his greed have gotten the better of him, leading him to engage in a scam.
Bob Stuart's initially well deserved good reputation in audio is a thing of the past.
Bob Stuart has fallen. Fallen deeply.
And has pulled John Atkinson et al with him in the fall
It seems a lot of these mqa proponents are suffering hard with the Stockholm syndrom
Lee, i respect your feelings regarding the attacks on your team. there is a fine line between dissing MQA, and making that personal toward proponents and connecting that to some sort of commercial interests. Stenho will tend find the dark side of stuff like that and mostly gets ignored. so don't take that too seriously.
personally i'm not a fan of Mr. Stewart between MQA and MLP, both of which i have never seen the positive side of. i do see his efforts to monetize these things as not in my best interests. his love affair with digitizing the signal path years ago with PCM was crossways with my views. although my first high end product 3 decades ago was a Meridian transport and dac, since then not much Meridian (other than their digital players) i've liked. but that does not push me to connect the press opinions with some sort of plot. but forums will inevitably go down that road.....it's what they do. just let it go.......
can MQA improve sound quality? not with the gear (MSB and Wadax) i use that i have so far heard. it tends to slightly soften dynamics and smear music focus in my system. might tame edgy systems though. no use for me. it's not 'bad'.....just not anything 'net' helpful.
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IMHO a long waste of time - the usual conspirator theories against the high-end and some successful magazines. BTW, does anyone know what is exactly this Gy8 site?
If nothing else mqa yielded a renew interest in high quality sound of old favorite music to me.
on small or headphones to me it sounds great an uptick over all.
the issue not discussed is why do dacs vary in sound so differently. one dac may do great mqa
another bad compared to non unfolded tracks.
my only experience is not from my big rig
because of mqa I can now enjoy many remixes of old rock tunes. For one jethro tull. non of the remastered were good until mqa got involved
as for honesty in reviews
there long gone due bad equipment forced to get good reviews
Atkinson is one of a few left who if you read between the lines tells truth.
but if you point out in other ways his true findings well you get bashed
it’s not just audio that’s a complete corp takeover
it’s our lives. But this is for other threads.
on small or headphones to me it sounds great an uptick over all.
the issue not discussed is why do dacs vary in sound so differently. one dac may do great mqa
another bad compared to non unfolded tracks.
my only experience is not from my big rig
because of mqa I can now enjoy many remixes of old rock tunes. For one jethro tull. non of the remastered were good until mqa got involved
as for honesty in reviews
there long gone due bad equipment forced to get good reviews
Atkinson is one of a few left who if you read between the lines tells truth.
but if you point out in other ways his true findings well you get bashed
it’s not just audio that’s a complete corp takeover
it’s our lives. But this is for other threads.
That’s an interesting read. I can really relate to this particular passage having hired Jim Smith to voice my former system and David Karmeli to help set up and fine tune the system he sold me. I learned a lot in each case, and their efforts certainly resulted in better sound.
“At the upper end of the market, more and more customers will deal more closely with the manufacturers of the products they buy; more and more manufacturers will become increasingly involved in the installation and set up of their products; more and more often, the both manufacturers and customers will call on the experience and expertise of the emerging class of independent, set up specialists. It’s a whole new way of building a system, with a redistributed cost structure and responsibilities – but it’s also a sure route to significantly better sound.”
“At the upper end of the market, more and more customers will deal more closely with the manufacturers of the products they buy; more and more manufacturers will become increasingly involved in the installation and set up of their products; more and more often, the both manufacturers and customers will call on the experience and expertise of the emerging class of independent, set up specialists. It’s a whole new way of building a system, with a redistributed cost structure and responsibilities – but it’s also a sure route to significantly better sound.”
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