I know some of us are sick of reading more posts deriding extravagantly priced gear and the people who price them, but I hope this thread rises above the simplistic flame-throwing... today, while reading the Phile's coverage of amplification by a new company called Tenor ($90K monoblocks; $40K preamp) in the CES section, I stumbled upon this passage -
Quote:
Tenor is definitely ready for prime time. They have the goods, now they need to establish a market. Ironically, in this economic downturn, the market for ultra-high-end audio seems to be growing, so they may be well situated to grow.
Is this really true?!? Before we jump in, I'd like to ask y'all to not judge whether Tenor sounds $130K good. Good is good, and I trust WP's ears on this matter, so that's not what we're talking about here.
What I do want to hear you guys on is if the ultra high-end market is indeed growing, and that fledgling companies like Tenor are well-situated to grow. As for me, I have a difficult time understanding how that is, if that is the case. Every indication is that audio sales are suffering, from the dealers that I'd talked to. This holiday season, luxury dept. stores like Neiman Marcus, etc. reported historic losses, so why would ultra high-end business thrive in this economy? Having a tough time grasping this cognitively.
There DOES seem to be more and more companies introducing super-expensive gear than before, though. But I'm thinking that's because they had no way of predicting this economic downturn when things were peachy keen in 2006 or 2007, when they were doing their R&D, as they were projecting dreamy '08-'09 sales. It is difficult for me to believe that the actual sales figures actually grew, despite the flooding of the new megabuck gears in the market...
Any thoughts?
I know some of us are sick of reading more posts deriding extravagantly priced gear and the people who price them, but I hope this thread rises above the simplistic flame-throwing... today, while reading the Phile's coverage of amplification by a new company called Tenor ($90K monoblocks; $40K preamp) in the CES section, I stumbled upon this passage -
Is this really true?!? Before we jump in, I'd like to ask y'all to not judge whether Tenor sounds $130K good. Good is good, and I trust WP's ears on this matter, so that's not what we're talking about here.
What I do want to hear you guys on is if the ultra high-end market is indeed growing, and that fledgling companies like Tenor are well-situated to grow. As for me, I have a difficult time understanding how that is, if that is the case. Every indication is that audio sales are suffering, from the dealers that I'd talked to. This holiday season, luxury dept. stores like Neiman Marcus, etc. reported historic losses, so why would ultra high-end business thrive in this economy? Having a tough time grasping this cognitively.
There DOES seem to be more and more companies introducing super-expensive gear than before, though. But I'm thinking that's because they had no way of predicting this economic downturn when things were peachy keen in 2006 or 2007, when they were doing their R&D, as they were projecting dreamy '08-'09 sales. It is difficult for me to believe that the actual sales figures actually grew, despite the flooding of the new megabuck gears in the market...
Any thoughts?