Somebody already did it in 1956, but you had to sing along with it for "full-dimensional stereo"
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It's a common practice in almost each and every industry.
Fancy-looking, small, cheap (or at least not very expensive)... , all those elements are just for grabbing instant attention in the market.
Everyone is happy. Sellers get money quickly, buyers get things conveniently. Everything seems easier. But the happy is short. Too short. (People are not really getting involved with what they buy, so there's no bonding and real happiness.)
Something waiting in front of us is not heaven, but mountains of plastic garbage.
Fancy-looking, small, cheap (or at least not very expensive)... , all those elements are just for grabbing instant attention in the market.
Everyone is happy. Sellers get money quickly, buyers get things conveniently. Everything seems easier. But the happy is short. Too short. (People are not really getting involved with what they buy, so there's no bonding and real happiness.)
Something waiting in front of us is not heaven, but mountains of plastic garbage.
Lowest Common Denominator.
They will buy novelty items.
Here is another one that, and while the novelty impresses me, the sound not-so-much:
Illuminated Dancing Water Speakers - YouTube
Reality is that there's a serious lack of interest in audio these days. The only thing that notably sells are the fashion-statement "Beats by Dre" mentioned by Lynn.
They will buy novelty items.
Here is another one that, and while the novelty impresses me, the sound not-so-much:
Illuminated Dancing Water Speakers - YouTube
Reality is that there's a serious lack of interest in audio these days. The only thing that notably sells are the fashion-statement "Beats by Dre" mentioned by Lynn.
It's not products like the "The Core" that are killing audio. It's (ungodly expensive) products from companies like Wilson Audio that are doing the job.
Dave.
Nawww.. You are being Naive.. 90% of the 'economic activity' In North America (at least) is through the spending habits of top 5%, by income, of the population.
Middle income to poor people... the Vast majority of us.. contribute little to nothing on a sliding scale.
Hell ~50% of 'muricans don't even manage enough income to pay tax.
Ever wonder why? manufacturers like Wilson Audio.. whom you deride, even exist, let alone prosper ?
I understand your logic and see your point, but are you saying that if really good audio systems were affordable/available (for the vast majority of us) that companies like Wilson would still exist and still sell at the same price points???
Dave.
Disagree. Products like the Alexandria and SF Aria or really any speaker the price of a livable house doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Wilson is a good example of this. When you have a speaker costing 40k, and then one costing 80k and then a 160k (can't recall the MSRP on their top end flagship), all you're paying for is exclusivity.It's not products like the "The Core" that are killing audio. It's (ungodly expensive) products from companies like Wilson Audio that are doing the job.
Dave.
It's even more obvious because both Wilson and the Sonus Faber flagships use Scan Speak drivers. The Aria mids however, I wouldn't mind owning just to look at. They're customized Illuminator units:
Maybe not 100k+ finished good worthy, but that amount of transducer engineering costs a pretty penny.
Your not just selling equipment, your selling a feeling.
If its to cheap people won't buy it. They'll think its crap.
It came to this in the 1970s for home audio. This is when the mainstream started to accept and adopt nonsense rather than ignore or reject it in the way it had previously.Makes me sad that this is what I did for a living and it's come to this.
This type of device is what significant numbers of people would like to own. The fact that the technical performance is going to be modest at best is not a major problem for many people since there are other attributes that add value for them. Maximising the sound quality for a device like this looks like an interesting challenge to me.
The marketing approach of overstating the performance, novelty, etc... seems to be common if not normal in this market sector. Like you, it pushes the wrong buttons for me but then the device is not aimed at us. My guess, as someone that knows almost nothing about the subject, is that it can be an effective approach if well executed.
Good audio systems are affordable these days in the way they were not in the past. Wilson Audio sells home audio for the very rich. This sector has always existed but is a lot larger these days than it used to be. I am fairly confident that the normal luxury goods qualities of price, looks, exclusivity, etc... is what matters. That fact that higher technical performance speakers exist at a small fraction of the price is of little relevance.
Makes me sad that this is what I did for a living and it's come to this.
You're kinda in a different market segment, at least to me. I would suspect that anyone who looks at your products with any interest (as I have) aren't people who would seriously consider this boombox product as something that would be a comparable product. I might consider buying a device like this one, but I wouldn't expect to flop it down under my TV and get the same thing I'd get with 7 channels of NS15.
They also don't really make any claims that anyone else doesn't when you walk down "that aisle" in Best Buy.
I seriously doubt you're going to lose any business to them, and they're probably not going to lose any business to you, unless GedLee LLC brings a speaker to market that I can bring to the beach in my knapsack.
Which would be awesome.
So get to it.
<3
The average person, when exposed to something like a Wilson speaker system, just rolls their eyes and laughs. The average person, when exposed to another luxury item (like maybe a Ferrari) probably does not have that reaction. There's a difference there and I think that sort of audio industry sillyness has contaminated a potential market.
You're correct, the very rich sector has existed for a long time, but it's the relative price differentials from then until now that has become part of the problem for the "high-end" audio industry. This should not be niche' market.
Dave.
I would say that Wilson would still exist. The rich want something "more" than the poor and they will pay for it - as long as it is obvious to everyone that this is the case.
I find this insulting. I don't sell smoke and mirrors. I offer more supporting data for my products than anyone else that I know.
I am not worried about that, I just get insulted by the unsupported and clearly false claims being made and how people literally "buy into" it. Perhaps, and this would be sad, the outrageous sound quality claims don't matter because nobody pays any attention to them anyways. They simply don't care. Only the rare few of us who do care worry about this kind of thing. But then it basically says to us that "you are irrelevant".
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