"Rod Crawford" wrote in message


In a British trade magazine, Ken Kessler continually
makes the point that hifi high-end will only survive if
it can model itself on the high-end car, watch etc trades
where people buy things as much for status, looks etc as
for engineering utility - and are marketed by much more
sophisticated means than hifi. Very few hifi companies,
including hi-end ones, make much money these days. I
think consumers in there eagerness to get things at the
lowest prices often forget the other half of the
equation, producers who may love their chosen field but
also have to eat.

I think Kessler's point is well taken, but perhaps with
inadequate emphasis on high performance.

Most really expensive cars provide at least above average
performance. AFAIK a Rolls will do 0-60 in less than 6
seconds. And, the fastest production passenger cars in the
world are generally way over $100,000, one exception being
the Ariel Atom.

This compares with the very popular self-defeatment segment
of high end audio, complete with $10,000's power amplifiers
with miniscule power output and ludicrously high amounts of
distortion of all kinds.