[bob]

On Nov 2, 7:22=A0pm, Audio Empire wrote:

Forty years ago, vinyl was THE source of listener-owned music media. Toda=
y it
has to compete with a myriad of other viable music sources. That's a sign=
of
musical source diversity.

Let's not oversell this. The moment vinyl faced serious competition it
started losing market share. In the 80s, it was losing out not only to
CD, but also to cassettes, for heaven's sake. It was dead. It's now
back from the dead. That's something, but a 2% market share is nothing
to crow about.

snip

All of them. Project. Music Hall, and Rega all make fine performing
"high-end" turntables. There's no market for any other kind.

I wouldn't call them "fine performing." But certain know-nothing
reviewers have anointed them "high-end," and that's been enough.

snip

But there are scores of new ones that have taken their place. The absolut=
e
bottom tier is gone, that's true. There are no more cheap mass-market tab=
les
from the likes of Pioneer, Yamaha, Panasonic etc.,

Not those brands in particular, but the low end is still well-
represented. Last time I was in Best Buy (a while ago), the only thing
they carried was a sub-$100 Sony. It's still made, and has plenty of
competition.

Let's not forget that the only thing that kept vinyl alive in the 90s
AT ALL was the DJ market. (And they were not using the hamster-powered
belt drives of today's entry-level audiophile market.) The SL1200 is
out of production, but several copycats are still out there.

What's really missing today is the p-mount, which brought acceptable
and non-destructive reproduction to the masses.

bob