Internet reviews are a really good way to identify some of the best, most consistently good-value products in almost any hobby or field. If you look at this sub, you would think there are only a dozen brands in the entire hardware industry (I even made a meme about it).
There is so much great gear out there that you will never find reading reviews and forums. Not that there’s anything wrong with LS50’s and Schiit and Topping and SVS and Monoprice. But I think we would all do ourselves a favor to try to listen to a wide array of equipment, especially used equipment, which is often fantastic and worth 10x its cost in sound quality.
Always intrigued at just how many brands of high end there are in the world. There was a post here today of a beautiful looking system & I had never heard of any of the speakers or components.
I genuinely don’t understand how the market supports so much ultra high end highfi gear. It’s almost every week I see some speaker or amplifier that costs 50,000k+ from a manufacturer I’ve never heard of, you check out their website and it looks like they’ve not changed it since 2003. Some of these must sell sell like 5 products a year tops.
Simple economics has to say you aren’t going to get a good deal on a company that has to make all their profits for a year on a handful of sales vs one that can make their profits on hundreds of thousands.
You’ve succinctly wrote my exact thoughts on the scaling.
I mean how many units are being sold to keep an esoteric $10k tube preamp maker afloat financially? Are they mere hobbyists with another source of income?
Some, like Geshelli for example, get a marketing boost good review or two & become “overnight hits.” But they are a known giant killer bargain.
Along those lines, I’ve thought of making high end speaker cables. I’d just need one of those sketchy ‘early internet’ websites and a few good reviews and as long as I sell one I’m in massive profit. I’d only be touting the same bullshit that anyone else selling £10k cables is doing.
The market for ultra expensive, low volume gear is more like the market for unique art items or very high end watches rather than mass manufactured electronics. To me a $50k monoblock amplifier seems more like a modernist sculpture that happens to also amplify electronic signals.