To understand what’s been going on, it’s necessary to start by looking at the emergence of the audio industry, some of its peculiarities and the relationship between the special interest groups that have evolved and become entrenched within it. To understand what gets attention, why we buy the products we so often do, why they cost what they do and why so many promising products so often disappear without trace, it’s necessary to understand who stands to gain and where their motivation lies. Scratch the surface and you discover that High-end audio, regardless of its high ideals, is far from altruistic…
“Every man needs a hobby…”
Let’s start by noting that high-end audio (as opposed to consumer electronics, which snaps at the heals of mid-fi) isn’t and certainly never started out as an industry in the accepted sense of the word. Instead it was a disparate group of individuals pursuing their hobby. Some of those graduated into small businesses and, slowly but surely a dedicated press emerged, in some cases the publications constituted an outgrowth of those existing titles that serviced record buyers, but more specialist, equipment-orientated magazines also started to appear. Indeed, arguably, high-end audio as we know it today became a category with the appearance of first Stereophileand then the abso!ute soundin the USA. It’s no coincidence that both are English language titles, that English language magazines (and markets) subsequently established the methodology and practices around high-end reviewing and publishing – or that we are still living with the consequences of that today.
Because high-end audio isn’t an industry, it possesses none of the structural or regulatory bodies that you normally find in large, international markets. There’s no professional governing body, no qualifications, no regulation, no standards and no training. In short, anybody can set themselves up in high-end audio. Sometimes it seems as though all you need is a good story – which helps explain the sheer number of small manufacturers, some with the lifespan of a mayfly! It also helps explain the hand-to-mouth economics that govern many of these enterprises – and their subsequent lack of business structures, including crucially, marketing budgets. “What?” I hear you shriek, “What’s so special and important about marketing?” The answer to that is simple: for years, hi-fi manufacturers have relied on reviews to do their marketing for them. Build your product, get it reviewed and the audio world will beat a path to your door: at least so went the logic. And it even worked, back in the day… But let’s not even discuss whether that’s still a viable model. The really important part about this arrangement is the reliance it places on and importance it invests in reviewers and magazines. Of course, those magazines are in turn dependent on manufacturers to advertise and provide review product. You can begin to see the emergence of an unhealthy interdependence… Manufacturers want good reviews and magazines want regular advertising. Those imperatives soon start to play merry hell with market forces and meritocracy.
