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Numbers don't appear to add up at least to me, opinions welcome. Total sales of High-End audio products...

Posted by cfb (A) on July 2, 2011 at 10:49:05

The C.E.S. reports worldwide retail sales of all consumer electronics at $964 billion, of which AUDIO only equipment accounts for less than $19 billion. The greatest portion of that $19 billion is taken up by the top 10 electronics manufacturers such as; Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, Bose, etc.; the remaining portion of sales left to the High-End audio industry is less than $2 billion worldwide. Now, if one follows the 80/20 rule or Pareto principle, that states that 80% of sales are done by only 20% which does seem to hold true across many economic models much like Benford's law and then we consider the top High-End audio companies such as Mark Levinson, Audio Research, Magnepan, Manley, McIntosh and others who each do at least a few million dollars a year in sales; well then that leaves only around $400 million a year left to the remaining High-End Audio equipment companies to divide. And yet, one can easily list more than 400 boutique audio companies worldwide. The last year Audio had its equipment directory the number of audio companies was close to that; one might assume that there would be less now but still... This would seem to indicate that the average boutique High-End Audio company is doing less than $1 million a year in sales with many only doing a few hundred thousand a year or even less. Considering that a typical price for audio equipment is between $1,000 to $10,000 then the average company may be manufacturing less than 100 units a year with some only producing one to five units a month or less, especially with statement products at the $25,000 and up level. For example; the late Richard Brown of BEL, Brown Electronics Labs, once said to me he only made a run of one hundred of his amps a year (the BEL 1001) and that was a more reasonably priced mainstream product at least by High-End standards. Furthermore, in another example Goldmund, a large company in the High-End landscape, only sold around 200 of their Reference turntables and it took them about ten years to do so. Of course, they were selling hundreds of their amps to each turntable, but again they were and are a large affair. Meanwhile, other smaller boutique “Statement” products must sell in even lower numbers. There must be some that are only selling one or two Statement models a year or maybe ever and likely just a few dozen of their entry level products. A company now long defunct, but some may remember, Wingate Audio in its first year did not sell even one of its mosfet amps and this despite heavy advertising at the time. Also, the AHL Tolteque company made only eight of their much talked about plasma/electrostatic speakers before folding the company. Now, one might assume that is not so unusual for a small start-up company but the A.H.L., was actually backed by a large French corporation Acieries du Haut Languedoc involved in the steel, mining and nuclear power industries. Makes one wonder just how many “vanity” firms there might be out there that one may hear and read about but are in fact not moving any product at all? While perhaps there are a few who may be selling in small numbers but are left out of the aggregation of data that comprises market reports from the likes of CES or Plimsoll Publishing or Research and Markets in Ireland.
If you strongly disagree with this or you have an alternative take on the High-End audio market please go into detail. Thank you.

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