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Très français, monsieur Anon..

Hi NonA

If you register, you can easily send me eMails, in French... Although several people here speak fluent french, I think it's better to keep the signal in one language (and please forgive my own mistakes :)

I'm not an expert on the French audio scene, but two things can be safely said:

1 - The mass market for audio products is dead, partly because of the importance of hypermarkets and specialist chains (Fnac in particular), which carry only mass market products. So only a few (maybe 50 for the entire country) specialist shops are forced to go upmarket, and are not doing very well. Even mini-systems are dying, and everybody is buying cheap HTIBs.

2 - On the supply side, the situation is similar to the Canadian market. While maybe not as fashionable as Classé Audio or Simaudio, there's a lot of innovative companies, such as Atoll, Cairn, Euphya, Kora, etc (maybe 30 in total), which market quality products for about 50% the price of international brands, by limiting their product line to a few products, outsourcing some aspects of manufacturing, and limiting their distribution networks (over-distribution is the fastest route to destroying margins in consumer electronics). Some speaker companies do well, such as JM Reynaud, JMLab, Davis, PE Leon, etc. For example JM Reynaud is selling so much worldwide that he cannot meet demand. On the mass market front, Audax was acquired by JBL/Harman and now makes certain drivers for all of Europe (the company went from 500 employees to 5,000 since they were acquired by JBL / Harman).

As far as SACD/DVD-Audio goes, it's also safe to say that the market is not very good. Many SACD releases are available (as hybrid CDs, they are stored with the CDs), but there's simply not a real trend to market those titles. Only Virgin has been active in promoting SACDs and DVD-Audio, by setting up a special section (at astronomical prices, though). All in all, dealers do not display SACD players, and they say demand for the format has decreased since last year.

The Jacques Brel is one of my favourite records of 2003, although I can't say for sure it's a showcase example of SACD > CD. If you get into the words (and your French seems good :) , it's a fascinating record, and the sound is much better than any previous edition.

If you can't find it, send me an eMail, and I'll find it for you.

If you're interested in French SACDs, the Harmonia Mundi collection is very very good, and nicely priced (some titles are actually cheaper than the CDs). They applied the same recipy, BTW, to limit their distribution channels so as to protect their margins.

A bientôt

Eric


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